Pompeo meets with Iraqi leaders during unannounced stop in Baghdad - The Washington Post

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Wednesday, meeting with the Iraqi prime minister, Kurdish officials and other leaders in a bid to demonstrate the United States’ support for a key ally. 

Pompeo’s visit is part of a Middle East tour in which the secretary is seeking to reassure U.S. partners in the region following President Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw troops from Syria. His stop in Baghdad came amid speculation among Iraqi officials that the White House will also begin to draw down the 5,200 American forces based in Iraq in view of the military defeat of the Islamic State in late 2017.

Pompeo said he discussed Trump’s decision on Syria with the Iraqi leaders but that the focus of the meetings was on strengthening Iraq’s government to prevent an Islamic State resurgence and to beat back Iran’s significant influence in the country.

There was “a common understanding that the battle against Daesh, to counter Daesh, and the fight to counter Iran, is real and important,” he said, using an Arabic term for the Islamic State, after leaving Baghdad and arriving in the capital of the Iraqi Kurdish region, Irbil.

American officials have scrambled to contain the fallout from Trump’s sudden order that U.S. troops leave Syria. Pompeo’s tour began in Jordan on Tuesday and will continue in Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman.

The secretary’s stop in Iraq comes two weeks after Trump made a surprise visit to American troops based in western Iraq the day after Christmas. That hastily planned trip was criticized by many Iraqis for its failure to include a meeting with the country’s leadership.

Trump’s visit, which both supporters and opponents of the U.S. presence in Iraq criticized as undermining Iraq’s sovereignty, provoked renewed calls by several lawmakers for American forces to leave.

Many of those lawmakers are part of a bloc in parliament that sees Iran as its primary regional partner.

Pompeo met with Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, President Barham Salih, parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi and Foreign Minister Mohamed al-Hakim in Baghdad, expressing his support for their new government, which was partially formed in late September.

He also met with a group of American troops shortly after landing at Baghdad International Airport on Wednesday morning.

Pompeo ignored shouted questions from reporters traveling with him on the planned U.S. withdrawal from Syria and the administration’s commitment to keeping forces in Iraq. When Salih was asked whether he wants American troops to stay in Iraq, he said: “We will need the support of the U.S.”

“ISIS is defeated militarily, but [the] mission is not accomplished,” he added, referring to the Islamic State, according to a pool report.

Mahdi said that Pompeo had assured him the U.S. withdrawal from Syria would be gradual and done in coordination with the Iraqi government.

Iraqi military officials have voiced concern that any drawdown in American forces in Syria will affect Iraq’s improving security environment, given the vast border the two countries share. Iraq routinely conducts airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, and Mahdi said Tuesday that he has not ruled out Iraqi ground operations across the border.

According to a statement issued by the State Department, “the Secretary also discussed the recent territorial defeat of ISIS in Syria and the continuation of our cooperation with Iraqi Security Forces to ensure ISIS’ lasting defeat throughout the region.”

Pompeo also discussed energy independence, the statement said, a goal that has emerged as one of the Trump administration’s key strategies for attempting to counter Iranian influence in Iraq.

Iraq relies heavily on Iranian gas to power its electricity plants, and Washington has twice granted Baghdad waivers from penalties stemming from renewed U.S. sanctions on Iranian energy exports. But the White House has also pressed Iraq to turn to American companies for the development of its energy sector.

Mustafa Salim in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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