Region

BAGHDAD — US President Donald Trump's threat to sanction Iraqis "like they've never seen before" if Baghdad kicks out American troops has brought back haunting memories of a decade under international embargo.

"If the US imposes sanctions on Iraq, the dinar will plummet and we'll be sent back to the past, to the days of the economic embargo," said Hisham Abbas, an Iraqi shopping in a commercial district of the capital.

On Sunday, Iraq’s parliament voted to urge the government to oust foreign troops from its soil, among them some 5,200 US troops helping local forces beat back extremists.

Trump quickly slammed the decision.

“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,” he said.

“It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”

Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was put under crippling global sanctions and an oil embargo seen as the toughest in history, cutting off trade and financial interactions with the outside world.

Its GDP was slashed in half, the Iraqi dinar collapsed and dozens of factories shuttered, leaving families relying on ration cards and slim salaries.

The measures were lifted in the years following the US-led invasion in 2003 and Iraq’s economy has slowly tried to reintegrate with the rest of the world.

It is now OPEC’s second-biggest crude producer and living standards have risen — most Iraqis own imported clothes, phones, cars and computers.

But after Trump’s comments, bitter memories of shortages and collapsed currencies came rushing back.

“Everything the Iraqi people suffered in the 1990s will come back. The economic embargo will come back,” worried Saleh, a middle-aged Iraqi with a thick mustache.

“It’ll be like the era of Saddam Hussein, and worse. There won’t be any cash left,” said Samer, another shopper.

The US has been particularly angered in recent months by repeated rocket attacks targeting the US embassy and American troops.

In response to those attacks, a senior US official at the Baghdad embassy told AFP months ago that Washington was considering a range of ways to ramp up pressure on Iraq.

“One possibility is sanctions, and limiting the cash that comes into Iraq. That would be the nuclear option,” the official said.

The US has already blacklisted Iraqi nationals, armed groups and even banks for their ties to Tehran and has hinted more sanctions are coming.

But they have so far left alone Iraq’s oil revenues, which make up more than 90 per cent of the state’s budget.

US and Iraqi officials previously told AFP that an oil embargo, like the one imposed now on Iran, would be too hurtful to a country considered an ally by Washington.

The US has so far sought to shield Iraq from the impact of its energy sanctions on Tehran by granting Baghdad a waiver to keep importing Iranian electricity.

But Sunday’s vote could change all that.

“One of the steps the international community could take would be halting financial interactions with Iraq,” speaker Mohammad Halbusi told MPs during the session.

“We would no longer be able to keep up our commitments to Iraqi citizens,” he warned.

In his comments on Sunday, Trump went further than just sanctions, threatening to make Iraq reimburse Washington for a “very extraordinarily expensive” base hosting US troops.

“We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he said.

The president did not specify which base but he visited US troops in late 2018 at Ain Al Assad, built in the 1980s.

“Iraqis feel humiliated, and rightly so, by the latest claims by Donald Trump on reimbursement,” said Karim Bitar of the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Relations.

“It’s delusional. It is reminiscent of Trump wanting to make Mexico pay for building the wall.”

ALGIERS — The head of Libya’s UN-recognised government was in Algeria on Monday to discuss increasing tensions in his country, ahead of a visit by the Turkish foreign minister.

Since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that killed longstanding Muammar Qadhafi, Libya has been plunged into chaos. It is now divided between the GNA and rival authorities based in the country’s east.

Tensions escalated last year when eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to capture the capital Tripoli, seat of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

The GNA sought help from Turkey where parliament passed a bill allowing the government to send troops to Libya to shore up the Tripoli government, and on Sunday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said soldiers had begun deploying in the north African country.

The Algerian presidency said GNA Prime Minister Fayez Al Sarraj arrived on Monday at the head of a high-ranking delegation to “discuss ways to resolve the difficult situation” in Libya, the official APS news agency reported.

He was due to meet newly-elected Algerian President Abdelmadjid, it said.

