The US and Iraq have reached an understanding on plans for the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from Iraq, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The plan, which has been broadly agreed but requires a final go-ahead from both capitals and an announcement date, would see hundreds of troops leave by September 2025, with the remainder departing by the end of 2026, the sources said.
“We have an agreement, its now just a question of when to announce it,” a senior US official said.
The US and Iraq are also seeking to establish a new advisory relationship that could see some US troops remain in Iraq after the drawdown.
An official announcement was initially scheduled for weeks ago but was postponed due to regional escalation related to Israel’s war in Gaza and to iron out some remaining details, the sources said.
The sources include five US officials, two officials from other coalition nations, and three Iraqi officials.
Several sources said the deal could be announced this month.
Farhad Alaaldin, foreign affairs adviser to the Iraqi prime minister, said technical talks with Washington on the coalition drawdown had concluded.
“We are now on the brink of transitioning the relationship between Iraq and members of the international coalition to a new level, focusing on bilateral relations in military, security, economic, and cultural areas,” he said.
A US State Department spokesperson and a defence official said US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani in a joint statement in April affirmed they would review factors to determine when and how the mission of the Global Coalition in Iraq would end and transition to enduring bilateral security partnerships.
The agreement follows more than six months of talks between Baghdad and Washington, initiated by Prime Minister Al Sudani in January amid attacks by Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups on US forces stationed at Iraqi bases.
The US has approximately 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in neighbouring Syria.
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