Pompeo 'confident' Iraqis want U.S. troops to remain

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s order to kill Iran’s top military leader on Iraqi soil, making his case as Iran announced it will abandon a global deal aimed at reducing its nuclear weapons capability, and Iraqi lawmakers called for the expulsion of U.S. troops from the country.

Pompeo, making the rounds on six Sunday morning political talk shows, dismissed mounting calls from Iraqi leaders demanding that the United States withdraw its military presence from the country in response to the Trump administration drone strike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and eight others in Baghdad. 

The secretary of state also insisted the U.S. will "act lawfully" in carrying out any potential future strikes, even as Trump on Sunday defended his earlier threat to "HIT" Iranian soil directly, including cultural sites, should the country retaliate. The president in a Saturday tweet cited a list of 52 revered Iranian sites that could serve as targets, despite international law deeming attacks on cultural institutions as war crimes.

Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday night as he returned to Washington from his Palm Beach, Florida estate, reasserted that the U.S. should be able to target Iran's cultural sites.

"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people, and we're not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn't work that way," Trump said.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," at the same time that Iraq's parliament was meeting to discuss ousting U.S. troops, Pompeo said he was “confident the Iraqi people want the United States to continue to be there," despite the rhetoric of its top leaders.

Iraq's Shia-majority parliament voted in favor of a non-binding resolution calling for the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but the Iraqi government and its acting prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, must still sign off on the resolution to make it binding.

Pompeo repeatedly argued that Trump acted within his authority to approve the deadly drone strike against Soleimani in Baghdad without giving prior notice to Congress, saying Soleimani “was actively engaged in plotting against American interests.”

“There’s plenty of public evidence about the bad behavior of Qassem Soleimani,” Pompeo told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace when pressed about the decision to kill the Iranian leader amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran.

Pompeo, asked about Trump’s comments about targeting cultural sites said the United States will “act lawfully” in carrying out any strikes. In the aftermath of World War II, agreements reached in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Hague Convention of 1954 deemed attacks on cultural institutions a war crime.

"We’ll behave inside the system. We always have, and we always will.” Pompeo told ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos when pressed about Trump’s tweets.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), appearing on “This Week,” said the Trump administration defied protocol by not notifying the so-called “Gang of Eight” congressional leaders about the Soleimani attack before it occurred.

"I am really worried, and that is why Congress must assert itself,” Schumer said, adding that he believed Trump’s order was pushing the United States closer to “another endless war in the Middle East.”

Schumer added: “I think Congress and I will do everything I can to assert our authority. We do not need this president either bumbling or impulsively getting us into a major war."

Trump, in a tweet posted Sunday before he departed his Palm Beach estate for the White House, asserted that his social media posts “will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!”

The president on Saturday gave formal notification of the strike to Congress, but Democrats have said the classified document, which was issued a day after the attack, raises more questions than it answers.

Several Democratic lawmakers raised concerns that removing American troops from Iraq could clear the path for a resurgence of the Islamic State and make it more difficult for the United States to protect its national security interests in the Middle East.

On Sunday, Iranian state media, citing a statement by President Hassan Rouhani’s administration, announced that Iran would no longer abide by the nuclear production limits imposed by the landmark 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal. Trump withdrew the U.S from the deal in 2018, but a coalition of other European nations remained in the deal aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear weapons program

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), appearing on "Fox News Sunday" said Trump's decision to kill Soleimani may have ultimately handed the military leader what he desired — diminished U.S. presence in the region.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.),  a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS's "Face the Nation" that the strike against Soleimani "had to happen," arguing that Trump had classified intelligence pointing to an "imminent threat." Rubio said he had been briefed on the threat but could not disclose any details.

"The question is, how would you justify not acting on even the possibility that Americans could die?" Rubio said.

With The Associated Press