BAGHDAD:
Iraq has promised to guarantee the safety of US interests from Iran, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday as he paid a surprise trip to Baghdad where he accused Tehran of planning “imminent” attacks.
The top US diplomat’s unannounced visit marked an effort to stand up Washington’s ties with Baghdad as it pushes ahead with its “maximum pressure” against Tehran — a US arch-rival, but an ally of Iraq.
Pompeo abruptly cancelled talks in Germany and made a lengthy detour from a European tour to spend four hours in Iraq, where he met both President Barham Saleh and Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi.
“We talked to them about the importance of Iraq ensuring that it’s able to adequately protect Americans in their country,” Pompeo told reporters after the meetings.
“They both provided assurances that they understood that was their responsibility,” he said.
Pompeo said he made the trip because Iranian forces are “escalating their activity” and said the threat of attacks were “very specific”.
“These were attacks that were imminent,” Pompeo said.
He declined to go into further detail on the alleged plot, which has been met with scepticism in numerous quarters, with leading Democratic lawmakers fearing that President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to spark a war with Iran.
In the latest US move, the Pentagon said it was sending several massive, nuclear-capable B-52s to the region.
The deployment was in response to “recent and clear indications that Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were making preparations to possibly attack US forces,” the Pentagon said.
On Sunday, Washington announced it was dispatching an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East as national security advisor John Bolton warned Iran that Washington would respond with “unrelenting force” to any attack by Tehran, including by its regional allies.
Global News 
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