SENIOR LEADERS ENDORSE 3-MONTH EXTENSION OF TROOPS

S E C R E T ULAANBAATAR 000169 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2017 TAGS: MARR PREL PTER MG IZ PL SUBJECT: SENIOR LEADERS ENDORSE 3-MONTH EXTENSION OF TROOPS IN IRAQ REF: ULAANBAATAR 156 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Ambassador Mark C. Minton, for reasons 1.5(B) and (D). ¶1. (S) On March 13, Foreign Policy Advisor to the President Tsogtbaatar told Ambassador and ADCM that the National SIPDIS Security Council (the President, Speaker, and Prime Minister) had met on Friday, March 9, and recommended that the government decide to extend for three months Mongolia's 7th rotation of 100 soldiers in Iraq. The Cabinet would decide on the recommendation at its weekly meeting on March 14, he said. ¶2. (S) Tsogtbaatar noted that the 7th rotation had been scheduled to leave Iraq within days. The three-month extension would allow the government sufficient time to discuss an 8th rotation and to recruit and train it once a decision is made. Tsogtbaatar stated that the President would work to support an 8th rotation, but had felt it best to make the first decision be the three month extension of the troops now in Iraq. (Note: Defense Minister Sonompil is scheduled to leave Mongolia on March 16 and visit Mongolia's troops in Iraq on/about March 18 to convey the news of the 7th rotation's extension. The rotation, which arrived in Iraq in early October, was scheduled to depart Camp Echo on March 20.) MINTON