The document in question was an unsigned draft of a memo from the US Command in Baghdad notifying the Iraqi government that some US forces in the country would be repositioned.

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Al-Mahdi confirmed he received the letter that the US’ top general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, admitted on Monday was released “by mistake” and described as “poorly worded.”

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“Yesterday, we received the letter from the US Command that addressed the withdrawal. Four or five hours later, it was announced it was a mistake. The letter clearly indicates withdrawal from Iraq,” al-Mahdi said during his speech addressing the Iraqi cabinet on Tuesday.

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He added that they received the letter in English and Arabic, and that the two contradicted each other in parts.

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“When we told them the Arabic text is different from the English, they sent us another version that matched the English version,” al-Mahdi said.

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“This is not a paper that fell out of a photocopy machine or something that came by accident. They told us this is a draft but this is what [we] received. How do we act as a state?” al-Mahdi said.

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Since the letter’s publication, US officials have denied that their troops will withdraw from Iraq, while US President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied knowledge of the letter.

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“What was said yesterday, I didn’t know about. I really don’t know about it,” Trump said

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A White House official told CNN that Trump was “concerned” about the mistake and that he “wanted it cleaned up.”

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The letter caused a flurry of confusion on Monday, as military officials in Washington and Baghdad were initially unable to offer a definitive answer about the letter’s veracity or whether it indicated that US troops were, in fact, about to be moved out of Iraq.

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The letter’s existence was revealed after the Iraqi Parliament voted Sunday to work towards removing all foreign troops from the country, following a fatal US drone strike on Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani on Iraqi soil that dramatically escalated tensions between Baghdad and Washington.

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US Defense Secretary Mark Esper would not say directly whether US forces would leave if asked to by the Iraqi government, instead telling reporters Tuesday that he believed most Iraqis wanted a continued US presence.

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When asked whether the US would withdraw at the request of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Esper highlighted the “strategic importance” of the US-Iraqi partnership.

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“So we’ll take all those one step at a time,” he said. “There’s a few procedural mechanisms, hurdles if you will, that the Iraqi government would need to go through. We remain in constant contact with them on that.”

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