The US has no plans to pull out of Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters after a letter to the government in Baghdad informing them of redeployment plans was published online.
“There’s been no decision to leave Iraq. Period,” Esper told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday, in what appears to have been an off-camera briefing.
He was referring to the reports that the head of Combined Joint Task Force Iraq, General William H. Seely III, had informed the Iraqi government of preparations to reposition the coalition forces “in due deference to the sovereignty” of Iraq.
Esper would neither confirm nor deny the letter’s authenticity, though US Army public relations officials said earlier it was real. Instead, he reiterated the position staked out earlier by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that the Iraqi people “want the US to stay,” and cited the rise in attacks by Iranian “proxy groups.”
US President Donald Trump likewise rejected the withdrawal on Sunday, threatening Iraq with sanctions and saying the US will not leave until the Iraqis “pay us back” for an airbase that he said cost billions of dollars to build.
