Mattis in bid to placate Iraq

US President Donald Trump told CIA staff in January: We should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you’ll have another chance

BAGHDAD: The U.S. military is not in Iraq “to seize anybody’s oil”, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump at the start of a visit to Iraq on Monday.

Mattis, on his first trip to Iraq as Pentagon chief, is hoping to assess the war effort as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launch a new push to evict IS militants from their remaining stronghold in the city of Mosul.

But he is likely to face ques- tions about Trump’s remarks and actions, including a temporary ban on travel to the United States and for saying America should have seized Iraq’s oil after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Ruled out

Trump told CIA staff in January: “We should have kept the oil. But okay.

“Maybe you’ll have another chance.” Mattis, however, flatly ruled out any such intent.

“We’re not in Iraq to seize any- body’s oil,” he told reporters travelling with him. His remarks are the latest example of his policy differences with Trump.

Trump has acknowledged that Mattis did not agree with him about the usefulness of torture as an interrogation tactic but, in a sign of Mattis’ influence, said he would defer the matter to his defence secretary.

More critical

Mattis has also been more critical than Trump of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and distanced himself from Trump’s labeling of the media as “the enemy of the American people,” saying he had no problems with the press.

A retired Marine general who led American troops in Iraq, Mattis has also sought an exemption from Trump’s travel ban for Iraqis who served with U.S. troops, including translators.