Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a surprise visit to Baghdad Tuesday to show support for the Iraqi government as the Trump administration intensified its pressure campaign against Iran. The lightning-quick trip began and ended after nightfall and under heavy security following the abrupt cancellation of a scheduled visit to Germany by Pompeo. Journalists accompanying Pompeo were not told of his new destination until his plane left for Baghdad and were not allowed to report on his whereabouts until after his plane had taken off for London. During the flight to Baghdad, Pompeo told reporters he would meet with Iraqi President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi. “You’ve all seen the reports that there have been escalating — information that indicates Iran is escalating their activity," Pompeo said. "I wanted to go to Baghdad to speak with the leadership there, to assure them that we stood ready to continue to ensure that Iraq is a sovereign, independent nation.” Pompeo also said he wanted to underscore Iraq's need to protect Americans in their country. "We wanted to let them know about the increased threat stream that we had seen and give them a little bit more background on that so they could ensure that they were doing all they could to provide protection for our team," he said. "They understood, too, it's important for their country." The secretary of state added that he would also discuss unfinished business deals that he said would allow Iraq to wean itself from dependence on Iranian energy. “These aren’t even all American business deals. These are — this is about trying to assist Iraq in obtaining their energy independence. Some of these are potential power line opportunities out of Jordan and out of Egypt, so electricity then can be provided. So this isn’t about American commerce. This is about ensuring that there’s Iraqi energy independence,” he said. Late Sunday, the U.S. announced that it is rushing an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East to deter or respond to any Iranian attack. U.S. officials have said there are indications Iran is planning to retaliate for the Trump administration’s stepped-up sanctions on the country, although the threat information remains vague. As tensions rise between Washington and Tehran, Baghdad in some ways is caught in the middle. Iraq has a close relationship with the U.S., which is leading the international coalition in the war against ISIS group in Iraq and Syria. More than 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed on Iraqi soil. But Iraq is also tightly enmeshed with Iran in trade, security and political matters, and it has been loath to antagonize its larger neighbor. Iran won the ear of many top Iraqi politicians after it stepped in to fill the political vacuum following the 2003 U.S. invasion. It also can count on the loyalty of several powerful Iraqi militias, which have fought previously against U.S. forces in the country and on the side of Iran’s allies in Syria in that country’s civil war. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Trump administration has made several recent moves to squeeze Iran. Last month, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would no longer exempt any countries from U.S. sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil. The U.S. also designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, the first ever for an entire division of another government. Trump withdrew from the Obama administration’s landmark nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and, in the months that followed, re-imposed punishing sanctions, including those targeting Iran’s oil, shipping and banking sectors. Fox News’ Rich Edson and Nick Kalman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Mr. Pompeo’s visit, shrouded in secrecy until after it was over, came on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Mr. Trump’s repudiation of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and the reimposition of American sanctions, which have been increasingly squeezing Iran’s economy. Iran said Monday it would no longer comply with parts of the agreement, alarming European officials who have hoped to preserve the accord, meant to ensure Iran’s peaceful use of nuclear energy. The choreography of Mr. Pompeo’s Iraq stopover also appeared designed to send a message to Iran. Before he flew to Baghdad, the State Department said Mr. Pompeo, who had been in Finland, had abandoned a scheduled meeting in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany because of unidentified “pressing issues.” The Trump administration has not provided specific details about what it has called the new threat from Iran, which has drawn some skepticism, given the history of faulty intelligence that led to the Iraq war. But officials have told The New York Times that new intelligence has raised concerns about Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its connections to some of Iraq’s Shiite Arab militias. Asked by reporters to elaborate, Mr. Pompeo said, “I just don’t want to go into the details of that anymore.” But he also reiterated his contention that the Revolutionary Guards is a terrorist organization. “This was just calling out the truth,” he said. It was Mr. Pompeo who last month placed the Revolutionary Guards on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, against the advice of American intelligence and Pentagon officials, who warned that Iran’s clerical government could reciprocate and put United States personnel at risk in the Middle East. Last week, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran declared all American forces in the Middle East terrorists and labeled the United States government a state sponsor of terrorism. To counter what the Trump administration has described as the new threat, the Pentagon has expedited an already-scheduled deployment of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf.<doc-sep>'Is everything I'm trying to do pointless? ': Syrians helpless in face of 'sham' election Residents stand near stalls along a road amidst debris while strong winds batter Balasore district in Odisha state on May 26, 2021 as Cyclone Yaas barrels towards India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP) (Photo by DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images) France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame speak as they walk in the grounds of The Presidential Palace in Kigali on May 27, 2021, after their press conference and prior to their official luncheon. - French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on May 27, 2021, for a highly symbolic visit aimed at moving on from three decades of diplomatic tensions over France's role in the 1994 genocide in the country. Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the East African nation, which has long accused France of complicity in the killing of some 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) walks with Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department David Satterfield (L), and Charge D'affaires at the US Embassy in Baghdad Joey Hood upon arrival in Baghdad for meetings on May 7, 2019. - Pompeo is scheduled to meet with the Iraqi prime minister and president. