Iraq and the US-led international coalition formed to fight ISIS in 2014 are to meet in the coming days to discuss what their co-operation will look like in the future, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani said on Monday.
Early last month, Iraq sent a high-ranking security delegation to Washington led by Minister of Defence Thabet Al Abbasi to meet US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and other officials for the inaugural US-Iraq Joint Security Co-operation Dialogue.
The two sides discussed the security co-operation in different fields and the continuing fight against ISIS remnants.
They agreed to form a joint committee to "determine the future relation between Iraq and the member states of the international coalition", Mr Al Sudani told local media outlets on Monday.
"The international coalition was formed in 2014 to fight Daesh," he said. "Daesh is gone and we have won with the help of our friends from neighbours and the international community.
"For sure, [the presence of] forces with the size of the International Coalition under that title and with that number of countries needs to be reviewed and that is what we agreed on during the visit to Washington."
The first meeting for the joint committee will be held midway through this month, Mr Al Sudani said, but he did not give a date or place for the meeting.
"The Iraqi delegation clearly declared [in Washington] that Iraq today doesn't need combat troops, and this is a continuation to our stance in every event; we don't need combat troops in Iraq," he said.
But Mr Al Sudani said his country was "not against any bilateral relations with the United States or any other country within the International Coalition to co-operate in the security field".
In 2003, the US led an international coalition to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein’s regime, claiming it was developing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
None were found in Iraq and the country was plunged into chaos after the invasion.
Nine years later, the US withdrew from Iraq, leaving behind a small number of troops to protect its embassy and to train and assist Iraqis. At its peak, the force numbered 170,000 soldiers in 2007.
But in 2914, combat troops returned to fight ISIS, which controlled about a third of the country at the time, as the US-trained Iraqi security forces melted away.
Despite the defeat of ISIS by the end of 2017, about 5,000 troops remained, along with others from the international coalition, to suppress the terrorist group.
In 2020, former US president Donald Trump reduced the number of soldiers in Iraq to 2,500.
In 2021, both countries agreed to end the US combat mission by December that year, shifting the mission's role to an advisory and educational one.
The presence of the US troops in Iraq has been controversial.
After defeating ISIS, Iran-backed Shiite militias and Tehran have called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
Tension mounted in 2019 and early 2020 after a US drone strike killed Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp's elite Quds Force, along with senior Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis at Baghdad Airport.
Mr Al Sudani took over in late October. He was the nominee of the Iran-aligned Co-ordination Framework, the largest political group in the Iraqi Parliament, with 138 of 329 seats.
The group comprises powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias and political parties.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
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Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
