(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The US on Wednesday officially opened a new consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, that is said to be the largest US consulate building in the world.
The compound sits on 206,000 square meters, or about 50 acres, and cost about $800 million to build, and is a sign that the US is planning long-term involvement in Iraq. The country also hosts the largest US embassy in Baghdad, which sits on about 104 acres in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
“We have significant opportunities in the coming period to demonstrate the return on America’s investment in this new consulate by delivering tangible outcomes that make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous through a partnership that delivers value for our America First agenda,” Michael Rigas, US deputy secretary of state for Management and Resources, said at an opening ceremony, according to Rudaw.
The ceremony was also attended by Kurdistan officials, including the region’s president, Nechirvan Barzani, who said the consulate shows that the US is “committed to working with us in efforts toward peace and stability.”
The opening of the consulate comes after the US confirmed that it doesn’t plan to withdraw all of its troops from Iraq despite a deal with the Baghdad-based Iraqi government to end the mission of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition. The US is keeping troops at the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq and an airbase in Erbil, and a small number of military advisors will be based at the embassy in Baghdad.
The US has been pressuring Baghdad to disarm the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Shia militias that formed in 2014 to fight ISIS. US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack visited Iraq this week and reportedly warned that Israel was preparing to escalate in Lebanon and that if the Iraqi Shia militias did anything in response, Iraq would face Israeli attacks.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
