(Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has arrived in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday, the latest example of his expanding foreign policy role.
Kushner -- a senior adviser to the president and the husband of Ivanka Trump -- is traveling with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford and Thomas Bossert, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said in an emailed statement.
“General Dunford invited Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bossert to meet with Iraqi leaders, senior U.S. advisers, and visit with U.S. forces in the field to receive an update on the status of the counter-ISIS campaign in Iraq and Syria,” Pahon said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
Pahon didn't detail the planned stops by Kushner, Dunford and Bossert or share an itinerary of scheduled meetings. The visit was reported earlier by the New York Times.
The Iraq visit comes amid increased efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to support a months-long push by government troops to take back the northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State.
Kushner, 36, who has no previous foreign-policy experience in government, has been involved in diplomatic roles that might traditionally be fulfilled by a secretary of state on several fronts, including Middle East peace, relations with Canada and Mexico, and Trump's summit later this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
It is the first visit by Kushner and Bossert to Iraq, Pahon said.
“As well as receiving briefings and updates, Mr. Kushner is traveling on behalf of the president to express the president's support and commitment to the Government of Iraq and U.S. personnel currently engaged in the campaign” against the Islamic State, Pahon said.
--With assistance from Toluse Olorunnipa
To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman
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