Iraq’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Mustala Al-Kadhimi, is expected to visit Washington next month for talks on the withdrawal of US troops, the Baghdad Post reported on Wednesday.
Al-Kadhimi’s visit will begin the second round of talks between the US and Iraq – which will be the first of their kind in more than a decade, according to Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in April that both countries planned to hold meetings starting in mid-June to discuss “the future presence of the United States forces in [the] country and how best to support an independent and sovereign Iraq.”
The first round of talks started earlier this month via an online conference, where an agreement was reached to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq in the coming months. US forces already began their withdrawn from several Iraqi bases in recent months.
The Iraqi economy will also be on the agenda during the second round to high-level talks.
The Iraqi government decided last week to scrap plans to announce its 2020 budgets and instead focus on formulating a budget for 2021.
