Donald Trump: U.S. to continue supporting Iraq with goal of reducing force presence

President Trump on Thursday vowed to assist Iraq in the event of Iranian aggression but told Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi that one day all U.S. troops will leave the country.

It was the first meeting for Mr. Trump and the new Iraqi leader, who has garnered strong U.S. support for his early moves to overhaul the government and trim the power of pro-Iranian militias, but faces a host of political and economic challenges back home.

Currently, there are over 5,000 American troops stationed in Iraq and top U.S. commanders in the region have predicted that the U.S. force presence in the country will reduce but continue over the coming years.

“So at some point, we obviously will be gone,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “We look forward to the day when we don’t have to be there and hopefully Iraq can live their own lives and they can defend themselves, which they’ve been doing long before we got involved.”

Mr. Trump is pressing to fulfill a campaign pledge to end expensive U.S. military deployments in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, where U.S. troops have been fighting off and on since the 2003 invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

A day after the Energy Department announced $8 billion in prospective oil deals between U.S. firms and Iraq, Mr. Trump said. “I think we’ve had a very, very good relationship since we started,” he continued.

The U.S. recognizes the cultural and religious ties that exist between Iran and Iraq, but the administration has sought to decrease Iran’s destabilizing influence on Iraq’s political infrastructure and security. Iraq for its part dreads being pulled into a military tug-of-war for influence between Tehran and Washington.

Mr. Al-Kadhimi expressed his gratitude for continuing U.S. support in the fight against the Islamic State and said Baghdad welcomes American businesses and investments.

“Iraq is open for American business and investment,” he said, “and for a better future for Iraq, and Iraqi people.”

The danger posed by Iran was also very much the focus in New York, where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as expected, officially appealed to the Security Council to keep in place a military arms sale embargo on Tehran that is set to expire in October as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Other countries — including top U.S. allies — say the Trump administration cannot demand action under a deal that Mr. Trump himself repudiated in 2018.

After the Security Council overwhelmingly rejected a U.S. bid to extend the embargo last week, Mr. Pompeo said Thursday the U.S. was calling for the restoration of a slew of U.N. sanctions — informally known as “snapback sanctions” — on Iran in an effort to maintain the “maximum pressure” campaign on the Iranian government.

In a letter to the 15-member council, the U.S. accused Iran of violating the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that Mr. Trump withdrew from in 2018.

The letter’s delivery to the council’s president kicked off a 30-day process that may ultimately lead to the blocking of plans to lift the U.N. sanctions that were promised under the original accord.

If the sanctions are restored, Iran would be required to pause all nuclear development activities and would prohibit importing any goods that could help further Iran’s nuclear enrichment. It would also reimpose sanctions on dozens of individuals and entities linked to nuclear development.

But the diplomatic maneuver met with a frosty reception in New York on Thursday.

“We will not take it as snapback,” Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia told reporters. “… Snapback can be triggered by a country that is a participant of the JCPOA, which the U.S. is not,” he added.

Key European allies who remain part of the 2015 deal also rejected Mr. Pompeo’s argument that Washington has standing to demand the sanctions be restored.

“France, Germany and the United Kingdom note that the U.S. ceased to be a participant to the JCPOA following their withdrawal from the deal on May 8, 2018,” the group said in a statement released after Pompeo presented the letter. “We cannot therefore support this action which is incompatible with our current efforts to support the JCPOA.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly argued that ending the arms embargo would be disastrous for the Middle East and for U.S. national security because it would give Iran’s poorly equipped military open access to a range of Chinese and Russian-made weapons.

But if the Security Council — on which the U.S. has a veto — does not come to an agreement within 30 days, all U.N. sanctions that were in place prior to the JCPOA’s conception would be restored.

— This story is based in part on wire service reports.