Donald Trump threatens Iraq with bans

Donald Trump threatened Iraq with harsh sanctions after Iraqi MPs voted to expel US troops from the country.

Donald Trump on Monday threatened Iraq with harsh sanctions after Iraqi MPs voted to expel US troops from the country.

The fallout from the US President’s order to kill Iranian general Qassem Soleimani had escalated sharply after Iran abandoned restrictions on enriched uranium under the nuclear deal.

“If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame,” he told reporters on Air Force One.

He also said Iraq would have to pay back the US for billions of dollars spent on an air base. “We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he said, according to CNBC.

Iraq’s parliament voted overwhelmingly in a non-binding resolution to expel all foreign troops from the country, raising doubts about the future of the 5000 US troops and 300 Australian troops stationed in Iraq. The Australians are helping to train Iraqi forces.

Because the parliamentary vote is non-binding, it will not lead to any forced withdrawals of US or Australian troops in the short term.

Iran declared it would abandon a major tenet of the 2015 nuclear deal, saying it would no longer limit its enrichment of uranium following the killing by the US of Major General Soleimani.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centri­fuges,” the Iranian government said. “Therefore Iran’s nuclear program will have no limitations in production including enrichment capacity and percentage and number of enriched uranium and research and expansion.”

The moves means Iran can now escalate its uranium enrichment, which can be used to fuel a nuclear weapon. Iran said it would return to the terms of the deal — which is aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb — only if all sanctions against it were removed. The US withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018 but ­European nations have tried to persuade Iran to stay in it.

In Baghdad, the widespread anger over the assassination of General Soleimani led Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, to urge parliament to take “urgent measures” to force the withdrawal of foreign forces from his country, saying it was a sake of “national sovereignty”.

“What happened was a political assassination,” Mr Abdul Mahdi said of General Soleimani’s killing by a US drone near Baghdad airport last Friday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected Mr Abdul Mahdi’s comments but did not say whether US troops would remain in the country. “We are confident that the Iraqi people want the United States to continue to be there to fight the counter-terror campaign. And we’ll continue to do all the things we need to do to keep America safe,” he said.

Iraq’s parliament voted 170 to 0 to expel foreign troops from the country but the vote was non-binding and has no practical effect in law because it is a caretaker government. Mr Abdul Mahdi, who resigned in the face of street protests in November, is not legally authorised to sign the bill into law.

The 5000 US troops in Iraq are primarily tasked with helping prevent the resurgence of Islamic State and to train Iraqi forces. However, they also help to support the smaller US troop presence in neighbouring Syrian and their presence helps counter Iran’s growing influence in Iraq.

Iran’s decision to abandon the nuclear deal comes after Tehran had already progressively flouted key aspects of the deal over the six months to protest the stinging US sanctions against the country.

As anti-American protests erupted in Iran over General Soleimani’s killing, Tehran said it had 35 US targets, as well as Israel, in its sights. “The response for sure will be military and against military sites,” Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said. “The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted.”

He was speaking after Donald Trump warned of a fierce US military response if Iran launched any attack on Americans in response to General Soleimani’s death.

“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level and important to Iran & the Iranian culture,” he tweeted.

In response to the Iranian threats, the Trump administration has paused its mission in Iraq against Islamic State and said it would focus in the short term on protecting Iraqi bases that host Coalition troops.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia

These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2020