Javier EspinosaSpecial Envoy Baghdad

Special Envoy Baghdad

Updated Thursday, January 25, 2024-15:11

  • Tension Albares calls in Lebanon for an "immediate ceasefire" to avoid a regional escalation

  • Defense A base in Iraq with Spanish troops is attacked with missiles: "Our people are fine"

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met today with the political leadership of Iraq a few hours after Baghdad received a letter from Washington in which it agreed to start a dialogue regarding the possible withdrawal of

foreign forces

deployed in the Arab nation, according to the Iraqi Foreign Department.

The departure from the country of the thousands of foreign advisors included in a NATO advisory project and another US-led coalition that continues to fight against the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) is a demand shared by the Government of

Mohamed Al Soudani

, and the allied paramilitary forces of neighboring Iran.

Spain has about 200 soldiers deployed in the Arab country who are part of the aforementioned NATO mission that was established in 2018 and is responsible for advising the Ministries of Defense and Interior of Iraq on the reform of the army and security forces. local.

The troops include a group of 136 men dedicated to the protection of General

José Antonio Agüero

, who currently leads the entire international contingent.

At the same time, another hundred are integrated into the military alliance against ISIS commanded by the United States.

The bulk of the Spanish soldiers are installed in a base in Baghdad but there are also troops in three others in Anbar (in the west), Erbil (in Kurdistan) and in the Mósul region, in the north of Iraqi territory.

"We are here at the request of Iraq and we will leave when the Government of Iraq considers it convenient," said the head of Spanish diplomacy after meeting with his Iraqi counterpart,

Fuad Hussein

.

The head of the Iraqi Executive, Al Sudani, stated during the recent Davos meeting that "a discussion must begin to reach

a calendar that puts an end to international advisors

."

"The end of the coalition mission is necessary for the security and stability of Iraq," he added at a time when he faces growing pressure from those close to Tehran to end especially the presence of more than 2,500 soldiers from Iraq, something that would ratify the enormous influence that the Iranian regime has acquired here after the catastrophic invasion launched by Washington in 2003.

Expulsion of US military

The Iraqi Parliament already demanded the "expulsion" of the US military in 2020 without this directive being accepted by the head of the executive.

After meeting with the Foreign Minister and Sudani himself, sources from the Spanish delegation explained to this newspaper that the Iraqi leaders have confirmed that they consider "that the country is already prepared to take on" the fight against extremists

alone

and that they want discuss a "progressive" withdrawal of foreign uniformed personnel.

The presence of the US military and the determined support of that country for the controversial

Israeli offensive in Gaza

- where numerous human rights organizations accuse Tel Aviv of committing all kinds of excesses - has triggered political tension in Iraq, as they admitted. the interlocutors of Minister Albares.

The coalition of foreign forces in Iraq and Syria has suffered

more than 150 attacks since mid-October

, many of them carried out by the self-proclaimed Islamic Resistance of Iraq, a nebula of factions supported by Iran.

This dynamic has registered an

escalation

since the beginning of the year, after the North American bombing on January 4 that killed four members of the Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba faction and the response with ballistic missiles by the paramilitaries against the Al Asad barracks, in Anbar province.

Almost at the same time that Albares met with local leaders, hundreds of Iraqis attended the funeral of the last casualty of this hidden struggle, a young militiaman whose coffin was paraded through some streets of the capital escorted by flags and proclamations against from Washington.

The latest event sparked another verbal clash between Baghdad and Washington, as National Security Advisor

Qasim Al-Araji

demanded that

Joe Biden

's government pressure Israel to end the bloody assault on Gaza "instead of bombing." the offices of an Iraqi national institution. It is a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty and does not help calm the situation," he wrote on social media.

"We are extremely concerned about the

constant attacks on military bases

" that host foreign soldiers, said Albares, who added that the situation "has to stop."

Spain's official position regarding the Gaza conflict - where it has been one of the few Western countries capable of criticizing the brutal Israeli offensive - has earned it a certain public benefit among the majority of the Arab population.

Albares once again described what is happening in the Palestinian Strip as "unbearable."