The US and Iraq will end the international coalition by 2025

September 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United States and Iraq announced this Friday that they will end the international coalition led by Washington to combat the Islamic State terrorist group “no later than the end of September 2025” and will carry out a transition process to establish an association mechanism bilateral security.

“This historic transition marks a decade since the formation of the coalition military mission in Iraq, and Iraq will continue to collaborate with the United States and other coalition members to establish bilateral security relations where appropriate,” the US State Department said in a statement. a joint statement.

Military operations in Syria will continue until September 2026 under the coalition’s mandate. The so-called Supreme Military Commission, the body in charge of launching this transition, has committed to setting a calendar and carrying out the necessary “mechanisms” to implement it.

The international mission, therefore, will be transformed into a kind of bilateral security partnership with the objective of supporting the Iraqi forces and continuing to maintain pressure on the Islamic State in the Middle East.

The announcement comes within the framework of tensions that have arisen as a result of Washington’s bombings in the country against pro-Iranian militias, a measure in retaliation for their attacks against US bases in the region with the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip as a backdrop. background.

Some of these pro-Iran groups are integrated into the Iraqi security forces, which has led the Prime Minister of Iraq, Mohamed Shia al Sudani, to harshly criticize the United States for these attacks behind the authorities’ backs.

This transition plan was agreed upon in April during Al Sudani’s visit to Washington after months of talks since January. The Iraqi government postponed the announcement in August due to tensions in the region following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniye in a bombing in Tehran attributed to Israel.

The coalition was born in 2014 at the height of the rise of the Islamic State, which came to control large areas of Syria and Iraq taking advantage of the instability. Led by the United States, Spain contributes around 180 soldiers who collaborate to train and qualify Iraqi forces in the fight against terrorism.