Pentagon chief visits Baghdad, Erbil
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Baghdad and Erbil today, March 7, to reaffirm Washington’s relationship with the respective governments.
According to Rudaw, Austin landed in Erbil this afternoon and met with Nechirvan Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In a press conference following their meetings, the two sides said they had discussed cooperation, especially in the war against terrorism.
Austin praised the local peshmerga forces in their mission against the Islamic State (ISIS), saying “through the global Coalition to defeat Daesh, we have liberated more than 50,000 square kilometers from the nightmare of Daesh and freed more than 4.5 million Iraqis, so let me applaud the invaluable contributions to this fight made by the Kurdish Peshmerga as part of Iraq’s security forces.”
In the morning, the US official met with Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mohammad Shia al-Sustani, in Baghdad. Speaking nearly 20 years after the US invasion of the country, Austin said that he was in the country to “reaffirm the US-Iraq strategic partnership as we move toward a more secure, stable and sovereign Iraq.”
Austin visited Jordan yesterday, where the two sides discussed Iranian influence on Syria’s border with Jordan.
The Middle East tour will likely take the US Defense Secretary to Egypt and Israel next. Iran’s influence in the region tops the politician’s agenda.