Trump meets with leader amid talks over troop levels

President Donald Trump met with Mustafa alKadhimi, the Iraqi prime minister, at the White House on Thursday, continuing months of negotiations between the two governments over the presence of U.S. troops in the country. Trump’s meeting with al-Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief, culminated two days of high-level gatherings between senior U.S. and Iraqi officials that covered a range of security, energy, economic and health issues. But a central focus of the prime minister’s visit is the negotiations, which started in May, on resetting the U.S. military mission in Iraq. “We will be discussing military,” Trump said. “We’re also involved in many oil projects and oil development within their country. And I think we’ve had a very, very good relationship since we started. We’re down to a very small number of soldiers in Iraq now.” There are about 5,200 U.S. military personnel in Iraq, whose main missions are counterterrorism and training Iraqi forces. Some of these forces also support about 500 U.S. troops in neighboring Syria. Al-Kadhimi, who assumed his post in May after widespread anti-government protests and amid the coronavirus pandemic and persistent joblessness, is largely viewed as a transitional leader to steer his country through a period of major economic and social upheaval. His appointment also came amid a political backlash that surged after a U.S. drone strike killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian officer, at Baghdad International Airport in January. That resulted in a vote by Iraq’s Parliament demanding that all U.S. troops leave Iraq. Trump has signaled he wants to withdraw all U.S. forces from the region, in Iraq and Syria. “We’re bringing them home from Syria. We’re bringing them home from Iraq,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday. On a call with reporters held before the visit, senior administration officials stressed there were“no hard and fast time lines, and there are no hard and fast numbers” on when any reduction of troops would happen, but U.S. commanders have pulled back hundreds of troops from several Iraqi bases, consolidating them at half a dozen locations in the country. In an interview with The Associated Press before his departure from Baghdad, al-Kadhimi said Iraq still needed U.S. assistance to counter the Islamic State but not direct military support on the ground.