WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will visit Iraq’s Mohammad Shia next month as countries hold formal talks on reducing the mission of the U.S.-led military coalition formed to fight the Islamic State group. The plan is to entertain Prime Minister Al-Sudani. In Iraq.
The White House announced Friday that the talks are scheduled for April 15.
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The White House said the two leaders would “discuss a range of issues” including the fight against Islamic State and “the ongoing financial reform of Iraq to foster economic development and progress toward Iraq’s fiscal independence and modernization.” It’s planned.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani attends a ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, on January 9, 2024. On Friday, March 22, the White House announced that President Joe Biden plans to host al-Sudani when the two countries hold formal consultations on April 15. about the reduction in the mission of the U.S.-led military coalition formed to fight Islamic State in Iraq. (Murtada Al Sudani/Pool Photo via AP)
In Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed groups brought al-Sudani to power in October 2022, and relations between the two countries are delicate, partly because Iran has considerable influence.
In recent months, the United States has urged Iraq to take further steps to prevent attacks on American military bases in Iraq and Syria, which have further roiled the Middle East following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. It also seeks to put financial pressure on relations between Baghdad and Tehran and limit Iraq’s access to its own dollars to root out money laundering that allegedly benefits Iran and Syria.
Meanwhile, the United States and Iraq held their first meeting in January to support the Iraqi government’s fight against the Islamic State, which has about 2,000 American troops remaining in the country under an agreement with Baghdad. Discussed the end of the created Allied Forces. Iraqi officials regularly call for the withdrawal of these troops.
The visit comes a year after the kidnapping in Baghdad of Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-American scholar at Princeton University who is believed to be being held by the Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist group. It will be done. It is considered one of the most powerful armed groups in Iraq. It was formed with support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the power vacuum following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
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On Thursday, Mr. Tsurkov’s sister Emma asked the State Department to label Iraq a state sponsor of terrorism and called on the White House to hold al-Sudani talks on the condition that the prime minister arrange for her sister’s release. . He was authorized to do so.
“I am appalled that Sudani was allowed to shake President Biden’s hand while holding the key to his sister’s shackles with his other hand,” Tsurkov said at an event outside the Iraqi embassy in Washington. he said.
