A new US military base in an Iraqi area floating on a sea of ​​oil and gas

[yota691]

A new US military base in an Iraqi area floating on a sea of oil and gas

 

May 25, 2023

Baghdad / Obelisk Al-Hadath: The American newspaper, The Cradle, revealed that the American army is seeking to build a second military base in Anbar Governorate, western Iraq.

According to a report translated by Al-Musalla, the US military chose the Jazira region to build its military bases because of the huge oil and gas fields there.

Informed Iraqi sources revealed earlier that the American forces are not planning to withdraw from Iraq and want to expand the Ain al-Assad base further.

American officials are looking to expand their military presence in Iraq, citing ISIS as a reason to stay in Iraq and northeastern Syria despite the fact that the group has been largely defeated.

The US military took control of Ain al-Assad in 2003 after invading Iraq, but withdrew its forces in 2011 when the Obama administration failed to secure a new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

However, US forces returned to the base under the pretense of training Iraqis to fight ISIS six months after the extremist group invaded and occupied Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in June 2014.

With ISIS threatening to take Ramadi in March 2015, American planners rejected Iraqi pleas to launch airstrikes on the group. They stated that preventing the fall of Ramadi was not a strategic priority, even though the largest city in Anbar is just over an hour's drive from Ain al-Asad.

The ISIS conquest of Mosul also provided Turkey with an excuse to establish new bases in Iraq. The Turkish army has established a base in the town of Bashiqa in northern Iraq.

Bashiqa is a Yazidi city in the Disputed Territories of Iraq, claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil.

And in 2011, the American oil company Exxon signed contracts with the Kurdistan Regional Government to exploit the oil fields in Bashiqa and other disputed areas, prompting Baghdad to claim that the contracts were illegal and would contribute to the fragmentation of the country by encouraging Kurdish independence efforts.

[Bama Girl]

America never planned on leaving Iraq due to maintaining security in the Middle East. You may love it or hate it but if we aren’t there, China and/or Russia will be. All Jmho. 

[screwball]

6 minutes ago, Bama Girl said:

America never planned on leaving Iraq due to maintaining security in the Middle East. You may love it or hate it but if we aren’t there, China and/or Russia will be. All Jmho. 

100% correct