BEIRUT -- The consequences of the U.S.' killing of a top Iranian general rippled across the Middle East and beyond on Sunday, with Iran all but abandoning a landmark nuclear agreement and Iraqi lawmakers voting in favor of expelling U.S. forces from their country.
President Donald Trump on Sunday reaffirmed his threat that the United States had pinpointed 52 targets in Iran -- including cultural sites -- in the event that Iran retaliates. The sites, he said in a tweet Saturday, represented the 52 American hostages held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. 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," Trump told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a holiday stay at his Florida estate.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif declared that "targeting cultural sites is a war crime" and predicted that the "end of U.S. malign presence in West Asia has begun."
Trump has said that the killing of Soleimani on Friday was aimed at preventing war. But so far, it has unleashed a host of consequences that threaten to alter where the United States operates.
Soleimani was a towering figure both in Iran and across the Middle East, where he cultivated proxy militias in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Since he was killed in a U.S. drone strike at the Baghdad airport Friday alongside an Iraqi militia leader, Iran and its partners have stepped up calls for vengeance, although they have yet to follow through on the threats.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dxu8s5BW6Y]
Esmail Ghaani, the Iranian general who replaced Soleimani, vowed Sunday to take revenge for the death of his predecessor.
"God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger. Certainly actions will be taken," Ghaani said in an interview with Iranian state television that aired today.
In a tweet Sunday afternoon, Trump issued another warning on Iran. "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," he wrote. "Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!"
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tiptoed around questions about Trump's threat to attack Iranian cultural sites, a military action that likely would be illegal under the laws of armed conflict and the U.N. charter.
Pompeo said any U.S. military strikes inside Iran would be legal.
"We'll behave inside the system," Pompeo said. "We always have, and we always will."
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2ObLl9LF9M]
NUCLEAR DEAL
The Iranian government, meanwhile, said Sunday that it was abandoning its "final limitations in the nuclear deal," the international agreement intended to prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons. The decision leaves no restrictions on Iran's nuclear program, the statement said, including on uranium enrichment, production, research and expansion.
Iranian state television cited a statement by President Hassan Rouhani's administration saying the country would not observe the deal's restrictions on fuel enrichment, on the size of its enriched uranium stockpile and on its research and development activities.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran no longer faces any limitations in operations," a state TV broadcaster said.
Iran will, however, continue its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and return to the nuclear limits if the economic sanctions imposed on it are removed and Iran's interests are guaranteed, the government said. U.S. sanctions have hit Iran's oil-based economy particularly hard.
The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment on the reports of Iran abandoning the nuclear deal.
IRAQI VOTE
In Iraq, where the U.S. carried out the strike, lawmakers voted Sunday to require the government to end the presence of U.S. troops in the country.
The measure will not take effect until it is signed by the prime minister, and it was unclear whether Iraq's current caretaker government has the authority to end the relationship with the U.S. military.
Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who is in charge of Iraq's caretaker government until his replacement is chosen, drafted the language and submitted the bill approved by parliament Sunday, leaving little doubt about his support.
The vote in parliament was 170-0, but many of the body's 328 members, primarily those representing the country's ethnic Kurdish and Sunni Muslim minorities, did not attend the session and did not vote. Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority dominates the Iraqi government.
The legislation threads a fine needle: While using strong language demanding that the government "end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil and prevent the use of Iraqi airspace, soil and water for any reason" by foreign forces, it gives no timetable for doing so.
It would end the mission approved in 2014 that gave the United States the explicit task of helping Iraqi forces fight the Islamic State. That agreement gave the Americans substantial latitude to launch attacks and use Iraqi airspace.
The measure would leave in place the Strategic Framework Agreement, which allows a U.S. troop presence in Iraq in some form, although only "at the invitation of the Iraqi government."
Trump responded to the troop-withdrawal vote with a monetary threat, saying the U.S. expected to be paid for its military investments in Iraq before leaving. He also threatened economic sanctions if the U.S. is not treated properly.
"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 told reporters aboard Air Force One.
"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 said.
He added: "We're not leaving until they pay us back for it."
Elsewhere, the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria announced Sunday that it would pause its yearslong mission of fighting the Islamic State and training local forces in both countries.
A pullout of the estimated 5,200 U.S. troops in Iraq could affect the fight against the Islamic State. A smaller contingent of about 1,000 U.S. troops is in eastern Syria.
An American withdrawal could also enable Iran to deepen its influence in Iraq, a majority Shiite country like Iran.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Fox News that the parliamentary vote is "a bit concerning."
"The Iranian government is trying to basically take over Iraq's political system. Iran is bribing Iraqi politicians. To the Iraqi people, do not allow your politicians to turn Iraq into a proxy of Iran," Graham said.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqrLae9C5tI]
BACKLASH AGAINST U.S.
The general's killing unleashed calls for vengeance in both Iraq and Iran and reinforced solidarity among hard-liners and moderates in Iran against the United States. After the vote in Iraq calling on the government to expel U.S. troops, Iranian officials reacted with congratulatory messages.
Hesameddin Ashena, a top adviser to Rouhani, wrote on Twitter, "Expanding friendship with our neighbors and domestic unity are the best gifts for protecting our national security."
In Iraq, the strike that killed Soleimani was seen as a violation of the nation's sovereignty. On Sunday, Iraq's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad. But in Iran, the U.S. action was viewed as tantamount to an act of war. Hossein Dehghan, a military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told CNN that Iran's response would include an attack on "U.S. military targets."
Members of Iran's parliament chanted "Death to America!" in the chamber Sunday in protest over Soleimani's killing, television footage showed.
The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia warned Americans "of the heightened risk of missile and drone attacks." In Lebanon, the leader of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said Soleimani's killing made U.S. military bases, warships and service members across the region fair game for attacks. And a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard leader suggested the Israeli cities such as Haifa and Tel Aviv could be targeted should the U.S. attack Iran.
[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/16iran/]
ALLIES' CONCERN
The killing of the Iranian general left the U.S.' European allies scrambling to address the safety of their troops in the Middle East and complaining that they had been given no warning about the strike. European leaders called for a de-escalation of the tensions between Iran and the United States.
Germany's defense minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said in a statement: "Iraq cannot be allowed to sink into chaos, and certainly not under the control of extremists. Therefore, it is important not to let up now in the fight against Islamic State."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain was reported to be angry with Trump for not informing him, or other allies with troops in Iraq, about the decision to kill Soleimani. While carried out by Americans, the killing is seen as having put all European citizens and troops in Iraq and the wider region at heightened risk.
Johnson, who was said to be returning early from a vacation in the Caribbean, is expected to discuss the issues with Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in the next few days, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
Pompeo said the response by European allies had not been "helpful." He told Fox News in an interview that "the Brits, the French, the Germans all need to understand that what we did, what the Americans did, saved lives in Europe as well."
Information for this article was contributed by Ben Hubbard, Alissa J. Rubin, Farnaz Fassihi and Steven Erlanger of The New York Times; and by Robert Burns, Jonathan Lemire, Nasser Karimi, Jon Gambrell, Zeina Karam, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Bassem Mroue, Aya Batrawy, Sarah El Deeb and Kelvin Chan of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/06/2020