The White House said Monday that the Iraqi prime minister’s decision to launch an offensive to drive the Islamic State out of Mosul was his alone and had nothing to do with the U.S. political calendar.
“The Iraqi central government is the one that is calling the shots, and they should. They are a sovereign nation, and the support they are receiving from the [U.S. military] is at their request,” presidential press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.
Earnest added that Obama administration is “confident” that Prime Minister Haider Abadi is making his timing decisions for the rights reasons.
“He’s not going to be distracted by the U.S. political calendar — he’s looking out for the best interests of the Iraqi people … he’s interested in moving expeditiously, as quickly as possible, to stabilize that sick and kick” ISIS out of Iraq, he said.
Earnest declined to say whether the operation would be done before President Obama leaves office or would continue into the beginning of the next administration.
“I’m not aware that any sort of specific timeframe has been laid out for when the operation would be completed,” Earnest said. “Obviously, this represents the next important step in … our campaign against” ISIS in Iraq.
Abadi issued a televised statement Monday announcing the beginning of the effort to retake Iraq’s second-largest city and free more than 1 million residents from ISIS control.
The Iraqi military reported on the first day of the effort that it had inflicted “heavy losses of life and equipment” on ISIS southeast of Mosul, according to CNN.
Earnest acknowledged that the Iraq effort to retake Mosul with advice and assistance from the U.S. military will test Obama’s theory that ISIS can be defeated without putting U.S. troops on the ground.
“I would describe it as the next test because, the truth is, there is important progress that’s already been made on the ground in Iraq, that there have been cities like Ramadi and Tikrit that were retaken” from ISIS, he said.
“I think the president would be the first to acknowledge that this is a significant test, given the population size of Mosul, given the large geographic area that it … encompasses,” Earnest said.
The president’s chief spokesman also said the offensive has “symbolic importance” because ISIS has so much invested in its control of Mosul and have spent so much time digging in to control the key city.
