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US SECRETARY OF State Mike Pompeo has postponed a trip to Ukraine, the country at the heart of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, after an attack on the American embassy in Iraq.
Pompeo had been due to travel at week’s end to Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Cyprus.
However yesterday, a mob of pro-Iran demonstrators stormed the US embassy in Baghdad over American airstrikes that killed two dozen paramilitary fighters.
Pompeo’s travel was pushed back “due to the need for the secretary to be in Washington, DC to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East”, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus announced.
“Secretary Pompeo’s trip will be rescheduled in the near future and he looks forward to the visit at that time,” she added.
The trip would have made Pompeo the most senior US official to visit Kiev since a scandal erupted in 2019 over a controversial phone call in which Trump allegedly tried to pressure his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to find dirt on Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
Pompeo, a staunch Trump defender, was set to meet with Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials, Ortagus said on Monday when the trip was first announced.
But the following day, the embassy in Baghdad was besieged. Demonstrators finally left yesterday.
No US personnel were injured in the attack and US officials said they had no plans to evacuate.
Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on 18 December and faces trial in the Senate, possibly later this month, though top Democratic and Republican lawmakers are still sparring over how it will be conducted.
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He must be needed to guard the doors in the Iraq embassy. Very important man.
@Paul Whitehead: trumps wee lackey
Attack = mourners and protestors for Iraqi servicemen killed by the USA in THEIR country , protest around the USA embassy oops military base … 15 k “ staff “ inside it , biggest compound in the world …USA exceptionalism as usual. 2003 wasn’t enough carnage for them .
@Isabel Oliveira: “servicemen” = Iranian paid mercenaries – famous for their attacks on Allied forces during the Iraq war 2003+. At least you downgraded your previous assertion that they were Iraqi Army. Hopefully they’ve learned their lesson.
@Clifford Brennan: nice try but you’re wasting time on me . Iraqi service men that were fighting Isis. The day I believe a word pompeo or Bibi say is the day I’ll check in a facility and seek help .
@Clifford Brennan: oh and PS: the allied forces who killed tens of thousands because of those invisible WMD … I see .
@Isabel Oliveira: The Iraqi/US soldiers that were injured were training to fight ISIS. Thats what happens at the facilities the hezbollah lads attacked. Don’t think Pompeo or Bibis word changes any of the facts you left out. They attacked several times and seem shocked that the US responded.
@Isabel Oliveira: How many Iraqis and Syrians ( yes these guys have fought in Syria too) have died at the hands of their fellow countrymen over an invisible god and their different interpretations of a religious doctrine? I see etc.
@Clifford Brennan: give me actual evidence of this Kirkuk attack and the name of this American mercenary who perished rather than only USA word it happened & how it happened .
I repeat they were Iraqi servicemen killed by the USA in their own country . If you want to justify this so much you must have been pushing every false tanker attack earlier this year. A war on Iran has been Bibi’s dream as well as pompeo and Bolton .
@Isabel Oliveira: 20 million land mines unexploded in iraq BBC news
About time the US just took the highroad out of the middle east now….. Violating most democratic sovereigntys and thus underminding their whole ‘democracy’ morale high ground
The safety of Americans in the middle east….. that’s the primary concern…fu#k the population,bomb indiscriminately and continue to use double standards and no doubt this will induce hate and revenge. Stupid Americans.
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