Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster once rebuked President Trump after he raised the possibility of taking Iraq’s oil to compensate the U.S. for the money it has spent on the country’s war in a phone call with Iraq’s then-Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, according to a report.
“We can’t do this and you shouldn’t talk about it because talking about it is just bad,” a source told Axios in a report published Sunday, referring to what McMaster said to Trump after the call in the summer of 2017. “It’s bad for America’s reputation, it’ll spook allies, it scares everybody, and it makes us look like — I don’t remember if he used words this harsh — like criminals and thieves, but that was the point he was trying to get across.”
An National Security Council spokesperson told Axios the council did not comment “on the details of the president’s conversations with foreign leaders.”
McMaster, who reportedly had a tenuous relationship with Trump, was pushed out of the administration in March and replaced by George W. Bush-era United Nations Ambassador John Bolton.
Trump has repeatedly broached the idea in internal discussions and during meetings with al-Abadi himself of seizing oil from Iraq to reimburse the U.S. for the trillions spent on the conflict, Axios reported Sunday. The proposal was also frequently mentioned during Trump’s 2016 campaign as a way to divert resources away from the Islamic State.
Regardless of the logistical hurdles, Trump’s idea would face opposition in legal circles given it could arguably be tantamount to a war crime under international law. It additionally would stymie efforts to rebuild Iraq, as well as potentially provide propaganda fodder to radical groups operating in the nation.
