RTWed, 23 Oct 2019 16:35 UTC
© REUTERS / Erin Scott
The Iraqi government is seeking international help after US troops withdrawing from Syria entered western Iraq without authorization, with Baghdad now taking legal action against the uninvited presence.
Baghdad did not give permission for US forces to stay in Iraq, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi reaffirmed on Wednesday.
We ask the international community and the United Nations to perform their roles in this matter.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday that US troops transiting from Syria would use Iraq to make preparations to go home and assured that the aim is not to "stay in Iraq interminably." Esper did not specify how long the American troops would be staying.
Washington removed its troops from northern Syria on foot of a Turkish offensive against Kurdish militias in the region, who Ankara regard as terrorists.
Turkey said on Tuesday that it would not launch a new offensive against the Kurds following a five-day ceasefire and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's lengthy
talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
The US already has 5,000 troops in Iraq under an arrangement with the Iraqi government, but the agreement is a controversial one, with many Iraqis regarding it as continued occupation after the disastrous 2003 US invasion.
Comment: Secretary of Defense Esper made an
unannounced visit to Iraq, presumably to deal with the fallout of the unannounced arrival of US troops Iraq didn't ask for:
Pentagon Chief Mark Esper has been paying unofficial visits to Middle Eastern countries since 18 October. He will reportedly get updates on the current operations in the region and then will head to the NATO ministry in Brussels where he will meet with his Turkish counterparts and discuss the campaign to defeat the Daesh terrorist group.
Esper has arrived in Baghdad for meetings with his Iraqi counterpart and the prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to discuss matters of mutual concern in the region, Reuters reported.
The counterparts will also reportedly discuss the partial withdrawal of US troops from Syria and the role Iraq will play in it.
Esper earlier stated that around 1,000 US soldiers, withdrawn from Syria after the beginning of Turkey's offensive there, would head for western Iraq.
"We're still in the early stages of withdrawal from northeast Syria. It will take weeks, not days, and we're... in many ways only days into the withdrawal. The aim is to pull our soldiers out and eventually get them back home", Esper said.
He added that the weeks needed for US forces to leave Syria left plenty of time for Washington and Baghdad to work out the details of a withdrawal from Iraq.
It's the US military, what did the Iraquis expect ? Respect of one's country sovereignty ? That'd be the day...