Tillerson tries peacemaking between Riyadh and Baghdad

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Riyadh for the goal of “uniting Saudi Arabia and Iraq in common cause to counter Iran’s growing assertiveness.” DEBKAfile:  His timing is off. At that very moment, the Iraqi army backed by pro-Iranian militias and Tehran was advancing on Irbil, capital of the US-backed Kurdish Republic of Iraq.  Their push came a week after an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general delivered the northern city of Kirkuk and its oilfields into the hands of the grateful Haydar al-Abadi government in Baghdad. However, the Secretary of State insisted: “Certainly Iranian militias that are in Iraq, now that the fighting against (the Islamic State group) is coming to a close, those militias need to go home. All foreign fighters need to go home.” Indeed? Were they fighting ISIS in Kirkuk?