The country’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said in a meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington that United States forces are ready to completely withdraw from Iraq by September 30.
“Well, we don’t think we need the troops there anymore,” Trump said at the White House.
Previously, about 2,500 US troops were deployed to the country to carry out anti-Islamic State operations, but that number has declined in recent months.
Al-Zaidi’s government has linked the planned US withdrawal to disarming powerful Iran-backed militias.
“On September 30, American forces will leave and American companies will enter,” Zaidi said. “After September 30, we will not allow any entity to possess weapons outside the state.”
Trump says US will make ‘lots of deals’ with Iraq
The main focus of al-Zaidi’s visit to Washington is to secure major US investment in his country’s oil, gas and power sectors.
During the Oval Office meeting, al-Zaidi previewed the announcement of an “economic partnership” between the two countries.
Trump said that Iraq has tremendous potential because of oil.
“We’re going to make a lot of deals,” Trump said, without giving details. “We’re going to create a lot of jobs for both countries and we’re going to extract a lot of oil,” Trump said, without giving details.
Iraq, Chevron, TI Capital and Qatar’s UCC are set to sign a deal on Friday to build a 2 million barrel per day oil pipeline connecting Basra to Haditha and extending to ports in Turkey and Syria, two Iraqi officials said.
Edited by: Rana Taha
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