James Lankford: “I spent the last week, during Memorial Day week, in the Middle East. Angus King and I actually traveled to Baghdad…”

“I spent the last week, during Memorial Day week, in the Middle East. Angus King and I actually traveled to Baghdad, Erbil, Beirut, and Oman. And then Angus left out for Turkiye, and I left out for Jerusalem. It is exceptionally helpful to be able to walk through the different countries of the region right now. Obviously, there is a tremendous amount of instability around Syria. We had the opportunity to be able to ask leaders in every single one of those countries about the future of Syria and the options that are there and what could happen. It is to America's best interest to be able to have a stable Middle East and a functioning relationship in all of those countries. Just a quick walk-through of a couple things that I think are important there: In Baghdad, they are actively working to be able to reach out to American companies. There is a real interest there and, quite frankly, a growth in Baghdad's economy, in Iraq's economy. They are trying to be able to stabilize, though they are still very close to Iran and to Tehran. As chilling as it is, when I went in to meet with the Prime Minister, you can't go to the Prime Minister's office without going through the large traffic circle right outside his office, where he has a giant depiction of the martyr Soleimani in front of his office.”