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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reaffirmed “the strong U.S.-Iraq defense partnership in the fight against ISIS” during a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart, a Pentagon spokesman announced Wednesday.
Phone calls between defense officials are nothing new, but Mattis has played a remarkably diplomatic role in the early days of his tenure atop the Defense Department. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is under pressure from political rivals who want him to retaliate against President Trump‘s executive order revoking most Iraqi visas to the United States. Iraqi frustration with the order was exacerbated by their ongoing effort to drive ISIS out Mosul, the second-largest city in the country.
“Secretary Mattis congratulated [Iraqi Defense Minister Arfan al-Hayali] on his new position and praised the Iraqis’ hard-won gains against ISIS — most recently in eastern Mosul,” Pentagon Spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in the readout of the call.
That’s the latest example of Trump’s Cabinet team reaching out to American allies recently offended by the president’s unconventional style, thereby reassuring Trump’s Republican allies and even some of his congressional critics. “Mattis just went to Japan and Korea and did a great job, talked about the commitment that we have to them,” Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., who has criticized Trump repeatedly, told reporters on Wednesday. “It was very important, because it is well known the president’s respect for [Secretary] Mattis.”
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Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, also praised Mattis’ skills as an emissary. “Go look at the press in Korea and Japan,” he told the Washington Examiner. “It’s nonstop coverage of Mattis’ trip, all very positive. And he was strong. He knew what he was doing there.”
Mattis reiterated that the United States would deploy an anti-ballistic missile system to counter North Korean nuclear weapons and pledged that the U.S. would defend Japanese-held islands claimed by China. “Some people think the Senkaku [Islands] statement is saber rattling — it’s actually stabilizing,” Sullivan said. “It’s building out what President Obama did, to his credit. And you know, you draw a clear line in the sand and you are serious about enforcing it, that’s a stabilizing move, not a destabilizing move.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson joined those efforts as soon as his confirmation was approved. The former Exxon Mobil CEO called Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, among others, on his first full day on the job. “In all of his conversations, Secretary Tillerson stressed America’s steadfast commitment to its key allies and partners as it works to protect the interests and safety of the American people,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
That call took place one day after news broke that Trump had reportedly criticized Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s efforts to confront “bad hombres” in his country. After days of controversy over Trump’s contentious phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Tillerson called Australia’s top diplomat, as well as his counterparts in Japan and Korea.
“In each conversation, he underscored his determination to work closely together on regional and global priorities,” Toner said Tuesday. “The ministers each agreed on the importance of close cooperation to meet the challenges posed by ISIS, the threat from North Korea’s illegal nuclear and missile programs, and tensions in the East and South China Sea. The secretary conveyed his interest in early meetings with his counterparts and expressed his deep respect for their nations’ contributions to regional security, global prosperity, democratic institutions, and the rule of law.
Also from the Washington Examiner
The Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions to be President Trump’s attorney general on Wednesday night, over sustained but ultimately futile Democratic complaints that Sessions worked against minority interests when he was a U.S. attorney for Alabama, and that he’s too close to Trump to enforce the law independently from the White House.
Democrats changed the rules in 2013 so that only a simple majority is needed to approve a president’s Cabinet nominees. Under those rules, the Senate easily confirmed Sessions in a party-line vote, and was helped by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who had said he would support Sessions’ nomination.
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02/08/17 7:20 PM
There’s more to that combined outreach than simply smoothing ruffled feathers, according to lawmakers, particularly with respect to Japan and Korea. “The long term, biggest national security challenge our country faces — that historians are going to be writing about 50 years from now — is how we dealt with the rise of another great power in the Asia-Pacific,” Sullivan said. “A great power we have to deal with on a lot of dimensions.”
Some Republicans see more of the limits of Mattis and Tillerson’s Asia-Pacific diplomacy. “It’s very helpful for the secretary of defense to go there given some campaign rhetoric and be reassuring,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said, before invoking Trump’s decision to withdraw from a trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim countries. “I just don’t think calling is going to [reverse] the damage that will be done from abandoning the TPP. If you really wanted to make a giant stride in the Asia-Pacific, say we’re going to renegotiate the TPP. But we’re just walking away from it . . . China will take full advantage of this.”
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Group of roughly 10 House members marched onto the Senate floor to draw attention to their opposition.
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02/08/17 2:04 PM
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