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Defense Secretary Mattis Contradicts Trump On Iraqi Oil

Published February 20, 2017 at 1:52 PM EST
U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Mattis (center), arrives in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, on Feb. 20, 2017. (Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Mattis (center), arrives in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, on Feb. 20, 2017. (Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary of Defense James Mattis is in Baghdad, Iraq on Monday on an unannounced visit as the fight against ISIS continues there. In an attempt to ease relations between the U.S. and Iraq, Mattis also commented on the oil in Iraq in an apparent contradiction to President Trump’s previous comments, saying, “We’re not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil.”

Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson speaks with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi ( @AliVelshi) about Mattis’s thinking, the current relationship between Iraq and the U.S. and how oil prices could change in the coming months.

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