BAGHDAD: Iraq´s oil is the property ofIraqis, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday, inreaction to U.S.President Donald Trump who argued that theUnited States should have taken possession of the nation´s crudereserves.
In a speech to CIA officials on Saturday, Trump suggestedthe United States should have taken Iraq´s oil in reimbursementfor the 2003 invasion that put an end to Saddam Hussein´s rule.
Trump also suggested that taking Iraq´s oil would haveprevented Islamic State group (Daesh) from rising up, by removing a source ofthe group´s funding, according to a Huffington Post report ofthe encounter.
"It wasn´t clear what he meant," Abadi told a newsconference when asked about Trump´s comments."Did he mean in2003 or to prevent the terrorists from seizing Iraq´s oil?"
"Iraq´s oil is constitutionally the property of the Iraqis,"he said.The new U.S.president has also sent messages offering toincrease the level of assistance to Iraq, Abadi said, withoutgiving details on the nature of the assistance.
"I´ve got assurances from President Trump that theassistance to Iraqi will continue and that it will alsoincrease," Abadi told a news conference in Baghdad.
Trump has made the fight against Daesh, the hardlinegroup that declared a self-styled "caliphate" over parts ofSyria and Iraq in 2014, a priority for his administration.