Pompeo briefs Iraqi leaders on USA security concerns over Iran

Asked before the meetings if there was a threat to the Baghdad government from Iran that raised USA concerns about Iraqi sovereignty, Pompeo said, "No, no, generally this has been our position since the national security strategy came out in the beginning of the Trump administration".

Pompeo cancelled a trip to Berlin to meet with Iraqi leaders during a four-hour stop in the capital Baghdad.

Acting Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers said in a statement that the USA does "not seek war with the Iranian regime, but we will defend United States personnel, our allies and our interests in the region". "We're on the side of freedom, we're on the side of creating a nation for the Iranian people where they can have religious freedom, and they can have a democracy", he said.

Pompeo's warning that "any attack by Iran or its proxies on American forces in Iraq would affect the Iraqi government too" - a message he told reporters he planned to deliver - might have helped put the Iraqis in the cooperative spirit. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is reportedly set to announce Wednesday, May 8, 2019, ways the Islamic Republic will react to continued US pressure after President Donald Trump pulled America from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.

It also been revealed the United States was sending B-52 bombers to the region.

"The deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force are considered a prudent step in response to indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against USA forces and our interests", he added.

On Sunday, Washington announced it was dispatching an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East as national security advisor John Bolton warned Iran that Washington would respond with "unrelenting force" to any attack by Tehran, including by its regional allies.

It's incredibly important to the Iraqi government.

"We're working together to push back against that threat", Pompeo said at a press conference with Hunt.

"We've urged the Iraqi government for its own security to get all of those forces under Iraqi central control", Pompeo said.

"Iraq really is taking the responsibility to avoid any attack on any of our friends here, coalition forces or any of our friends here", he told reporters. More than 5,000 US troops are stationed on Iraqi soil.

Their presence angers the Hashed al Shaabi, a paramilitary force that is dominated by pro-Iran factions which played a key role alongside government forces in the fight against IS.

"Iraq is building its relationships with all on the basis of putting Iraq's interests first", said a statement from his office released on Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter: "If US and clients don't feel safe, it's because they're despised by the people of the region - blaming Iran won't reverse that".

Iranian state television says letters outlining the Islamic Republic's partial withdrawal from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been delivered to ambassadors.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday vowed the United States would ensure Iran can not build a nuclear weapon if Tehran pulls back from an agreement the Trump administration abandoned a year ago.

Mr Pompeo had been due to head to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister.

The rising tensions are playing out one year after the USA unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, under which Tehran agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of worldwide sanctions.