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US Dismisses Iraq Request to Work on a Troop Withdrawal Plan

The US rejects Iraq’s request to work on a troop withdrawal plan. (Reuters)
The US rejects Iraq’s request to work on a troop withdrawal plan. (Reuters)
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US Dismisses Iraq Request to Work on a Troop Withdrawal Plan

The US rejects Iraq’s request to work on a troop withdrawal plan. (Reuters)
The US rejects Iraq’s request to work on a troop withdrawal plan. (Reuters)

Iraq's caretaker prime minister asked Washington to start working out a roadmap for an American troop withdrawal, but the US State Department on Friday flatly rejected the request, saying the two sides should instead talk about how to “recommit” to their partnership.

The US State Department said the presence of US troops was crucial for the fight against the ISIS group and it would not discuss removing them.

“Any delegation sent to Iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to best recommit to our strategic partnership — not to discuss troop withdrawal, but our right, appropriate force posture in the Middle East,” said spokesperson Morgan Ortagus.

"America is a force for good in the Middle East," she said in a statement. "We want to be a friend and partner to a sovereign, prosperous and stable Iraq.”

Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in the capital and southern Iraq, many calling on both Iran and America to leave Iraq, reflecting anger and frustration over the two rivals trading blows on Iraqi soil.

The request from Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi pointed to his determination to push ahead with demands for US troops to leave Iraq, stoked by the American drone strike on Jan. 3 that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

In a phone call Thursday night, he told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that recent US strikes in Iraq were an unacceptable breach of Iraqi sovereignty and a violation of their security agreements, his office said.

He asked Pompeo to “send delegates to Iraq to prepare a mechanism" to carry out the Iraqi parliament’s resolution on withdrawing foreign troops, according to the statement.

“The prime minister said American forces had entered Iraq and drones are flying in its airspace without permission from Iraqi authorities, and this was a violation of the bilateral agreements,” the statement added.

Abdul Mahdi signaled he was standing by the push for the American forces to go despite recent signs of de-escalation between Tehran and Washington after Iran retaliated for Soleimani's death with a barrage of missiles that hit two Iraqi bases where US troops are based but caused no casualties.

Iraqis have felt furious and helpless at being caught in the middle of fighting between Baghdad's two closest allies. Abdul Mahdi has said he rejects all violations of Iraqi sovereignty, including both the Iranian and US strikes.

Iraqi lawmakers passed a resolution Sunday to oust US troops, following the Jan. 3 US drone strike that killed Soleimani and senior Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad's airport. The nonbinding vote put the responsibility on the government to formally request a withdrawal.

Speaking to Pompeo, Abdul Mahdi stopped short of requesting an immediate withdrawal and appeared to give the US time to draw up a strategy and timeline for departure.

In its initial readout of the call, the State Department made no mention of Abdul Mahdi's request on the troops. It said Pompeo initiated the call and reiterated the US condemnation of the Iranian missile strikes on the two bases, underscoring that President Donald Trump "has said the United States will do whatever it takes to protect the American and Iraqi people and defend our collective interests.”

There are some 5,200 US troops in Iraq assisting and providing training to Iraqi security counterparts to fight the ISIS group. An American pullout could deeply set back efforts to crush remnants of the group amid concerns of a resurgence amid the political turmoil.

Top American military officials including Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have said there were no plans for the US to withdraw.

Ortagus also said the State Department was in talks with NATO to increase its role in Iraq. Trump has invited NATO to play a larger role in the Middle East.

“Today, a NATO delegation is at the State Department to discuss increasing NATO’s role in Iraq, in line with the president’s desire for burden sharing in all of our collective defense efforts,” the statement said. “There does, however, need to be a conversation between the US and Iraqi governments not just regarding security, but about our financial, economic, and diplomatic partnership.”

