Readout of U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John C. Rood Visit to Iraq
Nov. 26, 2019

Lt. Col. Carla Gleason provided the following readout:

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John C. Rood visited Iraq today, where he met with Prime Minister Adel Abd-al-Mahdi and other senior officials in Baghdad and Erbil.

In Baghdad, Under Secretary Rood met with Prime Minister Abd-al-Mahdi to reiterate the United States’ commitment to Iraq’s security and sovereignty, and its support to the people of Iraq.

Under Secretary Rood also met with Iraqi Minister of Defense Najah al-Shammary to reaffirm the importance of working together to defeat the common threat of ISIS, and praised the Iraqi security forces’ continuing operations to dismantle ISIS networks and prevent an ISIS resurgence.

In Erbil, Under Secretary Rood met with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Nechirvan Barzani and KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

Under Secretary Rood reaffirmed the DoD support to the Peshmerga and to their close partnership in the long-term defeat of ISIS.