House Speaker John Boehner, who took a delegation of House Republicans to Jordan over the weekend, visited Iraq on Monday with the lawmakers.
Boehner and the delegation met with Iraqi leaders as well as U.S. Ambassador Stuart Jones and Lt. General James L. Terry, the commander of the Combined Joint Task Force operating there.
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The Ohio Republican said discussions there focused on Iran’s influence in the region as well as the increased threat of Islamic State terrorists.
“The United States must carefully manage the mission to degrade and ultimately defeat [Islamic State] to ensure it does not come at the expense of ceding Iraq’s strategic independence to Iran, which does not seek to keep the country whole,” Boehner said.
The visit comes as the Obama administration is negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran that Republicans have criticized because they believe it will not stop the country from producing a nuclear weapon.
The delegation includes House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., who is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
