Iraq says US troops leaving Syria can't redeploy there and have to leave in 4 weeks, a fresh embarrassment in Trump's botched withdrawal

Hadi Mizban/AP

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari outside Iraq's defense ministry in Baghdad on Wednesday.

• One thousand American troops are leaving northeast Syria after President Donald Trump decided to pull them out earlier this month.
• Earlier this week US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said they would be redeployed to Iraq, where they could keep an eye on oil fields and monitor ISIS activity. Hours later, Iraq said they were not allowed to.
• In an emergency meeting on Wednesday, Esper and Iraq's defense minister agreed to allow the US troops to stay in Iraq for four weeks before going elsewhere, the Associated Press reported.
• It was not clear where the troops would go next.
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The 1,000 US troops leaving Syria will be allowed to stay in Iraq for at most four weeks, Iraq's defense minister said Wednesday, in an embarrassing rebuff to President Donald Trump's plans for withdrawing from Syria.

Najah al-Shammari's comments to the Associated Press (AP) came shortly after his meeting with US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who went to Baghdad to negotiate the redeployment of US troops in Iraq after they withdrew from Syria.

The emergency meeting came after Esper announced on Monday that the American troops would be stationed along the Iraq-Syria border.

The announcement was seemingly made without bringing Iraq on board first, as the Iraqi government said hours later that the US had not secured permission to do so.

Esper said at the time that US troops would help secure oil fields and monitor ISIS activity from Iraq.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the US has already defeated ISIS, but the militant group killed two members of the Iraqi security forces and attacked an oil field in the country just this week.

Read more: Trump's plans for pulling out of Syria were embarrassingly disrupted by Iraq, which said the US isn't allowed to redeploy on its soil

Hadi Mizban/AP

Esper (left) and al-Shammari (right) at their meeting in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Al-Shammari said Wednesday that he and Esper agreed that American troops leaving Syria would simply be "transiting" through Iraq before moving on to Kuwait, Qatar, or home to the US, the AP reported.

Al-Shammari added that this transition would take place "within a time frame not exceeding four weeks," as cited by the AP.

It was not clear where the troops would be deployed next. The US Department of Defense has not yet responded to Business Insider's request for confirmation on Esper and al-Shammari's discussions.

AP

A US military convoy leaving Syria near the town of Tel Tamr, on October 20, 2019.

Trump has said that one of his reasons to withdraw from northeastern Syria is to end "forever wars" in the Middle East, and bring troops home. Deploying them to Iraq would not have fulfilled this pledge.

Earlier on Wednesday Esper said that the US has no plans to leave troops in Iraq "interminably," the AP reported. He has also met with the country's prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi.

The US currently has more than 5,000 troops in Iraq, but has attempted to kept the numbers low due to political sensitivities after the US occupation during the 2003 war, the AP reported.

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

President Donald Trump speaks at a hangar rally at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, in December 2018.

Esper's meetings in Iraq come a day after Turkey and Syria struck a deal to expand their control and minimize Kurdish territory in northeastern Syria. Russian troops entered northern Syria on Wednesday to partner with Turkey.

It came after Turkish troops entered the region to drive out Kurdish forces, with whom the US had partnered to drive out ISIS militants in the region.

Read more: Putin and Erdogan agreed a 'historic' deal to consolidate power in Syria and humble Kurdish forces. Here are the winners and losers.

The Turkish incursion was greenlit by Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from northeastern Syria earlier this month.

US troops are making an humiliating exit from Syria, with videos showing their tanks being pelted with rocks and rotten fruit.