Pompeo meets Iraqi leaders in unannounced Baghdad visit

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has met top Iraqi leaders and American troops stationed in the country during an unannounced trip to Baghdad.

Pompeo met Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, President Barham Salih, Foreign Minister Mohamed Alhakim and Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

The US State Department did not immediately comment on reports of Pompeo’s visit to Iraq. 

“This is an opportunity to express our gratitude for the support we have received from the United States over the years. Certainly in the war against ISIS [also known as ISIL] this has been most crucial,” Salih told reporters on Tuesday.

He added that although the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had been defeated militarily, “there is a lot more to be done, the mission is yet to be accomplished”.

On Tuesday, Mahdi, the prime minister, had declined to confirm rumours of a possible visit by Pompeo, but said any meeting with the US secretary of state would involve a discussion of how to deepen Iraq’s relationship wiht the US-led coalition fighting ISIL.

For his part, Pompeo told a news conference in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Tuesday that the fight to defeat ISIL and Iran remained the most pressing issues in the region.

Countering Iranian influence

The meeting comes as Pompeo is taking part in an eight-country tour of the Middle East.

A major focus of the trip is sustaining a regional coalition to counter Iran, accused by Washington of sponsoring terrorism and the main enemy of US allies, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Pompeo is also expected to visit Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait.

Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, said Iran was likely to have been a topic of discussion at Wednesday’s meeting in Iraq.

“Top of the agenda for both the Americans and the Iraqis are two very different things. The first thing for the Iraqis will be clarification of the US role in the country itself,” he said.

“For the Americans, it’s very much about the Iranian role within Iraqi society, both politically and militarily. They’ll be seeking clarifications of what exactly Iran is up to here in Iraq.

“Iraq has a sanctions waiver to do business with Iran [and] the Americans have long criticised that. They’re the ones that gave [Iraq] the waiver, but they’ve been very critical of it as well,” Khan said. 

Confusion over Syria withdrawal

The tour comes also amid confusion over conflicting statements by US President Donald Trump and senior US officials about a planned troop withdrawal from Syria.

Last month, Trump made the surprise announcement that he will pull all 2,000 US troops from Syria, causing alarm among Washington’s allies in the region.

Trump has not said, however, that he intends to withdraw over 5,000 American troops stationed in Iraq.

He made a visit to the Al Asad Air Base outside Baghdad on December 26, where he met US troops.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies