Trump administration begins drafting possible sanctions against Iraq - WaPo
|According to a story carried by the Washington Post (WaPo), the Trump administration begin drafting sanctions against Iraq reports if it forces the US troops to withdraw from Iraq, three people briefed on the planning noted.
Key Quotes:
The officials stressed that talks were preliminary and that no final decision has been made on whether to impose the sanctions.
One of the officials said the plan was to wait "at least a little while" on the sanctions decision in order to see whether Iraqi officials followed through on their threat to push US troops out of the country.
Earlier today, the US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that the US has no plans to pull American troops out of Iraq.
He denied reports by Reuters and other media of a US military letter informing Iraq officials about the repositioning of troops in preparation to leave the country.
Esper noted: “I don’t know what that letter is... We’re trying to find out where that’s coming from, what that is. But there’s been no decision made to leave Iraq. Period.”
The United States has about 5,000 US troops in Iraq.
Despite the latest report point to an escalation of US-Iraq tensions, markets are not willing to buy into it, as oil prices see some fresh selling. WTI extends the corrective slide towards $ 62.50 while Brent falls below 68.00
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