The United States President Donald Trump made a surprise visit to Iraq on Wednesday, to defend his decision of the US troop’s pullout from Syria, asserting that many people would start to see things over Syria like the way he does.
Trump has last week, announced his decision to withdraw its troops from Syria, which led defence secretary James Mattis to resign abruptly the very next day of the announcement.
Trump had told his advisers “let’s get out of Syria”, but then persuaded to stay before his announcement.
According to news reports, Trump and first lady Melania Trump, however, spent about three hours on the ground with the US troops, where Trump said, “I think a lot of people are going to come around to my way of thinking. It’s time for us to start using our head.”
Trump said the US would definitely remain in Iraq, saying, “In fact, we could use this as the base if we wanted to do something in Syria.”
According to reports by Reuters, Pentagon has decided to use its special operations teams to target the Islamic States in Syria, residing out of Iraq. At that time, officials has said the final decision was not yet made and was considering the option either way.
During his visit to Iraq, Trump indicated that he would not rush into appointing new defence secretary to replace Mattis. He said deputy defence secretary Patrick Shanaahan “could be there for a long time”, whom Trump has decided to replace Mattis.
According to reports, the Iraqi lawmakers criticized Trump’s visit as a blow to Iraqi sovereignty and said a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and Trump was canceled due to disagreements over venue.
Leader of the Islah parliament bloc Sahab al Saadi called for an emergency meet in parliament “to discuss this blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and to stop these aggressive actions by Trump who should know his limits: The U.S. occupation of Iraq is over.”
Islah’s rival in parliament, the Bina bloc, in a statement, said, “Trump’s visit is a flagrant and clear violation of diplomatic norms and shows his disdain and hostility in his dealings with the Iraqi government.”
Bina bloc said Trump’s visit “places many question marks on the nature of the U.S. military presence and its real objectives, and what these objectives could pose to the security of Iraq”.
Leader of the powerful Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia Qais al-Khazali, in a tweet, wrote: “Iraqis will respond with a parliamentary decision to oust your (U.S.) military forces. And if they do not leave, we have the experience and the ability to remove them by other means that your forces are familiar with.”
However, some Iraqi’s were less concerned about Trump’s surprise visit. Baghda resident Mohammad Abdullah said, “We won’t get anything from America,” adding, “They’ve been in Iraq 16 years, and they haven’t given anything to the country except destruction and devastation.”