But, speaking later Sunday on Air Force One, Trump made it clear he believes the Iraqis owe the United States something.
“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. Long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he said.
The president also said he expects the Iraqis to be polite, saying if they weren’t, “We will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”
The vote by the Iraqi parliament was one of several significant developments on Sunday related to American foreign policy in the region and the rapidly deteriorating U.S.-Iran relationship.
A Defense Department official confirmed the deployment of an additional task force of special operations troops to the Middle East after a brigade of 4,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division had already been directed to Kuwait in the aftermath of Soleimani’s death.
The Pentagon also suspended its fight against remaining elements of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, as American troops refocused their efforts on protecting bases in Iraq from strikes by Iranian-backed militias.
And in Iran, state television reported that Tehran would no longer abide by any of the limits of the 2015 multinational nuclear deal, according to the The AP. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the pact in 2018.
Pompeo on Sunday also sought to justify the dearth of public evidence the administration has provided that led to the president’s decision to direct the Soleimani strike, citing the need to protect U.S. intelligence-gathering operations.
„We will do everything we can to share this information with the American people. But I think the American people understand, too, there are certain things you just can’t put out in public,“ he said. „You got to protect Americans who are out collecting the intelligence — the intelligence we will need in the days and weeks ahead to continue to defend and protect them.“
Source: politico.com
See more here: news365.stream
