Pompeo mocks claim Soleimani was part of Iraq-brokered Iran-Saudi indirect talks
The US secretary of state discounted the Iraqi prime minister's claim that on the day Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in Baghdad, he was going to pass on an Iranian message as part of indirect Iranian-Saudi communications.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today mocked a claim first made by Iraq’s prime minister that Iranian Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq last week, had been bringing a message from Iran as part of Saudi-Iran indirect talks on easing tensions that the Iraqi leader had tried to broker.
“Is there any history that would indicate that it was remotely possible that this kind gentleman, this diplomat of great order, Qasem Soleimani, had traveled to Baghdad for the idea of conducting a peace mission?” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department today. “We know that wasn’t true.
“We’ve heard these same lies before,” Pompeo continued. “He was not there on a diplomatic mission trying to resolve a problem. I know there’s been some story that he was there representing a Saudi peace deal. I’ve spoken to my Saudi counterparts at great length. I’ll leave to them what the contents of their messages may be. But I can assure you that they will share my view, that he was not there representing some kind of agreement that was going to reduce risk or reduce the risks to the lives of Americans when he was on that trip.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi told the Iraqi parliament Sunday that he had been due to meet with Soleimani on the morning Soleimani was killed by a precision US drone strike at the Baghdad airport, and that Soleimani was bringing a letter from Iran in response to Saudi-Iran back-channel communications on reducing tensions that Abdul Mahdi had tried to facilitate.
