NEW YORK — Iraq's president says he is as confused as anyone by his prime minister's warning Thursday that ISIS is planning an imminent attack on the New York and Paris subway systems.
"Personally I don't have any information about this," said Iraqi President Fuad Masum in an appearance Friday morning at the Council on Foreign Relations. "I have not heard or seen exactly what he said."
"It could be an expectation of this to happen by a sleeper cell and they retaliate — they could resort to such things," Masum said. "But as detailed accurate information, I have not seen any information on this and I have only seen through the newspapers what he said."
"The nature of the statement, how it was made, was not very clear and I tried to ask him but he's on his way to Baghdad on a plane, that's why I could not get hold of him," Masum said.
Iraq's new prime minister Haidar al-Abadi told reporters at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday morning that ISIS was planning to attack the New York and Paris subway systems and that he had learned of the plot from ISIS militants who had been captured by Iraqi intelligence agents.
The alleged plot was news to everyone, including U.S. officials, who said they had no information about such a plot. New York City officials said that New Yorkers shouldn't worry about the threat: "We are convinced that New Yorkers are safe," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference.
There "is no specific credible threat whatsoever that they have uncovered to the United States," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran and Iraq Brett McGurk told CNN on Thursday.