Iraqi PM says strategic dialogue with US to serve Iraq’s interest

Baghdad, June 11 (SocialNews.XYZ) Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said that the strategic dialogue between Iraq and the United States is mainly aimed to serve the country's interest and achieve its sovereignty.

Al-Kadhimi made his comments during a visit to Nineveh's provincial capital Mosul on Wednesday, on the anniversary of the fall of the city in the hands of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group in 2014, according to a statement by al-Kadhimi's media office, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Hisham Dawood, the adviser of al-Kadhimi, told the state-run Iraqiya TV channel that the dialogue with Washington will include economic, cultural, agricultural, industrial, scientific and security files.

In April, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington and Baghdad will hold a strategic dialogue in mid-June to take a decision on the future of the presence of the US forces in Iraq.

The relations between Baghdad and Washington have witnessed a tension since January 3 after a US drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

The US airstrike prompted the Iraqi parliament on January 5 to pass a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq.

Over 5,000 US troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising to the Iraqi forces.

Source: IANS