Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Saturday in the highest-level American trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of US forces in Syria two months ago.
Flying in a C-17 military cargo jet to preserve the secrecy of the visit to the conflict zone, Pence landed in Irbil to meet with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani.
The visit was meant to reassure the US allies in the fight against the Islamic State group after the US pulled troops from northern Syria, leaving the Kurdish allies in neighboring Syria to face a bloody Turkish assault last month following the Trump-ordered withdrawal.
Earlier Pence received a classified briefing at Iraq's Al-Asad Air Base, from which US forces are believed to have launched the operation in Syria last month that resulted in the death of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Pence also spoke by phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
It was Pence's second trip to the region in five weeks. Trump deployed him on a whirlwind trip to Ankara, Turkey, last month to negotiate a cease-fire after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seized on the US withdrawal to launch an assault on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
Trump's move had sparked some of the most unified criticism of his administration to date, as lawmakers in both parties accused Trump of forsaking longtime Kurdish allies and inviting Russia and Iran to hold even greater sway in the volatile region.
Pence said he welcomes "the opportunity on behalf of President Donald Trump to reiterate the strong bonds forged in the fires of war between the people of the United States and the Kurdish people across this region."
A senior US official said Pence's visit was meant both to reassure Iraqi Kurds who remain allied with the US in the fight against the Islamic State group, as well as Americans who have long supported the Kurdish cause, that the Trump administration remained committed to the alliance.
The visit was also designed to show Pence's focus on foreign policy as Washington is gripped by the drama of impeachment.
When the US forces withdrew, Syria's Kurds seeking protection from their No. 1 enemy, Turkey invited Syrian government and Russian forces into parts of northeastern Syria where they had not set foot in years. More are now deploying along large parts of the border region under a Russian-Turkish deal, including to at least one former U.S. garrison in northern Syria.
The Ankara agreement required Syrian Kurds to vacate a swath of territory in Syria along the Turkish border in an arrangement that largely solidified Turkey's position and aims.
Pence hailed the cease-fire as the way to end the bloodshed caused by Turkey's invasion, though he remained silent on whether it amounted to a second abandonment of America's former Kurdish allies, many of whom are branded as terrorists by Ankara.
The deal includes a halt to American economic sanctions and no apparent long-term consequences for Turkey for its actions.
The Syrian-led Kurdish forces say the cease-fire is persistently violated and fighting raged Saturday between them and Turkey-backed forces outside the Syrian town of Ein Issa, once home to US bases and the Kurdish administration.
On November 13, Trump feted Erdogan with a White House visit over the objection of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who argued Erdogan should be denied the honour of a West Wing visit in the aftermath of the invasion and because of his decision to purchase Russian-made surface-to-air missiles over the objection of NATO allies.
Barzani thanked Pence for the US military support in the fight against the Islamic State group, adding that his visit at this particular time is an important indication of your continued support to Kurdistan and Iraq.
The US collaboration with the Iraqi Kurds has not changed in the wake of US withdrawal from northern Syria.
In neighboring Syria, after declaring the near-complete withdrawal of US forces from Syria, Trump decided that roughly 800 would stay to keep eastern Syria's oil fields from falling back into the hands of the Islamic State.
Just years ago, the militant group seized control of vast stretches of Syria and Iraq, with its extremist ideology spreading from its self-declared caliphate across the globe.
In March, American troops and Syrian Kurdish forces routed the last Islamic State territorial holdings. But the militant group, which arose from the remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq after that group's defeat by US-led forces in 2008, has ambitions to regenerate again. And it remains a dangerous threat in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and beyond.
Trump also agreed to keep about 150 US troops at a base in southern Syria as a check on Iranian influence in the region.
Pence said the US and Kurdish alliance was meant to ensure that the Islamic State or another extremist group will not be able to gain a foothold in this region again.
His visit to Iraq comes as the country has been plagued by widespread anti-corruption protests.
At least 320 protesters have been killed and thousands have been wounded since the unrest began on October 1, when demonstrators took to the streets in Baghdad and across Iraq's mainly Shiite south to decry rampant government malfeasance and a lack of basic services despite Iraq's oil wealth.
Pence spoke by phone with Abdul-Mahdi after the Iraqi leader declined an invitation to meet with Pence at the air base after security concerns prevented Pence from travelling into Baghdad.
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