Envoy: Iraq won’t have ‘permanent’ US bases

Baghdad will never agree to deploy “permanent” US military bases on its territory, the Iraqi Ambassador to Russia, Haidar Mansour Hadi, said yesterday.

In an interview with Russia’s TASS news site, Hadi said that he knew “nothing” about what was recently reported by the Western media regarding US plans to deploy military bases in Iraq.

“I don’t think that’s true because the United States withdrew its forces from Iraq back in 2011 and they have no plans to deploy permanent bases here,” he explained, noting that “the US servicemen who are staying in the country provide only consultancy.”

“Deployment of military bases is out of the question,” Hadi reiterated.

READ: Security enhanced at US embassy in Baghdad

The Iraqi ambassador stressed that Baghdad would say “no” if the US government announced military deployment plans in Iraq.

“I don’t think we will agree to have a permanent presence of US bases. The Iraqi government has repeatedly said there are no US bases in the country,” Hadi pointed out. “We insist that Iraq’s sovereignty is our number one priority.”

“It is up to the government to decide about any presence of bases,” he added. The US withdrew its forces from Iraq in December 2011 with a plan to return in August 2014 after Daesh seized vast territories in the country. In December 2017, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider Al-Abadi, announced that Daesh had been defeated and that most of the country’s occupied cities had been recaptured.

According to the official data, there are around 5,500 American soldiers deployed in Iraq, some of whom are based at the country’s northern and western borders with Syria.