WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to end US aid to Iraq if Nouri al-Maliki, a former prime minister with ties to Iran, returns to office.
Trump, in his latest apparent intervention in another country’s politics, said Iraq would make a “very bad choice” with Maliki.
“The last time Maliki was in power, the country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Because of his crazy policies and ideologies, if the United States is elected, the United States will no longer help Iraq,” he said.
“If we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of success, prosperity or freedom. MAKE IRAQ GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote.
Maliki left power in 2014 under pressure from the United States, which blamed his bare-bones sectarian agenda for giving rise to the Islamic State group of extremists.
The US has an important influence on Iraq, as the country’s oil export revenues are largely held at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, in an arrangement made after the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
