SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The United States supports Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in “his push” against Iranian-backed militias, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.
“We’re standing with the Iraqi prime minister, my friend Kadhimi, in his push against the Iranian-backed militias,” Pompeo said at the International Institute of Strategic Studies Manama Dialogue.
Pompeo’s remarks came days after U.S. officials said Washington was withdrawing some staff from its embassy in Baghdad. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Matthew Tueller confirmed the “temporary” withdrawal of some diplomatic staff from Iraq.
The embassy has been targeted by rocket attacks from Iranian-backed groups.
Pompeo had warned that the United States would close its embassy in Iraq if the Iraqi government did not control Iran-backed militias it accuses of launching rockets at the embassy and bases housing American troops.
Last month, Pompeo said the U.S. was working to help build up the Iraqi prime minister and his team in order to be free and independent.
“We are working to help build up prime minister Kadhimi and his team so that they can be free, independent and sovereign in exactly the way the Iraqi people are demanding,” Pompeo said in an interview with Al Arabiya.
Pompeo further said that the Iraqis did not want to be under the “jackboot of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and that they “want a free, independent Iraq.”
Tensions between the United States and Iran have risen since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal, and reimposed harsh sanctions to pressure Tehran to negotiate stricter curbs on its nuclear program, ballistic missile development and support for regional proxy forces.
