This interview was conducted by Rudaw's Bestoon Khalid on December 27, 2021.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The former US ambassador to Iraq reaffirmed America’s support to the country in an interview with Rudaw on Monday.
“I think support for Iraq is one that you can be absolutely certain will remain strong,” James Franklin Jeffrey told Rudaw’s Bestoon Khalid.
“The United States has interests in keeping troops to help Iraq defend its sovereignty and its security against enemies beginning with the Islamic State,” he added.
Jeffrey was the US ambassador to Iraq from 2010 to 2012.
He was appointed by the Trump administration as United States special representative for Syria engagement in 2018, and in 2019 he was also special presidential envoy for the US-led Global Coalition to counter the Islamic State (ISIS).
Jeffrey also highlighted the formation of the new Iraqi government following the ratification of the October 10 election results.
“Any government that will serve the interests of the Iraqi people, all Iraqi people, from Erbil to Basra is a government that the United States will welcome and be happy to work with,”
After being questioned about the US strategy in the Kurdish-administered northeast Syria (Rojava), Jeffry said the US was able to “freeze the conflict in mid-2018. Show me where [Bashar] Assad has gained territory since August 2018. So, we have frozen the conflict and maintained the pressure on Assad.”
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