Washington and Baghdad have reached an agreement regarding plans to withdraw US-led coalition forces in Iraq, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The withdrawal plan, which has broad approval, needs to be given the go-ahead by both capitals and an effective date. It calls for hundreds of troops to leave Iraq by September 2025, and all others to be withdrawn by the end of 2026.
"We have an agreement, now we just have a date to announce it," announced a senior US official.
The US and Iraq are also seeking to establish a new type of cooperation in advising and consulting, which could result in some US units remaining in Iraq after the official announcement of their withdrawal.
Officially, this was supposed to happen weeks ago, but was postponed due to the regional escalation of tensions related to Israel's war in Gaza. In addition, according to sources who wished to remain anonymous, there were some details to be clarified.
The sources informing "Reuters" are five American personnel, two personnel from other countries - coalition partners, and three Iraqi personnel. They all asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Several of the sources said the deal could be announced in September. Farhad Alaaldin, adviser to the Iraqi prime minister on foreign policy, announced that the technical part of the agreement on the withdrawal of coalition forces has already been agreed.
"Now that we are finally ready with the agreement, we are going to focus on bilateral relations in the military, economic and cultural fields," Farhad Alaaldin added, but did not want to comment on more details.
The withdrawal agreement is the fruit of more than six months of negotiations between Baghdad and Washington, initiated by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in January. This was done against the backdrop of attacks by Iranian-backed Iraqi armed groups against US forces stationed at bases on Iraqi territory.