Blinken Visits Iraq in Hopes of Containing Israel-Hamas Conflict

There have been a sequence of assaults carried out by militia directed at our personnel, each in Iraq in addition to in Syria. Job primary for me is to make sure the safety of our folks. And so I obtained an replace on all the things we’re doing to be sure that our personnel are protected and safe. I had , productive, candid assembly with Prime Minister al-Sudani. And there have been actually two areas of focus for me in that assembly. The primary was to reaffirm our dedication to our partnership with Iraq. The threats coming from militia which are aligned with Iran are completely unacceptable, and we’ll take each crucial step to guard our folks. We’re not in search of battle with Iran; we’ve made that very clear. However we’ll do what’s crucial to guard our personnel, be they army or civilian. To anybody who may search to benefit from the battle in Gaza to threaten our personnel right here or anyplace else within the area: Don’t do it.