The top US diplomat expressed confidence Sunday that 5,200 American troops would be allowed to stay in Iraq, even after the war-torn country’s parliament approved a draft measure to urge the expulsion of US forces.
The vote, the news of which broke as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was making the rounds on Sunday morning talk shows in Washington to defend the Donald Trump administration’s decision to kill Islamic Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, is another setback to the US-led campaign to defeat the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) in Iraq.