Shafaq News-Washington
Iraq is workingtoward a bilateral military partnership with the United States following theconclusion of the Global Coalition's mission in September, the spokesman forthe Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Sabah al-Numan, told ShafaqNews on Tuesday.
In an interviewahead of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's meeting with US Defense Secretary PeteHegseth at the Pentagon, al-Numan told Shafaq News that the anticipated talkswill focus on the future of the Iraq-US military relationship post-Coalition,with Baghdad seeking a solid bilateral partnership covering training, armament,intelligence, and capacity-building for the Iraqi Armed Forces. A parallelmeeting between Iraqi and American defense ministry delegations is alsounderway, he said.
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On the Iraqigovernment's effort to bring all armed factions under state authority andWashington’s role in this regard, al-Numan stressed that "this is a purelyIraqi decision, based on the mandate of the Iraqi people, the will ofparliament, and the directives of the religious authority [Ayatollah Alial-Sistani]."
"Themechanisms for implementation were set by the Prime Minister. No external partyparticipates in drafting or managing them."
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Al-Numan addedthat the central committee, headed by the Deputy Commander of Joint Operations,with the Military Secretary as a member, is working under al-Zaidi's directsupervision to complete and finalize the file, and the coming days will seeadditional factions join official security institutions.
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