Kerry makes unannounced stop in Iraq amid ISIS fight

Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Friday to meet with top government leaders and spur their fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The trip, Kerry’s first to the nation in 18 months, comes amid intensified focus against ISIS and as the central government struggles to remain unified. 

{mosads}“This is obviously a very critical time here in Iraq and in the region,” Kerry said in brief remarks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. “I’m happy to visit with you again.”

While in Baghdad, Kerry announced that the U.S. will be giving nearly $155 million in new humanitarian aid to support people affected by ISIS in Iraq and across the region.

In addition to Jaafari, Kerry is also scheduled to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Council of Representatives Speaker Salim al-Jabouri and Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the State Department said.

Abadi’s government is struggling to establish a cabinet but has been hampered on the one side by hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and on the other by ISIS’s seizure of stretches of Iraq.

Iraqi forces are planning an assault to root ISIS out of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. But any political instability would surely halt that momentum and threaten to thrust the country deeper into turmoil.  

Kerry “will underscore our strong support for the Iraqi government as it addresses significant security, economic, and political challenges,” the State Department said in a statement after he had landed.

Political turbulence in Iraq has been magnified by an economic crisis due in part to the low price of oil, which has hindered the anti-ISIS fight.

A day before the visit to Iraq, which went unannounced for security reasons, Kerry was in Bahrain, where he spoke about the importance of stabilizing Iraq.

The government in Baghdad needs “to unify and rebuild its country and to reclaim territory that was occupied by Daesh,” Kerry said, using an alternate name for ISIS.

Kerry and Gulf Arab diplomats discussed “the need to assist in stabilization in Anbar as particular communities that were held by Daesh are liberated from the clutches of that terror organization,” he added, referring to a region of western Iraq on the Syrian border.