President Trump said he wants to keep U.S. military forces in Iraq to keep a “watch” on Iran.
During an interview that aired Sunday morning, Trump said an “expensive military base in Iraq” would monitor any trouble in the region, including efforts to build nuclear weapons.
“I want to be able to watch Iran,” Trump said in a “Face the Nation” interview on CBS. “All I want to do is be able to watch. We have an unbelievable and expensive military base built in Iraq. It’s perfectly situated for looking at all over different parts of the troubled Middle East rather than pulling up. And this is what a lot of people don’t understand. We’re going to keep watching and we’re going to keep seeing, and if there’s trouble, if somebody is looking to do nuclear weapons or other things, we’re going to know it before they do.”
He declined the idea he would keep troops in Iraq for a potential strike on Iran.
Last week, Trump rebuked top U.S. intelligence leaders for being “extremely passive and naive” about Iran’s nuclear capabilities and suggested they “go back to school.”
The criticism came a day after testimony from top officials before the Senate Intelligence Committee, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and FBI Director Christopher Wray. Coats told lawmakers U.S. intelligence doesn’t believe Iran is working to develop a nuclear device at this time.
Coats also said Iran has signaled it could “push the boundaries” of the 2015 Iran deal, which put restraints on the country’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions. Trump, who had called the agreement “the worst deal ever,” pulled out of the pact last year.
During the interview that aired Sunday, Trump also defended the U.S. troop pullout from Syria and Afghanistan, citing the high cost of a continued military presence in a foreign country. Asked if he had any concern about the resurgence of terrorist groups in the region, the president didn’t rule out a return to stomp out any new pockets of the Islamic State, al Qaeda, or other extremist operations.
“We’ll come back if we have to. We have very fast airplanes, we have very good cargo planes. We can come back very quickly, and I’m not leaving,” Trump said. “We have a base in Iraq and the base is a fantastic edifice. I mean I was there recently, and I couldn’t believe the money that was spent on these massive runways.”
