Iraqi Parliament Votes to End Foreign Military Presence

The Iraqi Parliament held an extraordinary session on Sunday, voting unanimously to end the presence of all foreign troops in the country.

During the session, the Iraqi lawmakers also voted to terminate the agreement signed with the US regarding fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS).

Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi attended the parliamentary session. He has previously called on the parliament to pass legislation demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country

The Premier also mentioned that Iraq-American relations did not suffer despite the non-presence of foreign troops in the country during the period between 2011 and 2014.

The approval of the Iraqi parliament has coincided with the announcement by the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS to suspend training drills with Iraqi forces and combat against the terrorist organization, due to the repeated rocket attacks on bases housing US forces.

"Our top priority is to protect all coalition soldiers committed to the mission of defeating ISIS, but the repeated missile attacks waged over the past two months by members of the Iraqi terrorist Kataib Hezbollah and others have left many deaths among the forces in both countries,” the coalition added.

He added that there are two options available regarding the withdrawal of US-led coalition troops. The first would see their immediate and complete withdrawal, the second would order foreign military personnel to leave gradually.