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Arab World

Qassem’s Call to Topple Lebanon's Govt Exposes Differences with Berri

President Joseph Aoun chairs a cabinet meeting at the Baabda palace. (Lebanese Presidency file)
President Joseph Aoun chairs a cabinet meeting at the Baabda palace. (Lebanese Presidency file)
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Qassem’s Call to Topple Lebanon's Govt Exposes Differences with Berri

President Joseph Aoun chairs a cabinet meeting at the Baabda palace. (Lebanese Presidency file)
President Joseph Aoun chairs a cabinet meeting at the Baabda palace. (Lebanese Presidency file)

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem’s call to topple the Lebanese government was not only rejected by the group’s political opponents, but also appeared out of step with the position of its main ally, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who along with Hezbollah has ministers in government.

While Qassem escalated his attack on the negotiations the Lebanese state is conducting with Israel and called on the street to bring down the government, the positions of Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc appeared closer to containing the escalation and stressing the priority of preserving institutions and internal stability.

In the absence of any practical signs that Hezbollah intends to move toward executive steps, such as the resignation of its ministers or an actual push to topple the government, Qassem’s remarks appeared closer to raising the political ceiling and maintaining media and popular pressure against the negotiations.

Qassem had called on Sunday evening for “toppling the government that is implementing the American Israeli project,” saying “the people have the right to take to the streets and topple the government and the American Israeli project.”

“There is no political sovereignty in Lebanon; it is subject to American tutelage,” he alleged.

He renewed his attack on the direct negotiations the Lebanese state is conducting with Israel, saying “they are rejected and a net gain for Israel,” and calling on the Lebanese authorities to abandon the talks and “not give America what it is asking for.”

Divergence within the Shiite duo

Ministerial sources close to the Lebanese presidency said Qassem’s remarks were merely “part of Hezbollah’s escalation and continuing attack on the negotiations, something that has not received a positive response, not only among Hezbollah’s opponents, but also among its allies.”

Hezbollah and Berri’s Amal movement are allies, commonly known as the Shiite duo.

“If Hezbollah wants to overthrow the government in which it is represented, it should first start by withdrawing its ministers from it, which it will not do under the current circumstances,” the sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

MP Qassem Hashem, a member of Berri’s bloc, said Qassem’s call to topple the government “is nothing more and nothing less than an opinion.”

Hashem said in a radio interview that “more work must be done to unify the internal position and confront challenges in order to preserve common ground among the Lebanese, and this is Speaker Nabih Berri’s position.”

He ruled out any possibility that Hezbollah would withdraw its ministers, saying “the situation does not allow that.” He stressed “the need to preserve all institutions, especially as the government withstood the most difficult circumstances.”

President Joseph Aoun had issued a statement marking Liberation Day on Monday, hours after Qassem’s comments, in which he said that “Lebanon will not accept this reality and will not make peace with it. The path toward full Israeli withdrawal will remain a firm national demand that cannot be abandoned.”

He added that the Lebanese state was working to achieve this “through the option of negotiation, which will not be a concession or surrender, but an affirmation of Lebanon’s exclusive right to protect its land and sovereignty and extend its authority through its army and legitimate security forces.”

“The army will remain the sole guarantor of national security and territorial integrity,” he declared.

Rejection of Qassem’s attack

Aoun’s positions and the government’s decisions continue to receive broad support in Lebanon.

On the centenary of the Lebanese Constitution, the Kataeb Party stressed “the need to uphold its authority as the national pact among the Lebanese and the fundamental guarantee for the establishment of the state and the protection of freedoms.”

The Kataeb placed Qassem’s remarks “within the context of Iran’s insistence on undermining the independence of Lebanese decision-making,” saying that “if he objects to the government’s performance and decisions, it would be more appropriate for him to withdraw his ministers from it instead of resorting to fueling strife.”

It stressed the need to continue the direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations and implement the Lebanese government’s decisions independently of any negotiations underway in the region, with the aim of securing a ceasefire, ensuring Israeli withdrawal, releasing prisoners, enabling the return of the displaced, reconstruction and the demarcation of the land border.

