Trump threatens Iraq sanction if US troops expelled
Washington, Monday
President Trump has threatened severe sanctions against Iraq after its parliament called on US troops to leave the country.
“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he told reporters.
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Tensions are high after the US assassinated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last week. Iran has vowed “severe revenge”.
Soleimani, 62, spearheaded Iranian military operations in the Middle East, and was regarded as a terrorist by the US.
The general’s remains have now returned to his home country, where mourners packed the streets of Tehran early on Monday.
Yesterday, huge crowds packed the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran for the funeral of Soleimani.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei led prayers and at one point was seen weeping.
Iran on Sunday pulled back from the 2015 nuclear accord.
Soleimani was hailed as a national hero in Iran and widely considered the second most powerful man in the country behind Supreme Leader Khamenei.
State television showed huge crowds in Tehran for the event. It put the number who turned out as “millions” although this is yet to be verified.
His daughter Zeinab Soleimani warned the US it faced a “dark day” for the killing.
The new head of Iran’s Quds force - which Soleimani led—has vowed to expel the US from the Middle East.
“We promise to continue martyr Soleimani’s path with the same force... and the only compensation for us would be to remove America from the region,” state radio quoted Esmail Qaani as saying.
Military figure
The strike that killed Soleimani also claimed the life of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a top Iraqi military figure who commanded the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah group.
Speaking from the presidential plane, Trump said that if Iraq asked US forces to depart on an unfriendly basis, “we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before, ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”
Some 5,000 US soldiers are in Iraq as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group.
On Sunday, the coalition paused its operations against IS in Iraq, and Iraqi MPs passed a non-binding resolution calling for foreign troops to leave. -BBC