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / POOL / AFP) (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unannounced trip to Iraq on Tuesday after abruptly canceling a planned trip to Berlin amid escalating tensions with Iran. The top US diplomat met with Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi, President Barham Salih and other officials while on the ground in the Iraqi capital in a roughly four-hour visit, according to the pool traveling with Pompeo. Pompeo described his meetings as “productive” and said he spoke to the officials “about the importance of Iraq ensuring that it’s able to adequately protect Americans in their country.” “They both provided assurances that they understood that was their responsibility,” he said. He also said that the US “wanted to let them know about the increased threat stream that we had seen and give them a little bit more background on that so they could ensure that they were doing all they could to provide protection for our team.” “They understood too it’s important for their country. We don’t want anyone interfering in their country, certainly not by attacking another nation inside of Iraq and there was complete agreement,” Pompeo said. US officials have told CNN the US had “specific and credible” intelligence that suggested Iranian forces and proxies were planning to target US forces in locations including Iraq. That intelligence led the Pentagon to recommend a carrier strike group be moved to the region. Speaking to the press pool following his visit, Pompeo reiterated that it was the US’ understanding that “these were attacks that were imminent, these were attacks that were going to happen fairly soon, we’ve learned about them and we’re taking every action to deter them.” Prior to his arrival in Baghdad, Pompeo declined to go into details when asked to elaborate further on the “tipping point” for his abrupt change of travel plans Pompeo said he had informed President Donald Trump of his travels on Monday night and that the President had asked him to pass along a number of messages. “The central messages are this: We want to make sure that Iraq is positioned so that the relationship that we’ve built with them and that our allies in the region have built with them – allies that range all across the Gulf, who understand that the primary threat in the Middle East is Iran – remains strong, that those relationships remain strong,” he said. The US secretary of state said he and officials discussed how to defeat the remaining pockets of ISIS in the country and foreign terrorist fighters being held in detention camps. Although Pompeo indicated prior to his stop that he would discuss “big energy deals that can disconnect (Iraq) from Iranian energy,” he said afterward that although they spoke about energy infrastructure, they “didn’t spend much time talking about sanctions issues.” Pompeo abruptly canceled a scheduled trip to Germany earlier on Tuesday “due to pressing issues,” the State Department said. The secretary of state told the pool prior to landing in Iraq that Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, understood the decision to cancel. Pompeo’s trip to Iraq came amid news that Iran plans to announce it will reduce its commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – one year after the US announced its departure from the landmark nuclear deal. “Iran exercised restraint over the past year, but the other parties to the deal failed to adhere to their commitments so that Iran had no other way but to reduce its commitments under the deal,” a letter from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to the European Union is expected to read, according to state-run IRNA. Speaking to the press prior to arriving in Baghdad, Pompeo said the US would look at Iran’s action regarding the JCPOA, but said that compliance with the deal was “binary.” “You’re either in compliance or you’re not. And so we’ll obviously have to wait and see what they choose to do, but in – you’re – it’s zeroes and ones. You’re either in compliance with the agreement or you’re not. And so, look, we’ve withdrawn from the agreement. The Iranians will have to make their own choice about how they want to proceed,” he said. CNN’s Nicole Gaouette, Barbara Starr and Tara John contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
US Secretary of State Pompeo visits Iraq amid Iran tensions Published 8 May 2019 image copyright Reuters image caption Mike Pompeo met with Barham Salih, the president of Iraq, in Baghdad US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unscheduled, fleeting visit to Iraq, amid growing tensions with Iran. Mr Pompeo cancelled a trip to Berlin to meet Iraqi leaders during a four-hour stop in the capital Baghdad. He told the leaders that the US did not "want anybody interfering in their country", and asked them to protect US troops in Iraq. The visit came days after the US deployed an aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, to the region. Officials said the deployment was in response to threats to US forces and its allies from Iran. On Tuesday it was revealed the US was sending B-52 bombers. The US has given little information about the exact nature of the reported threat, which Iran has dismissed as nonsense. John Bolton, the US national security adviser, said only that the US was acting "in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings" on announcing the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln on Sunday. Mr Pompeo is also due to visit London on Wednesday, where he is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Theresa May and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Why was Mike Pompeo in Iraq? While in Baghdad, the US secretary of state met the Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and President Barham Salih, and explained the US's security concerns to them. He also asked them to protect US troops and citizens in the country. Mr Pompeo later said that the leaders "provided assurances that they understood that was their responsibility". image copyright AFP image caption Mr Pompeo, right, cancelled a planned visit to Germany in order to go to Baghdad "We wanted them to know about the increased threat stream that we had seen, to give them a little bit more background so that they would have enough information that they could ensure that they were doing all that they could to provide protection for our team," he said. "They understood, too, it's important for their country. We don't want anybody interfering in their country, certainly not by attacking another nation inside of Iraq, and there was complete agreement." Speaking to reporters after the meeting, he also directly linked the visit to the recent escalation with Iran, which neighbours Iraq. Mr Pompeo said that he wanted to "speak with the leadership there [in Iraq], to assure them that we stood ready to continue to ensure that Iraq is a sovereign, independent nation". He also said that he wanted to help them become less dependent on energy deals with Iran. Why is the US sending bombers to the region? Acting Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers said in a statement that the US did "not seek war with the Iranian regime, but we will defend US personnel, our allies and our interests in the region". "The deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force are considered a prudent step in response to indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against US forces and our interests," he added. image copyright EPA image caption A B-52 bomber task force is being deployed alongside the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group Officials first announced that the aircraft carrier was being sent to the Gulf on Sunday. Mr Bolton said at the time that it was to send "a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interest or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force". What has Iran said? In response, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that "the #B_Team is at it again". "From announcements of naval movements (that actually occurred last month) to dire warnings about so-called 'Iranian threats'," he added. "If US and clients don't feel safe, it's because they're despised by the people of the region - blaming Iran won't reverse that." Iran's state-run broadcaster Press TV also dismissed the deployment as "a 'regularly scheduled' one by the US Navy, and Bolton has just tried to talk it up". Why is there so much hostility between Iran and the US? Tensions between the US and Iran can be traced back to Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, which overthrew the pro-Western Shah and established a radical anti-US regime in its place.