BAGHDAD: Iraq and the United States on Saturday held a “first round” of talks on the future of American and other foreign troops in the country, with Baghdad expecting discussions to lead to a timeline for reducing their presence.

The office of Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani issued a photograph of the head of government with top-ranking officials both of the Iraqi armed forces and of the international coalition set up by Washington to fight the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group. Sudani “is hosting the start of the first round of bilateral dialogue between Iraq and the US to end the mission of the international coalition in Iraq,” the office said in a statement. “The talks and whatever progress made will determine the length of these negotiations,” Sudani’s foreign affairs adviser, Farhad Alaaldin, told AFP.

“Iraq is engaging the other countries taking part in the international coalition for bilateral agreements that serves the best interest of Iraq and these countries.”

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh acknowledged that the US military footprint in Iraq “will certainly be part of the conversations as it goes forward”, indicating that Baghdad’s desire for a reduction in these forces is on the table. For Iraq’s foreign ministry, the aim would eventually lead to formulating “a specific and clear timeline... and to begin the gradual reduction of its (the coalition’s) advisers on Iraqi soil”.

The talks — which have been planned for months — come at a time of heightened tensions in Iraq and the region linked to the war by Zionist entity which has sparked a surge in attacks on American and other coalition forces. There have been more than 150 attacks targeting coalition troops since mid-October, many of them claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict. There are roughly 2,500 US troops deployed in Iraq and about 900 in Syria as part of the anti-IS coalition formed in 2014 - the year the jihadist group overran around a third of Iraq.

Meanwhile, China and the United States said on Saturday that top diplomat Wang Yi and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held “candid, substantive” talks in Thailand’s capital Bangkok, with the issue of Taiwan central after recent elections there. Beijing and Washington have clashed in recent years on flashpoint issues from technology and trade to human rights, as well as over the self-ruled island and competing claims in the South China Sea. Relations have somewhat stabilized since US President Joe Biden met Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November for talks that both sides described as a qualified success.

Wang and Sullivan “had candid, substantive and fruitful strategic communication on implementing the consensus reached at the San Francisco meeting... and on properly handling important and sensitive issues in China-US relations”, a statement on China’s foreign ministry website released Saturday evening said. The two sides will work to set up a call between Xi and Biden, the White House said in a statement released Saturday, as part of efforts to pursue “high-level diplomacy”. — AFP

were discussed. Beijing and Washington have clashed in recent years on flashpoint issues from technology and trade to human rights, as well as over the self-ruled island and competing claims in the South China Sea. — AFP