BAGHDAD: Nato forces are staying in Iraq at the country?s request, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said during a rare visit Monday to Baghdad after parliament called for a foreign troop pullout. ?We are here because Iraq wants us to be here, we are not here without the consent and without an invitation from Iraq,? Stoltenberg told AFP. ?We should not stay longer than necessary, we will train the trainers as long as necessary to make sure IS does not reemerge,? he said of the jihadist Islamic State group. His comments come days after the Iraqi parliament called for the government to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country. ?The Iraqi parliament expresses its gratitude to all countries which have supported Iraq in its fight against Daesh (IS) and calls for the government to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops,? it said in a statement. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared in December the end of the war to expel IS jihadists from the country, three years after they seized a third of Iraq, sweeping aside security forces.
03-06-2018, 12:05 PM
Nato says alliance troops staying in Iraq
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