Biden to host Iraqi leader as Mideast tensions soar, raising more questions about US troop presence

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is about to host Iraq’s leader this week for talks that come as tensions around the Middle East have soared over the war in Gaza and Iran’s unparalleled weekend attack on Israel in retaliation for an Israeli army strike in opposition to an Iranian facility in Syria.

The sharp upward push in safety fears has raised additional questions about the viability of the two-decade American army presence in Iraq, wherein parts of Iran’s Saturday drone and missile assault on Israel flew or had been introduced from. A U.S. Patriot battery in Irbil, Iraq, knocked down a minimum of one Iranian ballistic missile, in accordance to American officers.

In addition, Iranian proxies have initiated assaults in opposition to U.S. pursuits all over the area from inside of Iraq, making Monday’s assembly between Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani the entire more vital. The talks will come with a dialogue of regional steadiness and long run U.S. troop deployments however can even focal point on financial, business and effort problems that experience change into a big precedence for Iraq’s executive, in accordance to U.S. officers.

Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are each anticipated to deal with the U.S. troop presence in conferences with al-Sudani. “It is not the primary focus of the visit … but it is almost certainly going to come up,” one senior U.S. legit mentioned closing week.

The U.S. and Iraq started formal talks in January about finishing the coalition created to assist the Iraqi executive battle the Islamic State, with some 2,000 U.S. troops last within the nation below an settlement with Baghdad. Iraqi officers have periodically known as for a withdrawal of the ones forces.

The two nations have a gentle courting due partly to Iran’s substantial sway in Iraq, the place a coalition of Iran-backed teams introduced al-Sudani to energy in October 2022.

The U.S. in contemporary months has suggested Iraq to do more to save you assaults on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria that experience additional roiled the Middle East within the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel. Iran’s weekend assaults on Israel thru Iraqi airspace have additional underscored U.S. issues, despite the fact that al-Sudani had already left Baghdad and was once en direction to Washington when the drones and missiles had been introduced.

The U.S. has additionally sought to apply financial pressure over Baghdad’s courting with Tehran, limiting Iraq’s get admission to to its personal bucks in an effort to stamp out cash laundering mentioned to receive advantages Iran and Syria.

Most earlier Iraqi high ministers have visited Washington previous of their tenure. Al-Sudani’s discuss with was once not on time on account of tensions between the U.S. and Iran and regional escalation, together with the Gaza struggle and the killing of 3 U.S. infantrymen in Jordan in a drone assault in past due January. That was once adopted through a U.S. strike that killed a leader within the Kataib Hezbollah armed forces whom Washington accused of making plans and collaborating in assaults on U.S. troops.

Al-Sudani got here to energy in past due 2022 after an influence combat between distinguished Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada Sadr and opposing Shiite factions which might be shut to Iran after the 2021 elections. Sadr in the end withdrew from the political procedure, giving the chance to the remainder Shia politicians to shape a central authority headed through al-Sudani.

Since then, al-Sudani has tried to deal with a balancing act between Iran and America regardless of being observed as being shut to Tehran and regardless of a number of incidents that experience put his executive in an embarrassing place in relation to Washington.

Early in al-Sudani’s time period, a U.S. citizen, Stephen Edward Troell, was once shot and killed through armed males who accosted him as he pulled up to the road the place he lived in Baghdad’s central Karrada district along with his circle of relatives. An Iraqi legal courtroom convicted 5 males closing August and sentenced them to existence in jail within the case, which officers described as a kidnapping long gone flawed.

A couple of months later, Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian doctoral scholar at Princeton, was once abducted whilst doing analysis in Iraq. Al-Sudani’s discuss with will come about a yr after Tsurkov’s abduction. She is assumed to be held through Kataib Hezbollah.

The senior U.S. legit mentioned Tsurkov’s case would even be raised.

“We are concerned by and closely tracking this case,” the official said. “We have strongly condemned her abduction. We’ve urged … and continue to urge senior Iraqi officials to find Elizabeth and to secure her release as soon as possible.”

Al-Sudani began his time period with guarantees to focal point on financial building and battle corruption, however his executive has confronted financial difficulties, together with a discrepancy within the legit and marketplace change charges between the Iraqi dinar and the U.S. greenback.

The foreign money problems got here partly as a results of a U.S. tightening of the greenback provide to Iraq, as a part of a crackdown on cash laundering and smuggling of finances to Iran. The U.S. has disallowed more than 20 Iraqi banks from dealing in bucks as a part of the marketing campaign.

The al-Sudani executive lately renewed Iraq’s contract to acquire herbal fuel from Iran for any other 5 years, which might lead to American displeasure.

The Iraqi high minister will go back to Iraq and meet with the Turkish president following his travel to Washington, which might in any case lead to an answer to a long-running dispute over exports of oil from Kurdish spaces of Iraq to Turkey. Washington has sought to get the go with the flow of oil to resume.

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Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad. Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.