Despite the U.S. government saying a letter describing plans for a mass troop withdrawal was a premature draft, Iraq's prime minister says he has received the missive and will hold the Pentagon to it.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper insisted Tuesday during a press briefing that 'our policy has not changed. We are not leaving Iraq.'

The letter described 'repositioning' of U.S. troops and a plan to shift forces 'out of Iraq.' Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Monday that it should not have been released.

But an unnamed senior Iraqi official told The Washington Post that Milley's statement mattered little to Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

'We don't deal with statements in the media,' the official told the newspaper. 'As a state, we deal with the official letters that we receive, and we will act in accordance with this letter.'

At the White House, President Donald Trump said he's open to a troop pullout, but not now. ' At some point we want to get out, but this isnt the right point,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He added that a mass evacuation would be 'the worst thing that could happen to Iraq' with an aggressive Iran on its doorstep.

'If we leave that would mean that Iran would have a much bigger foothold, and the people in Iraq do not want to see Iran running the country,' Trump added.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, pictured Monday in Baghdad, expects the United States to provide a timetable for withdrawing all American troops from his country, following receipt of an unsigned message on Pentagon letterhead that the Trump administration says was a draft that should never had been sent

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told the press on Tuesday that 'there is no signed letter, to the best of my knowledge,' and 'we are not leaving Iraq'

Some 5,200 U.S. soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of ISIS; they could all be pulled out if the White House decides to

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that while he's open to withdrawing the U.S> military from Iraq, it's not the right time to do it

Esper leaned on Milley's explanation, emphasizing Tuesday at the Pentagon that Monday's message was 'a draft, unsigned letter' and said 'there is no signed letter, to the best of my knowledge.'

He added that 'there may be people trying to create confusion.'

Iraq is now expected to ask the Pentagon for a withdrawal timetable. The nation's parliament voted Sunday to ask Abdul-Mahdi to evict American forces, which are training Iraq's military to fight the ISIS terror army.

Multiple media accounts of Monday's letter kerfuffle describe the Operation Inherent Resolve joint task force command center sending the English-language message on Defense Department letterhead, along with an Arabic translation.

But Abdul-Mahdi said during a televised Cabinet meeting that his office sent the Arabic version back for revisions because it didn't match the English precisely.

He also said that if Monday's letter was sent in error, the Pentagon should send another one to clarify its position in writing.

The issue of America's role in Iraq suddenly jumped to the global front-burner late last week after President Donald Trump ordered a drone attack on Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Iraqi soil.

Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of more than 600 U.S. servicemen and women, and was the subject of UN restrictions that should have prohibited his travel outside Iran.

The Pentagon said on Monday that this letter, informing an Iraqi military leader the the U.S. and other coalition forces are pulling up stakes, was a draft and should never have been sent

Despite the Pentagon's insistence, a copy of the letter emerged overnight that was translated into Arabic—suggesting its language was final; but Abdul-Mahdi's office sent back the Arabic version because the two didn't match precisely

Esper told the press on Monday that there was no plan to withdraw U.S. forces. Milley said the letter was 'a draft' that 'should not have been released.'

But the existence of a translation on Defense Department letterhead suggests the missive's wording was considered final.

Before Esper and Milley addressed reporters in off-camera gaggles, an aide in the Pentagon's policy office responded to questions from the House Armed Services Committee with a message: The letter was phony propaganda.

Annie Dreazen wrote in an email that Operation Inherent Resolve, the ISIS-fighting coalition, 'has confirmed with us at the working level that this is active disinformation.' The Defense Department is 'fairly certain that this is a fake,' Dreazen added, according to a right-leaning newsletter called The Dispatch.

Esper spoke to journalists 20 minutes later.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told reporters on Monday that the letter was only a draft that should never have been released; Milley is pictured last week at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort; Iraq's prime minister appears to prefer the errant message in writing

'There's been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq, period,' Esper said, adding that he and his staff were 'trying to figure out' the meaning of a letter signed by a brigadier general that suggested the opposite.

'There are no plans to leave,' he emphasized, suggesting discussion of a massive troop movement could be merely a signal that forces are being repositioned inside Iraq's borders.

Milley followed. The draft was 'poorly worded' and 'implies withdrawal. That is not what’s happening,' he declared.

Pentagon policy aide Annie Dreazen reportedly told a congressional committee on Monday that the military believed the letter was a fake

The U.S. had appeared to inform Baghdad that it was preparing for 'movement out of Iraq,' a day after the Iraqi parliament urged the government in a non-binding resolution to oust foreign troops.

The head of the Pentagon task force in Iraq, Brigadier General William Seely, appeared to have sent the letter to the head of Iraq's joint operations command.

'Sir, in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, and as requested by the Iraqi Parliament and the Prime Minister, [the coalition] will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement,' the letter from Seely said. He added: 'We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure.'

President Donald Trump said Sunday aboard Air Force One that troops would not leave Iraq unless the country compensated the U.S. for the costs associated with building and maintaining military facilities there.

'We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that's there. It cost billions of dollars to build. Long before my time,' he said. 'We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it.'

Trump also said he would punish Baghdad economically if U.S. troops were evicted.

'We will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before ever. It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame,' he warned.

Yet Iraqi premier Adel Abdel Mahdi met with the U.S. Ambassador Matthew Tueller on Monday, telling him it was 'necessary to work together to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq.'

A Pentagon official said Monday evening he was not surprised Seely was working on a draft of the letter that was released prematurely.

The official explained that military commanders who are stationed inside foreign countries routinely inform their host nations about troop movements.

Trump said Sunday that he would only withdraw troops if Iraq paid the U.S. for building and maintaining the main air base the coalition uses

Iran is considering its options against America in retaliation for the killing of Quds commander Qassem Soleimeni in Baghdad. The conflict could quickly spiral out of control, dragging in other world powers including Russia, Turkey and China

Seely's letter, he said, was likely part of a contingency plan initiated when the Defense Department first contemplated the possibility of a troop pullout.

The president ordered a withdrawal from Syria in October with little notice, catching commanders in the field by surprise.

The Pentagon source said that experience has weighed on some generals' minds and informed their decisions about executing practical tasks, like notifying local officials about near-term plans, that go along with tactical movements in the field.

Seely's letter was designed mainly to alert Iraqi commanders about nighttime helicopter flights that would ferry Marines and soldiersout of Baghdad in the event the White House were to order a mass evacuation.

On Sunday, Iraq's parliament voted in favor of the Baghdad government rescinding its permission for all foreign troops to remain in the country.

That came in reaction to a U.S. precision drone strike on Baghdad that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, among others.

The resulting chaos has made some in Iraq fear a new civil war, and drew millions to crowd streets in Tehran to see Soleimani's coffin paraded through the city.

Key figure: The letter from the Marine general in charge of coalition forces fighting ISIS and training the Iraqi army comes after the drone strike which killed Iran's Qassem Soleimani, its most senior commander who the U.S. designated a terrorist

And tensions betweeen Washington and Tehran aren't going away: The U.S. will send six B-52 bombers to the Diego Garcia air base on an island in the Indian Ocean, accordign to CNN, to prepare for the possibility of military action against Iran.

Gen. Seely wrote on Monday in order to reposition thousands of troops elsewhere, 'Coalition Forces are required to take certain measures to ensure that the movement out of Iraq is conducted in a safe and efficient manner.'

Some 5,200 U.S. soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of the ISIS terror group.

They make up the bulk of the broader coalition, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help combat the jihadists.

Soleimani's death has galvanized Iranians around revenge for the 'martyr'; Hundreds of thousands crowded into Tehran streets to see his coffin on Monday