MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2020) NATO will enhance its training mission in Iraq, taking over some of the activities previously carried out by the global coalition against the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia), the alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.
"Today, allied ministers reaffirmed our support to Iraq and agreed in principle to enhance NATO's training mission. In the first instance, this will consist of taking on some of the global coalition's current training activities. Ministers also agreed to explore what more we can do beyond this first step," Stoltenberg told reporters after a meeting of the alliance defense ministers.
"Let me be clear, NATO is in Iraq on the invitation of the Iraqi government and we will only stay in Iraq as long as we are welcome," the NATO chief continued.
The NATO chief added that the alliance was closely cooperating and consulting with the Iraqi government and the Global Coalition to combat terrorism in the middle Eastern country within the alliance's expanded mission.
"We are in close consultations with the Iraqi government on the possibility of expanding, scaling up, doing more [within the NATO mission in the country] ... And based on the decision today, we will then develop those options further," Stoltenberg said.
The head also noted that the mission's aim is to increase the capacity of the Iraqi armed forces so that they no longer required the alliance's support in fighting terrorism and ensure that IS would not come back.
"All allies, actually, supported the decision to do more [in Iraq], and also to take over some of the activities, which [are] today conducted by the US-led Global Coalition to defeat ISIS. And we are also, of course, closely coordinating and consulting with the Global Coalition," he said, adding that on Friday morning, he would meet with the coalition on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss the matter.
In early January, the Iraqi parliament voted to end foreign military presence after a US strike killed an Iraqi militia leader and the top Iranian commander in Baghdad. Washington has threatened with new sanctions on Iraq if the US forces are expelled. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that NATO should boost its presence in the Middle East.
Baghdad has since begun working on a new type of cooperation with the coalition to reduce its activities to consultations, arms deliveries and training as well as limit its freedom of movement on Iraqi soil. However, in late January, the Iraqi military announced that they had resumed joint anti-IS operations with the coalition and will continue them until a new cooperation agreement is struck.
