Mike Pompeo’s unannounced visit came as the Trump administration is intensifying its pressure campaign against Iran
BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a lightning visit to Baghdad on Tuesday to show U.S. support for the Iraqi government as Washington steps up warnings to Iran against any action against American interests in the Middle East.Story Continued Below
On the way to Baghdad on Tuesday, Pompeo told reporters he would meet with Iraq’s president and prime minister to show them what he said is U.S. support for “a sovereign, independent” Iraq, free from the influence of neighboring Iran. He said he would also discuss with them unfinished business deals that he said would allow Iraq to wean itself from dependence on Iranian energy.
The “campaign to continue to prevent ISIS terror inside of Iraq itself is something that’s very central ... to the Iraqi government,” Pompeo said. But Iraq is also tightly enmeshed with Iran in trade, security and political matters, and it has been loath to antagonize its larger neighbor. Iran won the ear of many top Iraqi politicians after it stepped in to fill the political vacuum following the 2003 U.S. invasion. It also can count on the loyalty of several powerful Iraqi militias, which have fought previously against U.S. forces in the country and on the side of Iran’s allies in Syria in that country’s civil war.
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