Pompeo postpones Ukraine trip after attack on US embassy in Iraq

Pompeo

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo postpones a trip to Ukraine, the country at the heart of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, after an attack on the American embassy in Iraq, the State Department announced.

Pompeo had been due to travel at week’s end to Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Cyprus.

But yesterday, a mob of pro-Iran demonstrators stormed the US embassy in Baghdad over American airstrikes that killed two dozen paramilitary fighters.

Pompeo’s travel was pushed back “due to the need for the secretary to be in Washington, DC to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus announces.

“Secretary Pompeo’s trip will be rescheduled in the near future and he looks forward to the visit at that time,” she adds.

— AFP