(CNN) President Donald Trump's suggestion that the US would use a base in Iraq as a means to "watch" Iran evoked the scorn of Iraqi lawmakers on Monday and seemed to cause confusion among Pentagon officials and analysts, while the State Department told CNN that the US mission in Iraq remains unchanged.

"One of the reasons I want to keep it is because I want to be looking a little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem," Trump told CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday, adding that he wouldn't use the US military outpost to strike Iran, but to "watch" it.

"All I want to do is be able to watch. We have an unbelievable and expensive military base built in Iraq. It's perfectly situated for looking at all over different parts of the troubled Middle East rather than pulling up," he said. "And this is what a lot of people don't understand. We're going to keep watching and we're going to keep seeing and if there's trouble, if somebody is looking to do nuclear weapons or other things, we're going to know it before they do."

Trump's comments were strongly rejected by current and former Iraqi political leaders.

Iraqi President Bahram Salih said that the US had not asked permission to have forces on the ground "watch Iran," noting that "the US presence in Iraq is a part of an agreement between the two countries with a specific task which is to combat terrorism."

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