A US soldier in Iraq (Photo: The Times of Israel)

Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, made his request in a phone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late on Thursday in line with a vote by Iraq's Parliament last week.

However, the US State Department said any US delegation would not discuss the withdrawal of US troops as their presence in Iraq was "appropriate". Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said there does, however, need to be a conversation between the US and Iraqi governments not just regarding security, but about their financial, economic, and diplomatic partnership.

There are some 5,200 US troops in Iraq. The Iraqi Parliament voted Sunday to obligate Iraq's government "to work towards ending the presence of all foreign troops on Iraqi soil”. The vote followed the US’s January 3 airstrike at Baghdad International Airport that killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Hashd al-Shaabi.