Abadi in Reaction to Trump: ‘Iraq’s Oil is the Property of Iraqis’

Iraq’s oil is the property of the Iraqis, Haider al-Abadi, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider said on Tuesday, in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump who argued that the United States should have taken possession of the nation’s crude reserves, Reuters reported.

In a speech to CIA officials on Saturday, Trump suggested the United States should have taken Iraq’s oil in reimbursement for the 2003 invasion.

Trump also suggested that taking Iraq’s oil would have would have also stopped the rise of Daesh by limiting the terrorist group’s funding.

“It wasn’t clear what he meant,” Abadi told a news conference when asked about Trump’s comments. “Did he mean in 2003 or to prevent the terrorists from seizing Iraq’s oil?”

“Iraq’s oil is constitutionally the property of the Iraqis,” he said.

 The new U.S. president has also sent messages offering to increase the level of assistance to Iraq, Abadi said, without giving details on the nature of the assistance.

“I’ve got assurances from President Trump that the assistance to Iraqi will continue and that it will also increase,” Abadi told a news conference in Baghdad.

The Iraqi army and volunteer fighters are currently engaged in a large offensive to retake Daesh’s last stronghold in the country, Mosul, the northern city that fell to Daesh in 2014, when the terror outfit began its campaign of death and destruction in the Arab country. Earlier on Tuesday, Abadi announced the complete recapture of eastern Mosul. 

R.S