Trump "Iraq Must Pay Money To American Taxpayers If It Wants To Withdraw American Forces"

Trump "Iraq Must Pay Money To American Taxpayers If It Wants To Withdraw American Forces"
On January 11, 2020


(The Independent) ... US President Donald Trump revealed that the Iraqi government must pay money to American taxpayers if it wanted to withdraw American forces from there, while he pointed out that the attack targeting Qasim Soleimani prevented another "Benghazi" from occurring.
He said in an interview with the American Fox News that "by killing Soleimani, we foiled a plan that the commander of the Quds Force had intended to implement by targeting American targets abroad."
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Asked what those targets were, he said, “I can reveal that, according to me, there were four embassies, probably the embassy in Baghdad. There are other possibilities, such as military bases and other things, too, "noting that" the embassy in Baghdad was at the forefront of those goals. "
He stressed that "the scene of the demonstrators who surrounded the embassy and tried to enter it, led me to call the military officials who told them that we do not want a similar operation to storm the American consulate in Benghazi," explaining, "We would have witnessed another Benghazi if we did not prevent this from happening."
And Trump noted that "the nuclear agreement signed with Iran during the term of former President Barack Obama allowed Tehran to obtain 150 billion dollars that it used to finance terrorist activities in Yemen and Syria, and accused the Obama administration of having paid cash to Iran 1.8 billion dollars."
On Thursday, the US President told reporters that Soleimani was assassinated because he was targeting the US embassy in Baghdad.
The US administration has repeatedly stressed that the strike was a self-defense to prevent what it described as an "imminent threat" against US interests and forces.
Earlier on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters, "We had specific information about an imminent threat, including attacks on American embassies."
Trump said during the interview that he had "not informed Congress leaders of the process in advance for fear of leaks from them."
During the interview, Trump was asked if the Iraqi response to Soleimani's strike might lead to the departure of US forces in Iraq, and he said, "I have no problem with that."
On the calls of Iraqi officials to start planning for the withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq, he said, "This is what the Iraqis say publicly, but they do not say that in private sessions."
He added, "We established in Iraq one of the most expensive airport installations in the world, if we leave, they (Iraqis) should pay money for that." He pointed out that "countries like Saudi Arabia and South Korea pay millions of dollars for the deployment of American soldiers there."
"The kingdom has been told that they have to pay money to deploy more soldiers, and they have already put a billion dollars into a bank account," he said.
And on the way we can raise money from the Iraqis, Trump said, "We have a lot of their money, there is $ 35 billion in an account."
President Trump considered that the conditions in the Middle East under his administration had become "more tame", as ISIS was eliminated and tens of thousands of its fighters were imprisoned.


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