That’s unknown territory for the U.S.-Iraq relationship, and it could be interpreted as an act of aggression under international law. The principle of seeking a country’s permission to keep troops in its territory is about as fundamental as you get in international law. There was no formal agreement this time, but Maliki’s successor, Haider al-Abadi, provided assurances that U.S. troops would enjoy immunity. U.S. troops in Iraq are mainly operating on Iraqi bases, training Iraqi forces. So if Mahdi is serious, he would need to evict those troops and cancel that training.

Source: The Local January 10, 2020 18:05 UTC