2019/2/4 9:49
(Baghdad: Al Furat News) President Barham Saleh responded to US President Donald Trump's comments on the presence of US forces in Iraq and its monitoring of Iran.
"Iraq will discuss these statements and the American presence in its constitutional institutions," Saleh said at the events of the 2019 International Forumof Rafidain, which was launched today in Baghdad. "The American presence in Iraq is within legal contexts."
"Trump did not ask permission from Iraq for a US military presence to monitor Iran," he said.
"US forces are in Iraq under an agreement between the two countries," he said. "We will wait for a clarification from Washington on the numbers and mission of US forces."
US President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he intends to keep his troops in Iraq to "monitor Iran."
"All I want is to be able to observe, we have a great and expensive military base in Iraq, and it is very appropriate to monitor the situation in all parts of the troubled Middle East, and that is better than withdrawal," Trump said in a newspaper interview on Sunday.
"This is something that many people do not understand. We intend to continue monitoring. If there are problems or wants to manufacture nuclear weapons or other things, we will know before they do that," he said.
Trump confirmed that some US military personnel to be withdrawn from Syria would join US forces in Iraq.
Trump, however, criticized US military intervention in Iraq, calling it "one of the biggest mistakes the United States has made in history."
alforatnews.com
