Reuters news agency quoted several informed sources as saying that Washington and Baghdad have reached an understanding on a plan for the withdrawal of US-led international coalition forces from Iraqi territory.
The sources explained that the plan includes the withdrawal of hundreds of coalition forces by September 2025 and the rest by the end of the following year.
The agreement is awaiting approval from the leadership of the two countries and setting a date for its announcement.
“We have reached an agreement, and now it is just a matter of when it will be announced,” a senior US official said.
Iraq and the United States are also seeking to establish a new advisory relationship that might allow some U.S. forces to remain in Iraq after the withdrawal.
The sources said that the official announcement was initially scheduled to be issued weeks ago but was postponed due to the weakness in the region.
The sources include five US officials, officials from two other coalition countries and three Iraqi officials, all of whom requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Several sources reported that the agreement could be announced this month.
Farhad Alaaldin, the Iraqi prime minister’s foreign relations adviser, said technical talks with Washington on the withdrawal had ended.
“We are about to take the relationship between Iraq and the members of the international coalition to a new level that focuses on bilateral relations in the military, security, economic and cultural fields,” he added, but he did not comment on the details of the withdrawal plan.
The agreement comes after more than six months of talks between Baghdad and Washington.
The United States has about 2,500 troops in Iraq as part of a coalition formed in 2014 to fight the terrorist group ISIS.
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