Pompeo condemns Iranian interference in Iraq, Lebanon

Pompeo condemns Iranian interference in Iraq, Lebanon
February 15, 2020, 10:47 am

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (File photo Reuters)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday condemned Iranian interference in the affairs of Iraq and Lebanon, during a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

Iran has been exploiting Lebanese and Iraqi youth for its own interest, he added.

The United States will protect the Strait of Hormuz, and will ensure the Arabian Gulf region is secured, he said.

The secretary of state also noted that the US has been sucessful in its mission to eradicate ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as killed in a US special forces raid in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib in October.

Pompeo also hit back at German claims that Washington was retreating from the global stage, insisting that the death of the transatlantic alliance was “grossly over-exaggerated”.

“Those statements don’t reflect reality,” he said, a day after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Donald Trump’s America rejected “even the idea of an international community”.

“I’m happy to report that the death of the transatlantic alliance is grossly over-exaggerated,” Pompeo said, paraphrasing a famous Mark Twain.

source: AFP

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