Pompeo makes unannounced visit to Iraq
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday made an unannounced trip to Iraq as part of his Middle East reassurance campaign, and heard pleas for more help in fighting Islamic State militants.
Pompeo is attempting to explain to Arab allies President Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and the many conflicting accounts of whether there is a timetable for the pullout and what it might be.
Many in the region fear a U.S. disengagement will empower Iran and separately allow for a resurgence of the radical Islamic State, which until recently controlled huge swaths of Iraq as well as parts of Syria.
At the government palace in Baghdad’s Green Zone of high security, Iraqi President Barham Salih thanked Pompeo for U.S. support over the years but asked that it continue and that Washington not abandon the region.
Belying Trump’s claims that Islamic
State was defeated, Salih said the fight goes on. Islamic State “is defeated militarily but the mission is not accomplished,” Salih said.
Building on a military offensive launched during the Obama administration, a U.S.-led coalition last year was able to dismantle Islamic State’s so-called caliphate, built through Iraq and Syria, and drive out most militants.
However, senior administration officials acknowledge that pockets of Islamic State remain and could reemerge if the United States leaves the region.
Pompeo made no public comments while in Baghdad, but a statement issued later by his office said he had assured Salih of the U.S. commitment to an “enduring defeat” of Islamic State.
From Baghdad, Pompeo traveled to Irbil in the Kurdish-dominated part of northern Iraq and met with the semi-autonomous region’s prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani. Speaking afterward to reporters, Pompeo said he believed Iraq was on the right course with recent elections but also acknowledged the challenges.
“A common understanding that the battle against [Islamic State], to counter [Islamic State], and the fight to counter Iran is real and important,” Pompeo said.
“We will complete the mission of taking down the last elements of the caliphate before we depart.”
Confusion and consternation have roiled the Middle East since Trump’s abrupt announcement last month that he was ordering an estimated 2,000 U.S. troops, including Special Forces, to leave Syria.