U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unscheduled visit to Baghdad Tuesday and met with the Iraqi prime minister and other senior officials after voicing U.S. concern about Iraqi sovereignty because of increasing Iranian activity in the area, Reuters reported.
The visit occurs two days after U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton announced the U.S. was deploying the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group and a bomber task force because of a “credible threat by Iranian regime forces,” the report said.
In recent months, Washington has ratcheted up sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program as well as listing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, Reuters reported.
Pompeo, speaking to reporters en route to Baghdad to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, said: “I wanted to go to Baghdad to speak with the leadership there, to assure them that we stood ready to continue to ensure that Iraq is a sovereign, independent nation.”
Asked if there was a threat to Abdul Mahdi’s government from Iran, which has raised U.S. concerns about Iraqi sovereignty, Pompeo said, “No, no, generally this has been our position since the national security strategy came out in the beginning of the Trump administration,” the report said.
An Iraqi government source confirmed the meeting with Abdul Mahdi to Reuters but did not elaborate on the details.
Speaking with reporters ahead of his meeting with the Iraqi leaders, Pompeo also said he would have an opportunity to discuss pending accords with Iraqi officials, including “big energy deals that can disconnect them from Iranian energy,” the report said.
“I will obviously talk about the security situation there, and the forces that we have in Iraq as well, ensure that we continue to support the Iraqi security forces, the ISF, and can train them, professionalize them, so that the new leadership there in Iraq can have security control inside of the country,” Reuters quoted Pompeo saying.
The visit to Iraq came after Pompeo canceled a planned visit to Berlin, citing “international security issues.”
– WN.com, Jack Durschlag
Photo:
AP / Virginia Mayo
