Tillerson pushes Iraq, Saudi to cut out Iran
DOHA: US secretary of state Rex Tillerson on Sunday pressed the Trump administration’s case for isolating and containing Iran in the Middle East and beyond as he pushed for Saudi Arabia and Iraq to unite to counter growing Iranian assertiveness.
He called for the removal of Iranian and Iranian-supported militias from Iraq and urged other countries, particularly in Europe, to halt any business they do with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Shortly before leaving Riyadh for Doha, Qatar, Tillerson told reporters that an independent and prosperous Iraq would be a foil to Iran’ s “malign behaviour .”
Referring to Shia militia in Iraq that are backed by Iran he said: “Those fighters need to go home.”
Sh ia-majority Iraq and Sunniled Saudi Arabia, estranged for decades after Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, have tried in recent years to bridge their differences. Saudi Arabia re opened its embassy in Baghdad in 2015 after 25 years and the first visit by a Saudi foreign minister to Baghdad came in February.