July 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The US president, Joe Biden, and the Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-Kazemi, held a meeting this Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in which they reaffirmed their intention to maintain military coordination so that the Islamic State jihadist group “never can resurface.”
Biden and Al Kazemi issued a joint statement after the meeting citing the Strategic Framework Agreement as a sign of their “strong bilateral partnership.”
“A strong Iraq capable of defending itself is essential to achieving stability in the region,” they stressed. Biden has also mentioned “the importance of strengthening the democratic institutions of Iraq” which for him goes through “empowering the Iraqi security forces”.
The US military presence in Iraq has been highly questioned due to the repeated declarations approved in the Iraqi Parliament calling for the departure of US troops. Right now there are technically no American combat outfits in the country, but there are military advisers.
Biden has also valued the repatriations of Iraqi families from Syria, where they had been held since the fall of the Islamic State caliphate.
On the other hand, the US president has highlighted the mediation of Al Kazemi to sit Iran and Saudi Arabia at a table in Baghdad, a “diplomacy of advanced ideas in favor of a more secure and stable region.”
At the level of internal Iraqi politics, Al Kazemi and Biden have highlighted the importance of reaching an agreement to form a new government after the elections of October 10, 2021, in which the most voted force was the Sayirún left-wing coalition that led by the cleric Muqtada al Sadr.
“President Biden has underscored the importance the United States places on a stable, united, sovereign, and prosperous Iraq that includes the Kurdistan Region,” the joint statement concludes.
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