Iraqi lawmakers on Sunday unanimously approved a bill, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country following the assassination of Iran's top military commander, Lt. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, and the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force following the development, US President Donald Trump vowed to introduce sanctions on Baghdad, ones even harsher than those imposed on Iran.
"We will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame,” Trump said.
“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build, long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it," he said.
Trump further defended his earlier remarks about striking Iran’s cultural sites, in case Iran carried out its promised revenge over the US assassination of Lt. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
"They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people and we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way," he said.
This is while targeting cultural sites with military action is considered a war crime under international law, a point previously brought up by FM Zarif.
Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were assassinated in US airstrikes in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council said in a statement that a harsh vengeance "in due time and right place" awaits criminals behind Soleimani's assassination.
MNA/PR
Your Comment