Headlines:
- Trump Lies and Contradicts Senior Officials about Removing All Troops from Iraq
- US Isolated on UN Security Council over Re-imposing Sanctions on Iran
- America Close to Reaching Settlement of its Choosing in Libya
Trump Lies and Contradicts Senior Officials about Removing All Troops from Iraq
According to The Hill:
President Trump on Thursday repeated his plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq “shortly” during a meeting with the county’s new prime minister.
“We were there, and now we’re getting out. We’ll be leaving shortly,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“We have been taking our troops out of Iraq fairly rapidly, and we look forward to the day when we don’t have to be there.”
Trump — who met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi as part of a larger discussion on paths to staunch pro-Iran militias in the nation and counter threats from Islamic State fighters — would not give a timeline for a full withdrawal.
Pressed on a timetable, Trump deferred to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said U.S. forces would leave “as soon as we can complete the mission.”
“The president has made very clear he wants to get our forces down to the lowest level as quickly as we possibly can. That’s the mission he’s given us, and we’re working with Iraqis to achieve that,” Pompeo said.
The U.S. first invaded Iraq in 2003, leaving in 2011 but returning in 2014 to help quell the rise of the Islamic State. Today, there are roughly 5,200 U.S. troops in the country to train Iraqi forces and carry out counterterrorism missions.
Trump’s comments seem at odds with those of the the top U.S. general in the Middle East, who last month predicted that a small number of U.S. troops will remain in Iraq for the foreseeable future.
“I believe that going forward, they’re going to want us to be with them,” Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said last month after meeting with al-Kadhimi.
McKenzie reiterated that sentiment last week, telling attendees at a U.S. Institute of Peace event that while the United States wants to shrink its troop footprint, “I just don’t know when that’s going to be.”
The topic is unlikely to be put to bed on al-Kadhimi’s first trip to Washington this week, as senior Trump administration officials on Wednesday told reporters that troop withdrawal timelines would not be discussed in talks with the president.
As the above exchange makes quite clear, the US has no intention of removing all troops from Iraq. America’s primary purpose in occupying countries is to establish military bases to advance its position on the global grand strategic chessboard. Once America has placed its pawn in a particular country then it is loath to withdraw it under any circumstances whatsoever. Iraq represents a critically important central strategic location within the Muslim world. Baghdad was the capital of the Abbassi Khilafah (Abbasid Caliphate), which was the global superpower for centuries. And the Muslim world itself is located strategically at the centre of the world. America’s only interest is in drawing down troops that are involved in local governance, a task that America has no appetite for, and Trump is choosing to highlight this drawdown as part of his election campaign; otherwise Trump also knows that the American establishment will never permit the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
US Isolated on UN Security Council over Re-Imposing Sanctions on Iran
According to the Guardian:
The extent of US isolation at the UN has been driven home by formal letters from 13 of the 15 security council members opposing Trump administration attempts to extend the economic embargo on Iran.
The letters by the council members were all issued in the 24 hours since the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, came to the UN’s New York headquarters to declare Iran in non-compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal.
Under that deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), comprehensive UN sanctions on Iran would be restored 30 days after the declaration. But almost every other council member has issued letters saying that the US has no standing to trigger this sanctions “snapback” because it left the JCPOA in May 2018.
The US has said it is still technically a participant because it is named as one in a 2015 security council resolution endorsing the JCPOA. The argument was rejected by France, the UK and Germany even before Pompeo made his declaration.
Since then, Reuters reported that it had seen letters from Russia, China, Germany, Belgium, Vietnam, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Indonesia, Estonia and Tunisia, all rejecting the US position.
Only the Dominican Republic has yet to issue a formal letter on the subject. Last week the Caribbean state was the only security council member to back the US when it tried to extend an arms embargo on Iran. Pompeo visited the island two days after that vote.
The United States is playing a twisted game with Iran, which is actually a key American agent. America doesn’t want its rival Western powers to benefit from the vast Iranian energy supplies. America only previously consented to this, under Obama, because it needed global acceptance for Iran’s regional role in stabilising the American occupation of Iraq and Syria. Now that services are no longer required, America wishes to push Iran back and cut Iran’s links to America’s rival states.
The Western nations collaborate with each other ideologically but are bitter competitors materially seeking to outrun each other in the scramble for world domination. The disbelieving Western Capitalist ideology is not fit to provide an intellectual basis for mankind because it divorces the material from the spiritual, the life of this world from the life of the hereafter.
America Close to Reaching Settlement of its Choosing in Libya
According to the Washington Post:
Libya’s U.N.-supported government Friday announced a cease-fire across the oil-rich country and called for demilitarizing the strategic city of Sirte in an initiative supported by the rival parliament in the east.
The development could mark a breakthrough following international pressure amid rising fear of a new escalation in the chaotic proxy war as rival sides mobilize for a battle over Sirte. The gateway to Libya’s major oil export terminals has been under the control of forces loyal to military commander Khalifa Hifter since January.
Libya was plunged into chaos when a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The country has since split between rival east- and west-based administrations, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments.
The chaos has worsened in recent months as foreign backers increasingly intervene, despite pledges to the contrary at a high-profile peace summit in Berlin earlier this year. Thousands of mercenaries including Russian, Syrians and Sudanese are fighting on both sides of the conflict.
Hifter, who is allied to the parliament in eastern Libya, is supported by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia. Forces loyal to the Government of National Accord based in the capital Tripoli have backing from Turkey, a bitter rival of Egypt and the UAE in a broader regional struggle, as well as from the wealthy Gulf state of Qatar.
Hifter’s forces launched an offensive in April 2019 trying to capture Tripoli. But his campaign collapsed in June when the Tripoli-allied militias, with heavy Turkish support, gained the upper hand, driving his forces from the outskirts of the city and other western towns.
Fighting has died down in recent weeks, but both sides were preparing for a possible battle over Sirte. Emboldened by Turkey’s support, Tripoli-allied forces vowed to retake Sirte and the Jurfa area, which includes a vital inland military base, from Hifter’s forces, prompting Egypt to threaten to send troops to Libya.
Previous efforts to secure lasting cease-fires have stalled. But this time could prove different with heavier diplomatic efforts, including by the United States, aiming to avert the of direct military confrontation between Egypt and Turkey, both American allies, over Sirte.
“It sounds more like an announcement that tried to tick all the theoretical boxes, with a clear American influence,” said Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya expert at The Netherlands Institute of International Relations. “But is it fully implementable? That will be hard.”
Libya has been one of the last few remaining significant Muslim countries still dominated by European powers, so naturally America has been trying to wrest this from them also. Tiring of years of unsuccessful attempts by Hifter, America changed its plan late last year and introduced Turkey to the conflict along with Russia to repeat their Syrian manoeuvre in Libya. By controlling both sides of the conflict, America is able to attain the settlement of its choice.
With Allah’s permission, the Muslim Ummah shall rise up and overthrow their corrupt ruling class which has become nothing more than an agent apparatus for Western imperialist interests, and the world shall soon witness in its place the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet ﷺ, liberating occupied territories, unifying all Muslim lands, implementing Islam, and carrying its message to the entire world.