Algerian state television said the GNA’s foreign and interior ministers, Mohamed Taha Siala and Fathi Bachagha, met their Algerian counterparts Sabri Boukadoum and Kamel Beldjoud.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was also expected in Algiers later in the day for a two-day visit, according to his ministry.

On Thursday, Algerian foreign minister Boukadoum announced “several initiatives in favour of a peaceful solution to the Libyan crisis” and reaffirmed his country’s opposition to foreign interference in Libya.

Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia back Haftar, while the GNA is supported by Turkey and Qatar.

Algeria shares nearly 1,000 kilometres of border with Libya and 1,400 kilometres with Mali.

After taking office in December, Tebboune convened Algeria’s top security body to discuss the situation at its borders, notably with Libya.

Forces of Haftar on Monday said they had taken control of the coastal city of Sirte from factions loyal to the Tripoli government.

Sirte, some 450 kilometres east of the capital Tripoli, had been held by forces allied with the UN-GNA since 2016.

But on Monday, a spokesman for the rival faction, Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), said the city had fallen to his fighters.

“Sirte has been totally liberated... from terrorist groups,” Ahmad Al Mesmari, spokesman for Haftar’s forces, said on television following an operation that lasted just hours.

Haftar’s LNA earlier Monday said on social media they were “steadily advancing towards the heart of Sirte” after seizing control of Ghardabiya airport on the city’s outskirts.

The statement said the operation aimed to “purge Sirte of armed militias”.

The airport, located in an airforce base, fell into LNA hands after “forces tasked with protecting it surrendered completely with their equipment” to Haftar’s self-styled army, the statement added.

“Clashes are underway” in the southern part of Sirte and in its coastal area, the statement said, adding that some enemy fighters had fled while others were captured by the advancing LNA forces.

Forces loyal to the UN-recognised GNA confirmed they had come under attack in Sirte.

“We are dealing with Haftar’s terrorist militias,” they said in a statement on Facebook, adding that “mercenaries” from Chad were fighting alongside Haftar’s forces.

SANAA — Hundreds of Yemenis took part Monday in a protest in Sanaa called by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels to vent anger over the US assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.

"We come together with free men around the world to face down the American Satan," an announcer told the crowd at the Bab Al  Yaman entrance to the capital's Old City.

The demonstrators cried "Death to America" and waved banners calling for a boycott of US and Israeli products, in images broadcast by the Houthis' Al Masirah television. 

Houthi official Dhaifallah Al Shami addressed the crowd under giant portraits of Soleimani and top Iraqi military figure Mahdi Al Muhandis, both killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad last Friday. 

"The blood of the martyrs Soleimani and Muhandis is not just Iranian or Iraqi but belongs to the Muslim community and to free men around the world," he said.

The Houthis have called for swift reprisals for the killings.

A statement from Houthi authorities read out to the crowd said it was "time for the Americans and Zionists to pack their bags" and leave the region.

The rebels are locked in a five-year conflict with a Saudi-led military coalition.

It was unclear if the Houthi call for reprisals was also directed at Riyadh, which has stepped up efforts to end Yemen's conflict amid a lull in Houthi attacks on the kingdom.

Last September, the Houthis claimed responsibility for strikes against two major oil sites in eastern Saudi Arabia. Riyadh and Washington accused Iran of being behind the attacks, despite Tehran's denials. 

BAGHDAD  — The US military informed its counterparts in Baghdad on Monday it was preparing for "movement out of Iraq", a day after the Iraqi parliament urged the government oust foreign troops.

The head of the US military's Task Force Iraq, Brigadier General William Seely, sent a letter to the head of Iraq's joint operations command, a copy of which was seen by AFP.

The letter said forces from the US-led coalition in Iraq would "be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement".

"In order to conduct this task, Coalition Forces are required to take certain measures to ensure that the movement out of Iraq is conducted in a safe and efficient manner," said the letter, dated Monday. 

As the letter was signed by a US official, it was not immediately clear whether it applied to forces from the 76 countries which make up the international coalition. 

A US defence official and an Iraqi defence official confirmed the letter was real and had been delivered. 

