US, Iraq Still In Talks To Determine Future Of Security Partnership Against IS - Pentagon

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th October, 2021) The United States and Iraq are still engaged in technical talks to determine what the security partnership to fight the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia) will look like in the future, Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.

"We from a security perspective, we are still partnering with the Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces in an effort to continue to put pressure on ISIS (Islamic States)," Kirby said during a press briefing. "That's the focus, that's what we're there for, and we're still in technical talks with Iraq about what that looks like going forward."

Earlier on Tuesday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki congratulated Iraq on holding a largely peaceful parliamentary election and said they are awaiting the certified results of the vote.

US President Joe Biden said in July that the United States' combat mission in Iraq would come to a close by the end of this year. After December 31, the United States is expected to switch to training and assisting Iraqi forces to counter Islamic State terrorists. There are currently 2,500 US troops in Iraq assisting local forces.

According to the preliminary results, the bloc of Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr received 73 seats in the 329-seat parliament, followed by the Takaddum bloc, headed by the speaker of parliament Muhammed Al-Halbusi, with 38 seats. The State of Law bloc, under the leadership of ex-Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, received 37 seats.