Iraq-Syria-conflict-US,WRAP-newseries
Acting Pentagon chief makes surprise Baghdad visit
By Sylvie Lanteaume
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ATTENTION - ADDS fresh quotes from Shanahan after meetings, arrival in
Brussels ///
Baghdad, Feb 12, 2019 (AFP) - Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan made
an unannounced visit to the Iraqi capital on Tuesday for talks on the
sensitive issue of a continued US troop presence after Washington withdraws
from neighbouring Syria.
Shanahan is keen to reassure Iraqi leaders after President Donald Trump
angered many by saying he wanted to maintain some troops at the Al-Asad
airbase, northwest of Baghdad, to keep an eye on Iran.
The acting defence secretary, who flew in from Afghanistan on his first
foreign tour since taking office last month, held talks with Prime Minister
Adel Abdel Mahdi and top military advisers, as well as Lieutenant General Paul
LaCamera, the commander of anti-IS coalition forces.
His meeting with Iraq's premier had "a very good energy", Shanahan told the
press after arriving in Brussels where he is set to attend a NATO summit.
"I made very clear that we recognise their sovereignty, their focus on
independence and that we are there at the invitation of the government," he
added.
Asked whether they had touched on the possibility of US troops in Iraq
deploying across the border into Syria for operations against the Islamic
State group, Shanahan said: "It just did not come up."
The two spoke about Iran "indirectly... in the context of Iraq's
independence", he said, adding that Abdel Mehdi had stressed the need for
Baghdad to maintain good relations with both its neighbours and the US.
- Focus on IS -
A senior Pentagon official had earlier told journalists travelling with
Shanahan that Washington's "main partnership and military activity in Iraq is
the de-ISIS (IS) mission".
Washington was also pressing its allies to repatriate their nationals
captured and taken prisoner during the fight against IS in Iraq and Syria, the
official said.
"We think coalition members need to take responsibility for their citizens
who are fighters. It's been a message we've delivered time and time again. And
we are seeing hopeful progress," he said.
Trump's comments about Iran, in an interview with CBS television aired on
February 3, drew a stern rebuff from President Barham Saleh, who said the use
of Iraq as a base against a third country violated its constitution.
They also sparked renewed calls for a US withdrawal both from pro-Iran
factions within the government and from Iran-trained armed groups whose power
has risen sharply during the fightback against IS jihadists that culminated in
December 2017.
Those calls are likely to intensify as Washington carries out the full
troop withdrawal from Syria unveiled in a shock announcement by Trump in
December.
The plan, judged hasty by both US allies and senior figures within Trump's
own administration, prompted the resignation of Shanahan's predecessor, Jim
Mattis.
But with US-backed Kurdish-led fighters poised to overrun IS's last sliver
of territory in eastern Syria perhaps as early as this week, the withdrawal,
which other administration figures had managed to slow, is now likely to
gather pace.
- 'Incredible base' -
Trump's comments about the Al-Asad airbase came after the US president had
already angered Iraqi leaders in December by paying a Christmas visit to US
troops based there without travelling to Baghdad to speak with officials.
"We spent a fortune on building this incredible base. We might as well keep
it," Trump said in the CBS interview.
"One of the reasons I want to keep it is because I want to be looking a
little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem," he added.
A draft law that would set a timetable for a US troop withdrawal is now
before the Iraqi parliament.
It is backed by both of Iraq's most powerful political groupings -- the
nationalist alliance led by firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, and the
pro-Iran movement of former anti-IS fighters.
At a rare joint news conference on Monday, the two groupings demanded at
the very least a "new agreement" setting tight conditions on any future
foreign troop presence.
Following the US-led invasion that overthrew since-executed dictator Saddam
Hussein in 2003, US troop numbers peaked at some 170,000 before a full
withdrawal was completed in 2011.
Troops returned to Iraq in 2014 as part of an international coalition set
up to fight IS after it swept through much of the north and west as well as
swathes of neighbouring Syria that year.
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