US will not steal Iraq's oil wealth, says Jim Mattis

Baghdad - Trump has repeatedly said both while campaigning and since his election that America, whose troops occupied Iraq for eight years, should have grabbed Iraqi oil to help fund its war effort and to deprive the Daesh group of a vital revenue source.

The United States is not about to plunder Iraq's petroleum reserves, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, who arrived in Baghdad on Monday, said as he sought to soothe partners rattled by President Donald Trump.
Trump has repeatedly said both while campaigning and since his election that America, whose troops occupied Iraq for eight years, should have grabbed Iraqi oil to help fund its war effort and to deprive the Daesh group of a vital revenue source.
But Mattis appeared to nix the idea. "All of us in America have generally paid for gas and oil all along, and I am sure that we will continue to do so in the future," Mattis told reporters at the start of a visit to Iraq. "We are not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil," he said.

• MENA