WE ARE NOT HERE FOR YOUR OIL, US DEFENCE SECY TELLS IRAQ

The US military is not in Iraq “to seize anybody’s oil”, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump.

Mattis, on his first trip to Iraq as Pentagon chief, is hoping to assess the war effort as US-backed Iraqi forces launch a new push to evict Islamic State from the city of Mosul.

Mattis is likely to face questions about Trump’s remarks America should have seized Iraq’s oil after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003. Trump told had CIA staff in January: “We should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you’ll have another chance.” But Mattis flatly ruled out any such intent. “We’re not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil,” he told reporters.

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 defense secretary.

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. The retired general who led US troops in Iraq also sought an exemption from Trump’s travel ban for Iraqis who served with US troops, including translators.