Jul 27,2021: US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Monday sealed an agreement formally ending the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, more than 18 years after US troops were sent to the country.
Coupled with Biden’s withdrawal of the last American forces in Afghanistan by the end of August, the Democratic president is completing US combat missions in the two wars that then-President George W. Bush began under his watch.
Biden and Kadhimi met in the Oval Office for their first face-to-face talks as part of a strategic dialogue between the United States and Iraq.
“Our role in Iraq will be … to be available, to continue to train, to assist, to help and to deal with ISIS as it arises, but we’re not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission,” Biden told reporters as he and Kadhimi met.
Hasan said that the likely outcome of the meeting will be an announcement to redeploy US combat troops from Iraq, perhaps with a timeline, “emphasizing that the mission of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition has shifted exclusively toward training of Iraqi troops and advisory roles.
Speaking about the early timing of the visit, Hamasaeed said that “given the complex issues that this administration is dealing with domestically and on the world stage, the visit of the prime minister this time – and being one of the early leaders from the Middle East coming to be received in the White House – does signal that the Biden administration has placed importance on the Middle East and Iraq in particular.
