News / Interviews

US deploying troops to Iraq to maintain presence in Mideast: Analyst

Friday, 11 January 2019 1:58 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 11 January 2019 2:02 PM ]

The file photo shows US soldiers gathering at a military base north of Mosul, Iraq. (Photo by Reuters)

The United States is deploying military forces to Iraq in order to maintain its presence in the Middle East after withdrawing troops from Syria, says an analyst.

The comments came after the United States military made a large troop deployment to military bases near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, causing outcry among the local population.

The deployment is said to have happened on the pretext of countering remaining Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

“First of all you have to take into account that all the projects, all the American plots have failed. Of course it is not logical to expect that the Americans will just raise the white flags and just give up everything in the region which is extremely important to them as for the protection of their entity –the Israeli entity – and also for all the resources in the region. So therefore I think they know that they are going to be forced to leave Syria so therefore they have started to look for some other options,” Mohammad Obaid told Press TV in an interview on Friday.

“So what we are seeing now is that the American forces are being politically and at the military level they know that they cannot stay for longer time in Syria, therefore they opted to go to Kirkuk, due to the Kurds it seems open-handed policy vis-à-vis them and also due to the importance of Kirkuk,” he added.

On Thursday, Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) were also deployed in Kirkuk.

The ISOF deployment was in response to rising tensions after the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) flag was illegally raised over a political party headquarters building, signaling unfounded Kurdish claims to the city.