The United States is on track to announce next week the transition of the military’s anti-ISIS mission in Iraq to a bilateral defense partnership between the two countries, a pair of officials close to the matter told the media on Friday.
The announcement would come 10 years after the U.S.’ establishment of the multi-national Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and its military component, Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve.
Talks about transitioning the military mission to a bilateral defense partnership began between the U.S. and Iraq in April. Although specific details concerning transitioning from CJTF-OIR to a bilateral partnership are still evolving, a senior administration official said that there is a broad consensus between all coalition members that the coalition will continue with its work well into the future.
“[The commission does] extraordinary work in terms of counter-terrorist financing, counter-foreign fighter flow … sharing information [and] sharing intelligence,” the official said, adding that the transition to a bilateral partnership is a way to deepen and enhance the coalition and cooperation between its member countries, as well as a means of strengthening the U.S.’ relationship with Iraq.
The official also made clear that, no matter what shape the future bilateral agreement takes — and regardless of whether other coalition countries move on from Iraq after 10 years — the U.S. remains committed to defeating ISIS.
“I think it’s fair to say we’ve had great success in territorially defeating ISIS in the core regions of Iraq and Syria. However, we are all very aware that with ISIS, you can [often] say [they’re] down, but they’re never quite out,” the official said.
A soldier assigned to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, poses for a photo with two Iraqi army artillery soldiers during a joint artillery training exercise at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, on Oct 26, 2023. © Army 2nd Lt. Daphney Black
“We remain fully committed to the defeat of ISIS … That is what we’re working on in Iraq and northeast Syria,” the official continued. “[It’s] something that is ongoing every day, and that will very much continue in the future.”
As one example of that, the Pentagon announced on Thursday that U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces launched a raid in Syria that killed four ISIS operatives.
The raid was designed to disrupt and degrade the terrorist organization’s ability “to organize and conduct attacks against civilians as well as U.S. citizens, allies and partners throughout the region and beyond,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said.
“The United States is the core [of the coalition], and we very much intend to continue to prosecute this mission against ISIS over the coming years,” the senior administration official said.
As the announcement of the transition of the coalition’s military mission in Iraq draws closer, one senior defense official said the U.S. will be “deepening the conversation” with Iraq regarding the nature of the bilateral security partnership.
“We believe [the talks] will be quite deep and quite intense because that’s what both sides want,” the official told reporters, adding that the Iraqis have made clear that they are committed to continuing to work to shape a strong bilateral security agreement with the U.S. and to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS.
“We already have gotten fairly advanced into those discussions about what that looks like in terms of the kinds of trainings, the kinds of presence [and] the kinds of support for [Iraq’s] capabilities,” the official said.
“But this is an iterative conversation that will continue through and beyond the announcement that we hope we’ll be in a position to make at the end of next week,” he added.
