Pompeo: European response to Suleimani killing ‘not helpful enough’

Mike Pompeo has expressed disappointment with European reaction to the US killing of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, suggesting the UK, France and Germany have not been sufficiently supportive.

The US secretary of state compared the European response unfavourably with US “partners in the region”, a likely reference to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which Pompeo consulted after the Suleimani assassination.

“I spent the last day and a half, two days, talking to partners in the region, sharing with them what we were doing, why we were doing it, seeking their assistance,” Pompeo told Fox News. “They’ve all been fantastic. And then talking to our partners in other places that haven’t been quite as good.

“Frankly, the Europeans haven’t been as helpful as I wish that they could be. The Brits, the French, the Germans all need to understand that what we did, what the Americans did, saved lives in Europe as well.

“Qassem Suleimani led and his IRGC [Revolutionary Guard] led assassination campaigns in Europe. This was a good thing for the entire world, and we are urging everyone in the world to get behind what the United States is trying to do to get the Islamic Republic of Iran to simply behave like a normal nation.”

European reaction to the drone-strike killing of Suleimani and Iraqi Shia militants travelling with him in Baghdad has been cautious and apprehensive. While noting Suleimani’s destructive role in the region, governments have called for restraint.

Policy towards Iran has been a deeply divisive issue between the US and Europe since Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 multilateral agreement with Iran that imposed strict limits on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. European officials have blamed Trump’s efforts to strangle Iran economically for the rising tensions in the Persian Gulf.

There were immediate signs that in the short term at least, the killing of Suleimani would inhibit the broad coalition effort to wipe out Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Nato suspended its training of Iraqi security forces, currently led by Canada, and the US-led counter-Isis mission in the region, Operation Inherent Resolve, also cut back its activities, including the training of Iraqi counter-terrorist units.

“Over the last few days we’ve literally stopped the anti-Isis fight – everything stopped,” said Michael Knights, an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Knights said the counter-Isis campaign had already been severely hindered over the past year as Shia militias extended their influence. US-led forces have been stopped from flying over a large part of Iraq and banned from communicating with Sunni tribal forces, which had been seen as an important part of the strategy for keeping Isis suppressed.

The increased militia threat has also meant US special forces have had to abandon remote positions which they had been manning with Iraqi army units, because such small 30-strong detachments had become too vulnerable.

“You just can’t do that because those guys could easily be overrun, killed or kidnapped by the militias, by the Iranians,” Knights said.

“It’s been very challenging to keep counter-Isis operations going under these conditions, and now with the really ramped-up threat to operating locations, it’s even harder, and if they kick us out of the country, even harder still.”

If the Iraq parliament votes to eject the US military, other partner countries in the coalition will leave too, he said.

“It operates on an ‘in-with-us out-with-us’, meaning those countries that came in with the US, will leave with the US.”