The Pentagon is hosting the 2024 U.S. Iraq Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue on July 22-23, which will also include Kurdish peshmerga forces.

“The Iraqi delegation will include participants from Iraq’s Ministry of Defense and armed forces, counterterrorism service, and the Kurdish peshmerga,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on July 22.

Maj. Gen. Ryder also added that the dialogue builds upon the work of the higher military commission and discussions held during Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani’s April 2024 visit to Washington, D.C., “during which President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Sudani affirmed they would review factors to determine when and how the mission of the global coalition in Iraq would end and transition in an orderly manner.”

“The threat from ISIS and its ideology has evolved over the past decade, yet ISIS continues to plot attacks from the region and through its global affiliates,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III said during the meeting.

“We must adapt the mission of Operation Inherent Resolve to meet this changing threat.”

Unlike the federal government in Baghdad, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has advocated for U.S. troops to stay.

KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani told the NBC in February that the Kurdistan Region needs economic, military, and political support because the “challenges that we face today are different from the ones we faced together against ISIS. So I think for this period of time, we expect more support from the United States

“The presence of Americans of some sort – and the U.S. would also agree – is necessary.”

Reuters reported on July 23, that Iraq wants troops from the U.S.-led military coalition to begin withdrawing in September and to formally end the coalition’s work by September 2025.

The U.S.-led coalition currently has troops stationed in Baghdad, Erbil, and Anbar.

Some experts say that Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani aims to end the U.S.-led coalition’s mission before Iraqi parliamentary elections are held on an unspecified date in 2025.

Mohammed Salih, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Kurdistan Chronicle that Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani is publicly pushing for the withdrawal of coalition troops, “but Iraq still relies on the coalition for critical support in confronting ISIS, particularly at a time when the group is resurging.”

“Anything that happens should come out of a mutually agreed-upon deal. Prime Minister Sudani’s government understands that very well. Iraq cannot force the U.S. or the coalition out of the country unilaterally. The consequences will be simply too severe both militarily and economically, as well as for Iraq’s regional standing and role.”