{"id":181184,"date":"2018-12-27T08:32:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T08:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=181184"},"modified":"2018-12-30T07:10:11","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T07:10:11","slug":"iraqi-lawmakers-demand-us-withdraw-troops-after-surprise-trump-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=181184","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi lawmakers demand US withdraw troops after surprise Trump visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Associated Press \u2013 Dec 27, 2018<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"irc_mi alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cnsnews.com\/s3\/files\/styles\/content_40p\/s3\/trump-iraqwh_0.jpg?itok=8g7AR5vu\" alt=\"Image result for Trump US troops in Iraq\" width=\"315\" height=\"186\" \/>\u00a0 Iraqi lawmakers have demanded US forces leave the country in the wake of a surprise visit by <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/donaldtrump\">Donald Trump<\/a>, which politicians denounced as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Politicians from both blocs of Iraq\u2019s divided parliament called for a vote to expel US troops and promised to schedule an extraordinary session to debate the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cParliament must clearly and urgently express its view about the ongoing American violations of Iraqi sovereignty,\u201d said Salam al-Shimiri, a lawmaker loyal to the populist cleric <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2018\/may\/14\/iraq-elections-who-is-moqtadr-al-sadr\">Moqtada al-Sadr<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Trump, making his first presidential visit to troops in a troubled region on Wednesday, said he had no plans to withdraw the 5,200 US forces in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Containing foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in a year that saw Sadr supporters win the largest share of votes in May elections. Sadr has called for curbing US and Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">US troops are stationed in <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/iraq\">Iraq<\/a> as part of the coalition against the Islamic State terror group. American forces withdrew in 2011 after invading in 2003 but returned in 2014 at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help fight the jihadist group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">But after defeating Isis militants in their last urban bastions last year, Iraqi politicians and militia leaders are speaking out against the continued presence of US forces in Iraqi soil.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Though Isis has lost a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria, it is still seen as a threat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Qais Khazali, the head of the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia that fought key battles against Isis in north Iraq, promised on Twitter that parliament would vote to expel US forces from Iraq, or the militia and others would force them out by \u201cother means\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Khazali was jailed by British and US forces from 2007 to 2010 for managing sections of the Shia insurgency against the occupation during those years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">His militia is represented in parliament by the Binaa bloc, a rival coalition to Sadr\u2019s Islah. Binaa favors close ties with Iran and is aligned with Tehran on regional political issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Trump spent three hours at a US air base meeting with American troops during his visit. He defended his decision to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/dec\/19\/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump\">withdraw 2,000 U<\/a><\/strong><\/span><a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/dec\/19\/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump\">S<\/a><a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2018\/dec\/19\/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump\"> troops<\/a> from neighboring Syria, saying the US military had all but eliminated Isis-controlled territory there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He left without meeting any Iraqi officials, though he spoke to the prime minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, by phone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Abdul-Mahdi\u2019s office said in a statement after Trump\u2019s visit that \u201cdifferences in points of view\u201d over arrangements led to a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders being scrapped.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Shimiri said Trump\u2019s visit \u201cviolated several diplomatic norms\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2018\/dec\/27\/iraq-trump-visit-us-troops-lawmakers-demand-leave\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Local politicians from opposing parties call for US forces to leave Iraq, after Trump\u2019s visit to US troops in the country on Boxing day. Although Trump says he has no plans to withdraw troops <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Iraq"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181184"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181188,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181184\/revisions\/181188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}