US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has arrived in Baghdad on an unannounced visit, reportedly for discussions on defeating the Islamic State terrorist group. He said earlier on Monday that the US military is not in Iraq “to seize anybody’s oil,” Russia Today reported.

“I think all of us here in this room, all of us in America, have generally paid for our gas and oil all along and I’m sure that we will continue to do so in the future,” Mattis told a small group of reporters traveling with him, while discussing his top objectives for the trip. 

“We’re not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil,” he stressed.

Mattis appears to have distanced himself from remarks made by President Donald Trump in a speech last month, when the new Republican president told CIA officials: “We should’ve kept the oil. But, OK, maybe we’ll have another chance.”

He later explained his position in a lengthy interview with ABC.

Source: MENA