PNN – Masrour Barzani, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, said in an interview that Erbil needs the continued presence of American troops and does not want them to leave.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, Masrour Barzani, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, told NBC that the nature of threats in the region has changed and Erbil needs the continued presence of American troops.
He added that in a situation where the Iraqi parliament and government and many groups are demanding the withdrawal of American soldiers, added: “We need more help from the United States, this does not mean the need for more soldiers, but we need more help and facilities to increase the level of military capability of the Peshmerga so that we can use not only our own people but all those who live in the Kurdistan Region”.
Barzani continued: “We need the support and continued presence of the United States and the international coalition, the nature of the threats has changed and we want more military, economic and political help, because the threats we are facing now are different from the threats of ISIS.”
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The prime minister of the Kurdistan region, indirectly referring to the recent IRGC missile and drone attacks on the Mossad headquarters in this region, added: “As you know, we were exposed to missile and drone attacks not long ago and we did not have the necessary facilities to defend ourselves against these attacks, so when we say that we need more help from the United States, it does not mean that we need more soldiers.”
Claiming that the American army has provided a lot of help to Iraq in the war against ISIS, he emphasized: “We have never demanded the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.”
In connection with the suspension of oil exports from the Kurdistan region [following the decision of the Supreme Court of Iraq], he also said: “This issue has created many problems at the same time as the regional budget is not provided, but Mr. Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani has shown good faith and We hope that the problems will be resolved.”
In this regard, Brigadier Yahya Rasool, the military spokesman of the Iraqi Prime Minister, in a speech, considered the American army as the cause of instability and said: “More than ever, the Iraqi government is moving towards ending the mission of this coalition, which has become a factor of instability in Iraq and is dragging Iraq into conflict.”
In the meantime, Baghdad’s talks with Washington about the future of the forces of the international anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq are supposed to resume from (Sunday).
The emphasis of the Iraqi people on expelling the US intensified when the US martyred Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Organization. In response to this crime, the Iraqi parliament approved the plan to expel American soldiers from the country in January 2018.