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French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, wearing a protective face mask, speaks during a session of questions to the government at the National Assembly in Paris on November 10, 2020. Photo: Thomas Coex / AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – France will tell the US to delay withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday.
Le Drian appeared on French TV on Monday morning in a wide-ranging interview which in part addressed US foreign policy in the Middle East. He warned the US against speeding up the pullout of its troops from both Afghanistan and Iraq.
"It shouldn’t be done, in our opinion, in Iraq either, and we will tell him [Pompeo] that," Le Drian told BFM's Jean-Jacques Bourdin.
The foreign minister's comments came ahead of a Monday meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is currently on a multi-nation tour as his tenure comes to an end. Pompeo is also due to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.
"Mike Pompeo is my counterpart until January 20. Is it necessary to see him right now? Yes, because there are many difficult things to discuss – there is the situation in Iraq, the situation in Iran, terrorism," Le Drian said.
US troops returned to Iraq in 2014, as part of the Global Coalition to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS). The US has been drawing down its troops in Iraq amid the coronavirus pandemic and repeated rocket attacks by Iran-backed militias on Iraqi military bases hosting Coalition troops. It has handed over a number of Coalition-controlled bases in the country to the Iraqi Security Forces.
Attacks on Iraqi military bases hosting Coalition troops grew more frequent after the US assassinated Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in January 2019, which soon led to the Iraqi parliament passing a non-binding resolution calling for the expulsion of foreign troops from Iraq.
However, a US withdrawal from Iraq is “not in the interest” of Iraqis, foreign minister Fuad Hussein told Pompeo last month.
“Despite the decision being a sovereign matter for the American side, it may lead to results that would not be in the interest of the Iraqi people,” the foreign ministry said in a statement in October.
Washington has said it would close its Baghdad embassy, stormed by pro-Iran militia supporters in December, and withdraw all of its troops from Iraq if Baghdad cannot rein in Iran-backed militias.
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