WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday rejected a request by Iraq´s caretaker prime minister to send a delegation to start preparations to pull out its 5,200 troops in the country.
"At this time, any delegation sent to Iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to best recommit to our strategic partnership -- not to discuss troop withdrawal, but our right, appropriate force posture in the Middle East," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.
Iraqi leaders were infuriated by a US drone strike at Baghdad’s airport that killed Iran´s most prominent general and parliament voted Sunday to rescind an invitation to foreign troops.
Caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi asked that the United States should send a delegation in a phone call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Abdel Mahdi "requested that delegates be sent to Iraq to set the mechanisms to implement parliament´s decision for the secure withdrawal of (foreign) forces from Iraq," his office said.
The State Department defended the US troop presence as aimed at fighting the Islamic State group.
"America is a force for good in the Middle East," Ortagus said in a statement.
"We want to be a friend and partner to a sovereign, prosperous and stable Iraq," she added. Under President Donald Trump, Iraq has increasingly become a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, which has also fought the Islamic State group.
Meanwhile, thousands of Iraqis rallied across the country, reviving a months-long protest movement against the government and adding criticisms of both the US and Iran to their chants.
The anti-regime demonstrations had been overshadowed recently by spiralling tensions between Tehran and Washington, which led each country to carry out strikes against the other´s assets in Iraq over the last week.
Fearing their movement would be eclipsed by war, Iraqi activists posted calls on social media in recent days for a mass protest on Friday, which marked the inverse date, 10/1, of the first rallies on October 1, or 1/10.
Iraqis turned out across the country, with hundreds streaming into the capital´s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-regime movement.
“Screw Iran! Screw America!” they cried out in the iconic square, still lined with tents and stalls set up three months ago.
Thousands more took to the streets in the country´s south, including the main protest hotspots of Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, the oil-rich port city of Basra and the twin shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala. Protesters in Karbala clashed overnight with security forces and others were arrested in Basra on Friday.