Iraq Insists On U.S Troops Withdrawal

The prime minister of Iraq, Adel Abdul Mahdi, has urged the United States of America to send representatives to the nation so as to discuss formalities that would ensure the US army leaves the territory.

The Iraqi premier’s office issued the statement on Friday.

Bloomberg reports that the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had asked U.S. Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, to send officials to Iraq to work out a mechanism for the withdrawal of American troops.

Recall that the Iraqi parliament had asked American troops to leave the territory following the U.S. airstrikes that killed a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Mahdi had also condemned Iran’s reprisal attacks on its territory.

“We denounce the Iranian missile bombing that hit military installations on Iraqi territory and renew our rejection of the repeated violation of state sovereignty and the transformation of Iraq into a battlefield for warring sides,” he said.

But Donald Trump said that the U.S. would only leave if Iraq pays back for all the military investments made in the country.

Trump said the U.S. has an “extraordinarily expensive” air base in Iraq worth billions of dollars.

“We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he said.

He also added that if the US is not able to leave Iraq on a “very friendly basis”, he would place the nation on severe sanctions “like they’ve never seen before.”