Baghdad, December 28, 2023 (Xinhua) Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced today (Thursday) that the Iraqi government is moving towards ending the presence of international coalition forces in the country.
"The meeting included a more detailed discussion on the status of the international coalition, especially since Spain is part of this alliance,"al-Sudani said at a joint press conference with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez after talks in Baghdad today.
"The Iraqi government is in the process of rearranging the relationship with the international coalition in the presence of capable Iraqi forces,"he added.
"The Iraqi government is moving towards ending the presence of the international coalition forces, which includes security advisers who support the security forces in the fields of training, advice and intelligence cooperation,"al-Sudani said.
"We stressed the importance of adhering to the legal mandate granted by the previous Iraqi governments on the presence of coalition forces, which should be within the framework of support for the security forces in the fields of training and not exceed the limit of carrying out military actions as it represents a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, which is unacceptable,"he added.
The Iraqi prime minister praised "the role of the coalition and Spain in supporting Iraq's efforts to confront the terrorist organization Daesh, in which Iraq has won".
The meeting between the Iraqi and Spanish prime ministers discussed the importance of relations and their development between the two countries in light of the presence of many commonalities and promising opportunities to promote them in several areas, according to al-Sudani.
He explained that"it was agreed that we will go with an agenda during the year in which we establish the way to reach a framework for strategic partnership between Iraq and Spain that frames our work and relations in the economic, political, security, cultural and societal fields".
Al-Sudani pointed out that" this visit also comes in light of a difficult circumstance that the region is going through, where the major attacks that amounted to acts of genocide in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, "praising"the role of Spain and its courageous position in condemning these attacks.
For his part, the Spanish prime minister expressed his country's desire to develop relations with Iraq, especially in the fields of transport, Defense, Education and confronting climate change, calling on Iraq to join an international coalition to confront desertification and combat climate change.
The Spanish prime minister arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad yesterday evening (Wednesday) on an official visit, and the Iraqi prime minister held an official reception ceremony for his Spanish counterpart at the Government Palace this morning.
Spain is one of the participating countries in the international coalition led by the United States of America to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
At the end of 2021, Iraq ended the "combat missions" of the international coalition forces, but will remain with about 2,500 soldiers to work as trainers and advisers providing advice, support and intelligence support to the Iraqi forces in their war against the Islamic State, according to unofficial statistics.
