Pentagon

PM Abadi wants to reduce U.S.-led Coalition forces in Iraq

Published on 7 Febbraio 2018 in MIDLE EAST/POLITICS by Press Release

During a weekly press briefing held in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has unveiled a governmental plan to gradually reduce the number of forces of the international coalition working under the U.S.-led Coalition in Iraq. Although Iraq still needs the air force of the coalition, Saeed al-Jayyashi, security adviser to the Iraqi government, said that a security commission will be developed to rearrange the international coalition’s mission in Iraq from combat duties to the training and improvement of Iraqi security services. After the Iraqi announcement, Eric Pahon spokesman of the Pentagon said that U.S. troops were only shifting mission from combat to training, without plans for a sharp drawdown of troops. In related news, two Iranian-backed Shiite groups in Iraq have urged total withdrawal of U.S. forces in the country, while Badr organization, one of the biggest armed factions that is close to the government, stressed how the presence of U.S. troops in the country will be a source of instability. The Pentagon had said in December it was keeping nearly 5000 troops in Iraq.

Russian lawmakers blast Pentagon’s latest statement on Syria as ‘lies and lack of principles’

Published on 6 Dicembre 2017 in ASIA/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by pressrelease

Senior Russian MPs have described an allegation by the Pentagon that Moscow and Damascus showed insufficient commitment to defeating IS terrorists as snobbery and lies, designed to cover up US failure to depose the lawful Syrian government. “The statement is nothing new, the same typical snobbery. Even with total resistance from the US special services, those who know how much Russia and the Syrian military forces have done, how many lives were lost, simply cannot say that Russia has done nothing,” Senator Frants Klintsevich, deputy head of the Upper House Committee for Defense and Security, told RBC in response to remarks by Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon. “Nothing is sacred to these people. Now leading news agencies around the world that are being managed by them will tell us that they are the greatest. And we will disprove this”, Klintsevich added. “I think that, in the nearest future, the Americans will face a great disappointment. They have installed so many time bombs for themselves”.

Pentagon chief backs Tillerson’s North Korea diplomatic strategy after Trump tweet undermined it

Published on 5 Ottobre 2017 in ASIA/FAR EAST/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by pressrelease

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis has tried to clear up doubts about the US administration’s North Korea strategy, backing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s effort to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear stand-off. Defence Secretary Mattis was speaking two days after US President Donald Trump appeared to undermine his top diplomat by saying Tillerson was “wasting his time” by maintaining contacts with Kim Jong-un’s regime. State Department officials insist Trump was not criticising Tillerson, but pressuring North to agree to discuss its disarmament while a diplomatic option remains on the table. Jim Mattis said: “The Defence Department supports fully Secretary Tillerson’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution but remains focused on defence of the United States and our allies”. Tillerson has explained the strategy as one of using United Nations and US sanctions and diplomatic pressure to convince Kim of his isolation and force him to negotiate nuclear disarmament. Trump wrote: “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man”.

US deploys troops, arms near Turkish border to protect Barzani

Published on 2 Ottobre 2017 in MIDLE EAST/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by pressrelease

The Pentagon, having raised U.S. flags to protect the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD) terrorists from Turkish troops advancing toward Manbij during the Euphrates Shield Operation, is now preparing for a similar project of protection for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani. The United States intensified its preparation against a possible Turkey-Iraq joint military operation targeting the area occupied by Barzani, who held an illegitimate referendum on Sept. 25. An Iraqi retired general, evaluating the U.S. build-up in Northern Iraq, said such a large shipment could only be interpreted as the preparation for a regional war. “The United States, having armed the PYD in Syria for two and a half years, will deploy its own troops near the Turkish and Iranian borders in Iraq”. he said, adding that the U.S. attributes special importance to Kirkuk. Noting that the United States sent troops to Iraq in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh although it had decided to withdraw in 2011, the general stated the number of U.S. soldiers, which was around 3,700 in February, is now more than 10,000 following the recent shipments.

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