No Plan for Afghanistan Withdrawal
"Today, we decided to expand NATO’s training mission in Iraq,” Stoltenberg said at a Thursday press conference, adding that the "size of our mission will increase from 500 personnel to around 4,000”.
He said training activities will include more Iraqi security institutions and areas beyond Baghdad.
"We will do this in incremental and in, what should I say, and based on demand from the Iraqi authorities. But there are several bases already in Iraq that we can use. Partly bases where NATO Allies already operate under the umbrella of the U.S. Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh and partly other Iraqi bases,” he said.
Some 2,500 U.S. troops are already stationed in Iraq. Back in January 2020, the Iraqi parliament voted to demand that American troops leave the country.
The vote came after the U.S. assassination of Iran’s legendary commander General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. The two commanders were key figures in the final defeat of Daesh in Iraq in 2017.
The U.S. assassination led to an incremental growth of anti-American sentiments in Iraq and other regional countries.
However, the new American government which has announced a review of whether changes need to be made to U.S. military deployments worldwide appears to be digging its heels in Iraq for a long stay.
One sign is an abnormal rise in the number of often impotent attacks on U.S. troops across Iraq, which Washington usually uses as a justification to keep its forces in other countries.
Last Friday, Russia’s Sputnik news agency said Western intelligence services and Daesh commanders had held a series of meetings to coordinate their future plans.
Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV also reported last month that the U.S. military had transferred Daesh prisoners to the Iraqi-Syrian border in order to provide a pretext for its continued presence in the region and for future attacks.
On Friday morning, Iraqi sources reported that a U.S. military logistics convoy was targeted in southern Iraq.
According to the Saberin news channel, the convoy was attacked while passing through the city of Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qar Governorate.
Another U.S. military logistics convoy was attacked in Iraq’s Al Diwaniyah province on Thursday evening.
Meanwhile, a number of Iraqi lawmakers warned of Washington’s interference in the domestic affairs of the Arab country, especially in the upcoming parliamentary election as well as military and security issues in Iraq.
They called for an end to the U.S. interference in Iraq’s domestic affairs, IRNA reported on Friday.
They cited illegal and diplomatic actions by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, including its fear-mongering among Iraqi citizens, and called on the Iraqi government to stop such illegal actions.
‘No Military Pullout From Afghanistan’
Stoltenberg has also said defense ministers from the Western military alliance made no decision at a recent meeting in Brussels on whether or when to pull out of war-torn Afghanistan.
"At this stage, we have made no final decision on the future of our presence,” he said after a video conference with allied defense ministers on Thursday.
The defense ministers met to discuss the possibility of staying in Afghanistan beyond the May withdrawal deadline agreed between the Taliban militant group and the United States under the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Key on the agenda at the two-day virtual conference in Brussels was the future of the U.S.-led forces in the war-torn country.
The NATO chief said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promised to consult with partners on the way forward.
"As the May 1 deadline is approaching, NATO allies will continue to closely consult and coordinate in the coming weeks. We are faced with many dilemmas, and there are no easy options,” Stoltenberg said.
"If we stay beyond the first of May, we risk more violence, more attacks against our own troops ... But if we leave, then we will also risk that the gains that we have made are lost.”
Nearly two decades after the U.S.-led invasion, Trump struck a deal with the Taliban in the Qatari capital of Doha early last year.
The former White House tenant reached the accord in February 2020, under which the U.S. and its NATO allies are expected to withdraw all troops in 14 months in exchange for the Taliban to halt attacks on foreign forces.
President Joe Biden, however, has said his administration would not commit to a full withdrawal by May.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade across Afghanistan.
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