"Armed groups not under the full control of the prime minister have impeded our progress," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "Those groups need to be replaced by local police as soon as possible."
Pompeo was speaking at a presser in Washington together with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, one day before Kadhemi meets President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
at the White House.
Pompeo did not specify which groups he was referring to, but Kadhemi, who took office in May, faces challenges from factions of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a coalition of Iraqi Shiite paramilitary groups with close ties to Iran.
His visit to Washington comes amid weekly attacks attributed to the groups against US installations and assets in the country.
Pompeo said that he had assured Husesein that the US would help Iraq toward this end.
"We talked about how the United States and Iraq can work together to make Iraq more safe and stable," he said.
Pompeo said the US is committed to supporting the official Iraqi security forces "to curb the power of militias that have for far too long terrorized the Iraqi people, and undermined Iraq's national illusory sovereignty."
The two countries have been conducting a "strategic dialogue" since June as the Trump administration seeks to reduce the US military presence there.
Asked about the plan for cutting the 5,000 US troops now in Iraq, Pompeo said he had no numbers and urged people "not to focus on that."
But the continuing US presence, mostly focused on fighting remnants of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
jihadist group, will be a key issue when Kadhemi meets Trump.
Hashed al-Shaabi, which maintains armed units viewed as threats by Washington, is integrated into the Iraqi state, and its political representatives have called for the expulsion of US troops.