Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pushed back his first trip to Ukraine less than a day before he was supposed to depart.
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus cited the tensions in Iraq as the reason for the postponement.
“Secretary Pompeo must postpone his visit to Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Cyprus due to the need for the Secretary to be in Washington, D.C., to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East,” Ortagus said in a statement. “Secretary Pompeo’s trip will be rescheduled in the near future and he looks forward to the visit at that time.”
On Tuesday, hundreds of Iran-backed protesters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after the United States carried out airstrikes on Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia, in Syria and Iraq. The Trump administration blamed Iran for orchestrating the attack.
Pompeo’s trip to Ukraine would have been the first by an administration official since President Trump was impeached over his conduct toward the country. Pompeo was scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Trump pressured to investigate his political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
