Kur­dish offi­cial warns US: ‘now is not the time’ to pull forces out of Iraq’

As the U.S. mulls over a plan to with­draw troops from Iraq, its Kur­dish allies have a mes­sage: Don’t for­get us. 

“This is not the time to reduce coali­tion forces in Iraq,” Treefa Aziz, the Kur­dis­tan Region­al Government’s spe­cial rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the U.S., told Fox News Dig­i­tal. 

“Extrem­ist groups like ISIS and armed mili­tias con­tin­ue to pose a seri­ous threat to the peo­ple of Iraq and the Kur­dis­tan Region.”

The U.S. announced plans to shrink the U.S. “foot­print” in Iraq and end the cur­rent mis­sion of coali­tion forces – includ­ing the Kurds – to fight ISIS, but declined to say how many of the 2,500 troops cur­rent­ly sta­tioned there would remain. 

“A decade ago, Kur­dish Pesh­mer­ga forces worked along­side U.S. troops to defeat ISIS and con­tin­ue to active­ly com­bat ISIS rem­nants to pre­vent a resur­gence of ter­ror today,” Aziz said. The Kur­dis­tan Region­al Gov­ern­ment (KRG) “has been a reli­able secu­ri­ty part­ner for the Unit­ed States and remains ready to enhance coop­er­a­tion.”

But now, if Bagh­dad is push­ing the U.S. out of Iraq, the U.S. could feel it must hon­or that request or risk mak­ing anoth­er ene­my in the Mid­dle East. The KRG says it would be “will­ing and able” to host U.S. coali­tion forces in its ter­ri­to­ry. 

The cur­rent mis­sion is now set to end by Sep­tem­ber 2025, with a plan to keep the num­ber of forces on the Iraqi side to back up the 900 U.S. troops in Syr­ia until at least 2026. 

News of a plan that could amount to a sig­nif­i­cant draw­down of U.S. forces called to mind 2019, when for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump announced plans to pull out of Syr­ia and the Kurds felt aban­doned by a part­ner they had fought along­side for years – leav­ing them open to an attack by Turk­ish forces.  

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Trump, at the time, left the Kurds with a warn­ing to their long­time ene­mies: “I have told Turkey that if they do any­thing out­side of what we would think is humane … they could suf­fer the wrath of an extreme­ly dec­i­mat­ed econ­o­my.”

The U.S. rela­tion­ship with the Kurds – an indige­nous group of dar­ing fight­ers whose quest for their own for­mal state has been unsuc­cess­ful – spans back decades. 

When the Turks denied the U.S. pas­sage into Iraq for the inva­sion in 2003, Iraqi Kurds helped the U.S. over­throw Sad­dam Hus­sein. 

The Kurds have fought with U.S. coali­tion forces since they reen­tered Iraq in 2014 to fight ISIS, and the U.S. pledged arms sup­port and human­i­tar­i­an aid. 

The group faces attacks from ter­ror groups on all sides. And as Iran increas­ing­ly encroach­es on the Iraqi gov­ern­ment, Bagh­dad has the KRG in a choke-hold, offi­cials say. 

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“There is grow­ing con­cern regard­ing efforts to weak­en the fed­er­al sys­tem in Iraq. The con­sti­tu­tion­al frame­work, which is designed to ensure shared gov­er­nance, is dis­re­gard­ed,” one Kur­dish offi­cial said.

“The con­tin­ued sus­pen­sion of oil exports from the Kur­dis­tan region has placed sig­nif­i­cant eco­nom­ic strain. More than a year and half lat­er, we have yet to see the resump­tion of these exports.” 

The KRG has been try­ing to work with the Iraqis on a pow­er-shar­ing agree­ment with no real results.

“Some of these actions appear to align with exter­nal influ­ences rather than the broad­er nation­al inter­est,” the offi­cial said, refer­ring to Iran­ian influ­ence. “With the assis­tance of our allies, we believe these issues can be resolv­able through con­struc­tive dia­logue and coop­er­a­tion.”

The KRG is also ask­ing the U.S. gov­ern­ment to “hon­or its com­mit­ment” includ­ed in the 2024 Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (NDAA) to “pro­vide the KRG with a com­pre­hen­sive air defense sys­tem. 

The law required the Depart­ment of Defense to sub­mit and imple­ment a plan for pro­vid­ing the Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces and  Kur­dis­tan Region with air defens­es by July 2024. 

“As a stead­fast U.S. ally that is reg­u­lar­ly tar­get­ed by extrem­ist vio­lence, the KRG requires assur­ances that it will be pro­tect­ed from all threats, both inter­nal and exter­nal,” said Aziz. 

Gen. Michael Kuril­la, the com­man­der of U.S. Cen­tral Com­mand, told the House Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee in March that ISIS‑K, which launched a hor­rif­ic attack in Moscow ear­li­er this year, “retains the capa­bil­i­ty and the will to attack U.S. and West­ern inter­ests abroad in as lit­tle as six months with lit­tle to no warn­ing.”