The State Department is planning to slash its expansive embassy in Iraq by half, The New York Times reported Thursday, further diminishing U.S. presence in Iraq after the military withdrew in December.

The size of the embassy was going to be 16,000 people, designed to give the U.S. a robust presence in Iraq even without U.S. troops there, but now Ambassador James Jeffrey is reconsidering the size of the embassy, according to the report.

ADVERTISEMENT

Embassy spokesman Michael McClellan said that “over the last year and continuing this year the Department of State and the Embassy in Baghdad have been considering ways to appropriately reduce the size of the U.S. mission in Iraq, primarily by decreasing the number of contractors needed to support the embassy’s operations.”

The size of the State Department’s presence at the U.S. embassy in Iraq, the largest in the world, was intended to maintain U.S. influence within the government of Iraq, as well as to counter outside influences like Iran.

Since the U.S. military left Iraq, some sectarian tensions have re-emerged between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Sunni opposition.

Life has become more difficult for diplomats in Baghdad since troops left in December, and the newly sovereign Iraqi government has interfered with things like visa approvals, according to published reports.



Last month, hundreds of private contractors were detained in Iraq over visa issues, prompting a U.S. trade group to ask for help from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonOvernight Defense: Government funding bill butts up against deadline | Pentagon reports eighth military COVID-19 death | Trump, Pentagon collide over anti-diversity training push Voters split on whether Trump, Biden will win first debate: poll New Monmouth poll finds Biden with 6-point lead MORE.

Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said the problem with the U.S. embassy was “with the contractors, with the security arrangements," according to reports.

