BAGHDAD - US Defense Secretary Mark Esper's meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Najeh al-Shammari in Baghdad on Tuesday led to the two sides agreeing that all US troops arriving in Iraq from Syria should be withdrawn within four weeks, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
The US Secretary of Defense held two separate meetings with Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and his Iraqi counterpart during which they discussed the issue of the survival of US forces withdrawing from Syria towards Iraq.
Esber said earlier that the estimated 1,000 troops would remain in Iraq, and would be based in Anbar province (western Iraq), and would help Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State.
Walid Ibrahim, the head of Al Jazeera's Baghdad office, said the Iraqi Defense Ministry had promised to release the remarks by US and Iraqi defense ministers later.
He pointed out that Iraq is still viewed with great concern about what is happening in neighboring Syria and the withdrawal of US troops from them, especially in light of the reports of hundreds of IS fighters fleeing prisons in northern Syria run by the forces of the so-called "Syrian Democratic Forces," where Baghdad is considered These elements may pose a threat to Iraq's national security, and say it has taken measures to prevent their infiltration across the border.
The Iraqi army said on Tuesday that US forces had not obtained permission to stay on Iraqi soil but could only stay temporarily.
The United States already has about 5,200 military personnel in Iraq, and disperses them to a number of bases in Iraq, which is controversial, as Iraqi political and military forces oppose their presence and demand their withdrawal from the country.