Iraq’s parliament has voted to oust US and other foreign troops fighting Isis, delivering a blow to efforts to fight the jihadi group following Washington’s decision to assassinate Qassem Suleimani in an airstrike.
In neighbouring Iran, hundreds of thousands took to the streets of the country’s cities and towns to mourn Suleimani, demanding retaliation for the killing of the general by Donald Trump’s administration .
Iraq’s parliament convened and quickly passed the non-binding vote not only for the removal of foreign troops but also to submit a complaint to the United Nations against the US for violating the country’s sovereignty, marking a nadir in relations between Washington and Baghdad – where the airstrike took place in the early hours of Friday.
“Despite the domestic and international challenges that we may face, this choice remains the best for Iraq,” Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, told lawmakers.
“Iraq lived without foreign forces in the period between 2011 and 2014 and its relationship with the US and any other party did not deteriorate.”
US forces in Iraq issued a statement saying they had “paused” anti-Isis efforts over the tensions with Iranian-backed forces a day after Nato nations declared they were pulling all troops out of the country.
The killings, ordered by Mr Trump in response to attacks on US sites in Iraq by Iranian-backed militias, have roiled the already volatile Middle East and upped preparations for a long-dreaded war as diplomats frantically sought to defuse the crisis.
The bodies of Suleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes were transported to the Iranian eastern shrine city of Mashhad on Sunday for burial.
Video footage showed thousands of emotional, grieving Iranians swarming around a white truck carrying their bodies through the centre of the city in scenes reminiscent of the death of Iran’s revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, some three decades ago.
Mashhad is the city where a late 2017 uprising against the government that turned into a nationwide series of protests began. Suleimani, a pillar of the establishment, was celebrated even in anti-regime hotspots gripped only weeks ago by protests demanding political change.
Earlier video footage from a helicopter showed a lengthy procession of Iranians dressed in black gathering stretched along a long boulevard through the streets of central Ahvaz, capital of a largely ethnic Arab southwestern Iranian province that has been the scene of scores of anti-government protests since late 2017.
City officials renamed Ahvaz’s international airport after the “martyr” Suleimani.
The commander of Iran’s clandestine overseas service was regarded as a popular figure in Iran, credited by many for helping defeat Isis and respected for publicly declining to use his celebrity to pursue political office.
It remains unclear whether his killing will quell the nascent movement against the regime that Washington hawks who have Mr Trump’s ear had been counting on to topple it.
But for now, few inside Iran were speaking of the economic troubles that had sparked an uprising in November that left scores of people dead, as Iranian officials and some segments of the public sought revenge, and officials spoke of war.
As Iran’s parliament opened, scores of Iranians lawmakers who gathered for an emergency session waved their fists in the air and chanted “Death to America.”
But Iranian leaders also went out of their way to insist they did not seek to harm American citizens.
Iranian leaders appear to have a sophisticated understanding of US domestic political issues, and state media has highlighted comments by Democratic Party officials criticising Trump’s Iran policies, including his 2018 decision to abruptly abandon a nuclear deal with Iran that had been forged by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
“We have zero problems with the American people,” Hesameddin Ashena, an adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, wrote on Twitter. “We even achieved deals with previous US administrations. Our sole problem is Trump. In the event of war, it is he who will bear full responsibility.”
One hardline Iranian lawmaker, Abolfazl Aboutorabi, said that Iran “can attack the White House itself,” in retaliation for the killing. “We can respond to them on American soil,” he was quoted as saying.
But more senior Iranian officials sought to place limits of any response, even after Mr Trump threatened to destroy 52 Iranian targets including cultural sites important to Iranian people in a bizarre and angry Tweet on Saturday.
“The response will definitely be military and against military sites,” Hossein Dehghan, a military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, told CNN. “It was America that started the war. Therefore they should expect appropriate reactions to their actions.”
In a speech from Lebanon broadcast on television, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a staunch ally of Iran and close friend of Suleimani, threatened US troops but cautioned against any attacks that would harm American civilians.
“When the coffins of American soldiers and officers begin to be transported … to the United States, Trump and his administration will realise that they have really lost the region and will lose the elections,” he said, adding US civilians in the region “should not be touched” because this would serve Trump’s agenda.
Iranian hardline lawmaker Mojtaba Zonnour said, ”If they target our cultural centres, we will hit their vessels and their bases.”
Iran’s first response may be to further scale back its commitment to the nuclear deal following the US withdrawal from the agreement. Iran has already decreased its commitment four times.
The foreign ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said it would announce as early as tonight what steps it would take, suggesting that it was considering more drastic resumption of its nuclear programme following the assassination.
“Decisions had been made about the fifth step but due to the current situation, an important meeting will be held tonight on the fifth step that can affect the previous decisions,” he said.
Diplomatic attempts to defuse the crisis continued. Oman, an Arabian Peninsula nation with strong ties to both Iran and the US, urged the countries to turn to diplomacy.
Russia and China, both permanent veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council issued a statement condemning the US assassination and cautioning that “military adventurism is unacceptable,” according to the Xinhua news agency.
Mr Dehghan, speaking to CNN, suggested that US restraint in the face of a face-saving Iranian counter-response could prevent the outbreak of a widespread armed conflict. “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 inflicted,” he said. “Afterward, they should not seek a new cycle.”
Richard Hall in Beirut contributed to this report.
Read more
Iraq votes to expel US troops as Iran vows retaliation – live
Neither Iran nor Trump will want a conflict over Soleimani’s death
Trump claims general was ‘plotting to kill’ Americans, without details
General Qassem Suleimani: Feared by foes and fiercely admired at home
Iraq releases dramatic images of flaming wreckage from US airstrikes