Iraq: Trump’s election will not change Baghdad-Washington ties, including war on terror

BAGHDAD, Iraq—The Iraqi government stated on Wednesday that the election of Republican candidate Donald Trump as US president will not impact or change its bilateral relations with the United States, including the war against terror.

“The Iraqi-American strategic agreement, including the economy and war on terror are all mutual files between the two countries and these ties will remain as they are and will not change anything between Iraq and the United States,” Iraqi government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi told Rudaw.

Al-Hadithi said, “There are common interests and mutual relations between Iraq and America and I don’t expect any of this to change with Trump’s victory,”

Republican candidate Trump won the US presidential elections on Wednesday against Hillary Clinton and became the 45th president of the United States America.

Al-Hadithi whose government has a strategic security agreement with the US said that the election of Trump is only a change in names.

“For the past eight years the democrats have been in power in the United States and today the republicans have won, but this is only the change of people and names and not policy,” he argued. “Politics will stay as they are now.”

In December 2012 Iraq’s acting Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dlimi signed a memorandum of understanding on security cooperation with America’s Department of Defense.

According to the website of the US state department, “This agreement represents the strong military to military relationship between the United States and Iraq, and provides mechanisms for increased defense cooperation in areas including defense planning, counterterrorism cooperation, and combined exercises.”