The United States is considering pulling out its occupation forces from Syria following almost a decade of illegal presence under the guise of fighting the Islamic State, deeming further presence in the country as “unnecessary,” the Foreign Policy reported on Tuesday, citing US senior officials.
This potential measure comes amid increasingly growing risks of a regional war in the Middle East as the US-backed Zionist ongoing genocide on Gaza nears its 4-month mark, and Washington reassessing its military priorities.
Since pushing forces into eastern and northeastern Syria, the US went on to establish several military bases and sites, where some 900 soldiers are currently stationed as per Pentagon claims, to oversee the stealing of the country’s vast oil and gas resources, as well as destabilizing its security and escalating sectarian tensions.
Zionist dragging the US into regional war becoming a reality
Zionist forces have so far killed over 25,700 people in Gaza, over 70% of which are children and women, destroyed more than three-quarters of Palestinian homes, and put most major civilian facilities such as hospitals and schools, in addition to crucial infrastructure including sewage and water purification systems, out of service.
In response to the brutal crimes, regional Resistance factions have launched a phase of operations against Zionist and US targets, given Washington’s direct involvement in the war. US bases in Iraq and Syria have since been attacked over 150 times by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq group.
This also saw a Yemeni-enforced ban on Zionist ships and ships bound for the occupation entity in the Red Sea, which later evolved into Sanaa listing US and UK naval assets among the target bank after the two countries carried out several aggressions on Yemen.
The Yemeni threat was carried out last week when the country’s armed forces struck and hit a US military cargo ship – Ocean Jazz – near the Gulf of Aden.
In retrospect, concerns publicly voiced by top officials in Biden’s administration that the Zionist occupation entity seeks to drag Washington into a war in the region are becoming a reality.
Iraqi resistance pushing against the occupation
Citing four Pentagon and State Department sources, the Foreign Policy reported that no final decision has been made, while discussions are underway to determine the method and time of the withdrawal.
In the past few weeks, the United States attacked positions for the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah inside Iraq, a member of the governmental Popular Mobilization Forces PMF. This caused a severe backlash by Baghdad, which initiated a process to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is now publicly calling the US-led coalition to exit the country, explaining that the agreed-upon mission to end ISIS has been fulfilled.
Sources familiar with the matter indicate that the United States and Iraq are on the verge of engaging in discussions regarding the future of the US occupation of Iraq.
The talks, facilitated by a higher military commission (HMC) formed last summer, will center on the next phase of the US-led international coalition that has been occupying Iraq against the will of the Iraqi people for decades.
The Iraqi Resistance’s operations against the US occupation forces have proven to be potent, with reports stating that the recent airstrikes launched by the US against local Resistance groups after the latter attacked US forces in Syria and Iraq in a bid to boot them out due to their support of the Zionist occupation in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza made the discussions more important.
As the United States violated Iraq’s territory, calls from the Iraqi government for the withdrawal of US troops have amplified in response to these strikes.
The talks will delve into the feasibility and timing of ending the US military occupation. The US is seeking a conditions-based approach as it continues to uphold the pretext that it is maintaining a presence in Iraq to fight off ISIS despite the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, notably the Popular Mobilization Forces, underlining that they do not need aid from the imperialist state.
The move to expel the US gained momentum in Iraq after the assassination of top Iraqi and Iranian anti-terror commanders four years ago following the height of the fight against terror in the region, with the Iraqi parliament adopting a law to expel foreign forces. The targeted drone strike, authorized by then-President Donald Trump, claimed the lives of General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis near the Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Force unit of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), and al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), played pivotal roles in countering the ISIS terrorist group in the region, particularly Iraq and Syria.
Notes from Al Mayadeen