BAGHDAD — Members of various religious minorities in Iraq say they are worried that a possible US troop withdrawal could negatively affect the future diversity of the country.

Yazidis and Christians said they are especially concerned. In the wake of the victory over the Islamic State (IS), Yazidi and Christian demands were a top priority for the Iraqi government and were often taken on by the international community and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. However, these demands no longer command the same level of public and official interest.

Representatives of minorities were unhappy with the Jan. 5 parliamentary vote for the United States to withdraw dismissed the opinions of minorities, including Sunnis and Kurds, seeing it as a Shiite monopolization of national decision-making.

These representatives say disputes between various powerful groups will likely mean that the minorities will see their territorial bases shrink, perhaps drastically; this may be particularly the case in Sinjar and the Ninevah Valley, where the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government are fighting for influence. There also is the matter of Turkish and Iranian interventions in Iraq. Meanwhile, the US-Iranian conflict is raging, much of it along the Iraqi-Syrian border, even though Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani was killed by a US drone at the Baghdad airport and US bases away from the border have been targeted.