The US does not plan to withdraw its military contingent from Iraq, the US Assistant Secretary of Defense Jonathan Hoffman told the reporters on Saturday.
“At present, we have no plans to withdraw troops from Iraq”, – he said at a briefing at the department.
Hoffman added:
“We continue to talk with our Iraqi masters. We still want to be friends and partners of a sovereign and prosperous Iraq”.
He noted that “obvious” is the fact that US troops in Iraq are “good forces” and their presence in Iraq “allows NATO to also take part in the mission to combat ISIS (banned in Russia)”.
According to Hoffman, the Pentagon did not receive any instructions regarding the withdrawal of troops.
“Our hope and our goal now is for the US security forces to remain in the region to help ensure security and make Iraq a prosperous country”, – he said.