WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump told the CIA on Saturday that the so-called Islamic State probably would never have existed if the United States had seized Iraq’s oilfields, a claim that flies in the face of the analysis of most foreign policy experts and international law. In unprepared remarks introducing his pick to lead the intelligence agency, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), Trump told CIA officials that when the United States went into Iraq, we should have “kept the oil.”“Now I said it for economic reasons,” Trump said. The strategy of taking Iraq’s oil is plainly in violation of multiple international laws and United Nations agreements. Politifact looked into this claim from Trump in September and found a number of reasons why taking Iraq’s oil, as Trump advocates, would be illegal. Foreign policy experts also seem to think taking Iraq’s oil would neither be feasible, nor desirable.

Source: Huffington Post January 21, 2017 22:20 UTC