The Kataeb also called on Lebanon’s friends among Arab countries and Western countries to support the government in this effort and back the army as it implements the government’s decisions.

MP Ghada Ayoub, of the Lebanese Forces bloc. Said: “Qassem’s remarks are misplaced. Hezbollah is participating in the government, and if it has an objection to it or to the negotiations taking place in the United States, it should have taken the initiative to withdraw its ministers from the government first before targeting it.”

“I believe Qassem’s remarks are a threat that reveals Hezbollah’s plan to turn inward if the results of the negotiations are not in its favor,” she said in a radio interview, pointing to “confusion in the party’s position.”

Arab World

Palestinians Say Israeli Forces Kill Man in Jenin Refugee Camp

Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
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Palestinians Say Israeli Forces Kill Man in Jenin Refugee Camp

Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man inside the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday.

"A citizen... was killed by Israeli fire in the Jenin camp, and ambulance crews transported his body to Jenin Government Hospital," the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement, without specifying when he was killed.

Contacted by AFP, Israel's military said it was "checking" reports of the man's killing.

The director of Jenin's Government Hospital, Wissam Baker, identified the victim as Nasser al-Saadi, noting that "he arrived dead at the hospital after being shot in the thigh".

"It appears he bled heavily after being injured before an ambulance was called to transport him to the hospital," Baker told AFP.

The Palestinian Red Crescent had earlier announced that Israeli forces handed over the body of a 30-year-old from inside the Jenin refugee camp, which is adjacent to the city of Jenin.

Israeli forces have occupied and barred access to the Jenin refugee camp since January 2025, when they launched a wide-ranging operation aimed at uprooting Palestinian armed groups from the West Bank's densely populated refugee camps.

The operation has caused the displacement of nearly 40,000 people from the camps, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

At least 1,073 Palestinians, including several armed fighters, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the outbreak of the Gaza war following Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Authority data.

On the other hand, official Israeli data shows at least 46 Israelis -- civilians and soldiers -- have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.

Arab World

Israel Issues Expropriation Order for West Bank Religious Site

Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Issues Expropriation Order for West Bank Religious Site

Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers keep watch during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 23, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel has issued an expropriation order for land in the occupied West Bank near the site of a Biblical prophet's grave north of Jerusalem, an Israeli NGO reported Tuesday.

The site, known as Nabi Samuel, is believed in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim tradition to include the grave of the Biblical figure of prophet Samuel, and includes a mosque owned by Palestinian religious authorities, the Waqf.

"This marks the first time that the (Israeli) Civil Administration has expropriated a holy site owned by the Muslim Waqf in the occupied West Bank," Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a statement.

According to the Israeli order, dated May 9 but published this week, the area for expropriation will include 109.79 dunams (roughly 11 hectares), including access roads, agricultural land, and a mosque.

The order says the decision was made "for the development and preservation of the archaeological site of the Tomb of the Prophet Samuel".

A source in COGAT, the Israel defense ministry body in charge of civilian matters in the Palestinian territories, said the decision was made "following the refusal of Waqf officials to cooperate with the procedures required for the renovation of the tomb compound".

The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs issued a "strong condemnation" of the expropriation order for Nabi Samuel.

"This confiscation is part of a policy aimed at suffocating the mosque and completely isolating it from its Palestinian surroundings, turning it into a Jewish archaeological site by force of arms," the ministry said in a statement.

Peace Now's Yonatan Mizrahi pointed out that Israeli authorities had already taken over administration of much of the land by converting it into an Israeli national park in the 1990s, decades after demolishing a Palestinian village on the site.

"There was no need to decide about the expropriation of the land," Mizrahi told AFP, while Peace Now denounced "the messianic agenda of the Israeli government".

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

In 2025, Israel expropriated an area in the center of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, arguing the order concerned an open area intended for roofing works and not a religious structure.