It said helicopters would be travelling in and around the Green Zone as part of the preparations.

AFP could hear helicopters flying low over Baghdad throughout the night on Monday.

Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of the Daesh terror group.

They make up the bulk of the broader coalition, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help combat the extremists.

On Sunday, Iraq's parliament voted in favour of rescinding that invitation and ousting all foreign troops.

It came in reaction to a US precision drone strike on Baghdad that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, among others. 

On Monday, Iraqi premier Adel Abdel Mahdi met with the US Ambassador Matthew Tueller, telling him it was "necessary to work together to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq". 

TEHRAN — Black-clad mourners packed Iran's second city Mashhad on Sunday as the remains of top general Qassem Soleimani were paraded through the streets after he was killed in a US strike.

"Iran's wearing black, revenge, revenge," they chanted as darkness fell and they followed a truck carrying Soleimani's coffin towards the floodlit Imam Reza shrine.

The mourners threw scarves onto the roof of the truck so that they could be blessed by the "blood of the martyr".

Soleimani, who spearheaded Iran's Middle East operations as commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike Friday near Baghdad airport. He was 62.

The attack was ordered by President Donald Trump, who said the Quds commander had been planning an "imminent" attack on US diplomats and forces in Iraq.

Soleimani's remains had been returned before dawn to the southwestern city of Ahvaz, where the air resonated with Shiite chants and shouts of "Death to America" during a procession.

People held aloft portraits of Soleimani, one of the country's most popular public figures who is seen as a hero of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The "million-man" turnout in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, forced the cancellation of a Sunday night ceremony in Tehran, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who urged citizens instead to attend a memorial Monday at Tehran University.

'Terrorist in a suit' 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that "targeting cultural sites is a WAR CRIME".

Iran's army chief said Trump's threat was an attempt to distract the world from Soleimani's "unjustifiable" assassination.

"I doubt they have the courage to initiate" a conflict, said Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi.

Iran's communications minister, Mohammad Javad Jahromi, branded Trump a "terrorist in a suit" in a Twitter post.

Khamenei’s military adviser, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, told CNN that Iran’s response to the assassination “for sure will be military and against military sites”.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted there was a “real likelihood” of an Iranian attack on US soldiers, warning however “it would be a big mistake”.

In Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Iran-backed Hizbollah movement, insisted the “price” for Soleimani’s killing would be attacks on “US military bases, US warships, each and every officer and soldier in the region”.

US-Iran tensions escalated in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark accord that gave Tehran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

A year on, Iran began hitting back by reducing its nuclear commitments with a series of steps every 60 days, the most recent deadline passing on Saturday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Tehran would finalise the fifth step in a meeting on Sunday night, noting the nature of its move was altered by Soleimani’s killing.

In Tehran, deputies chanted “Death to America” for a few minutes during a regular session of parliament.

“Trump, this is the voice of the Iranian nation, listen,” said speaker Ali Larijani.

Soleimani’s remains and those of five other Iranians — all Guard members — killed in the US drone strike had arrived at Ahvaz Airport before dawn, semi-official news agency ISNA said.

With them were the remains of Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq’s powerful Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitary umbrella group, who was also killed in the strike.

Soleimani’s remains are due to be flown to the capital, where Khamenei is expected to pray over them at Tehran University on Monday before a procession to Azadi Square.

They will then be taken to the holy city of Qom for a ceremony at Masumeh shrine, ahead of a funeral on Tuesday in his hometown Kerman.

In neighbouring Iraq, pro-Iran factions ramped up pressure on US installations with missiles and warnings to Iraq’s troops late Saturday.

In the first hints of a possible retaliatory response, two mortar rounds struck Saturday near the US embassy in Baghdad, security sources said.

Almost simultaneously, two rockets slammed into the Al Balad Airbase where American troops are deployed.

Iraq said there were no casualties. The US military also said no coalition troops were hurt.

In another possible act of retaliation, hackers claiming to be from Iran breached the website of a little-known US government agency and threatened more cyberattacks.