Iraqi leader: US should plan to pull its troops

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National News

January 10, 2020 - 10:21 AM

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi in Baghdad, during a Middle East tour, on Jan. 9, 2019. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s caretaker prime minister asked the U.S. secretary of state to start working out a road map for an American troop withdrawal from Iraq, his office said Friday, signaling his insistence on ending the U.S. presence despite recent moves to de-escalate tensions between Iran and the U.S.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi made the request in a telephone call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday night, his office said in a statement. He also told Pompeo that recent U.S. strikes in Iraq were an unacceptable breach of Iraqi sovereignty and a violation of the two countries’ security agreements.

The Iraqi leader asked Pompeo to “send delegates to Iraq to prepare a mechanism to carry out the parliament’s resolution regarding the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq,” according to the statement.

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