Live updates: Iran holds massive funeral for slain commander in Tehran amid calls for vengeance - The Washington Post

Wana News Agency Via Reuters Iranians attend a funeral procession for slain Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Tehran, Jan. 6, 2020.

Huge throngs of Iranians attended the funeral of slain Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in the capital, Tehran, on Monday in a display rivaling the ceremony three decades ago that marked the passing of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, wept as he prayed over the coffin of Soleimani, while he and other Iranian leaders vowed revenge for the U.S. drone strike that killed one of the country’s top military commanders.

Here are key points of what we know:

●The funeral in Tehran was a stark display of Soleimani’s importance to the regime.

●In the aftermath of the strike that killed Soleimani, Iran has discarded more internationally mandated curbs on its nuclear program.

●Iraq’s parliament is moving to expel U.S. troops after the strike.

●President Trump has threatened to hit Iraq with heavy sanctions if U.S. troops are forced to leave.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated with no relief in sight in the days after a U.S. drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani, a revered Iranian military figure, on Jan. 3.

7:09 AM: Putin, Merkel to discuss Iran in Moscow

MOSCOW — At the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Moscow Saturday with plans to discuss escalating tensions in the Middle East in the wake of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s killing, the Kremlin announced.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is accompanying Merkel on the trip. Maas said Monday that President Trump threatening Iraq with heavy sanctions if U.S. troops are forced to leave is “not very helpful.”

Russia has been even more critical of the U.S. air strike that killed Soleimani. Its Foreign Ministry denounced the move as “reckless” on Friday though Putin himself has been publicly mum on the issue with the country still enjoying its New Year’s holidays.

He spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron by phone Friday evening, and the Kremlin announcement of the call said “both sides expressed concern” and “that this attack could escalate tensions in the region.”

Moscow has quietly benefitted from Soleimani’s death with oil prices spiking. Now Putin will weigh in on the state of the Middle East twice this week, when he meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul Wednesday and then with Merkel over the weekend.

By: Isabelle Khurshudyan

5:15 AM: France, Germany and Britain call on Iran to refrain from violence and honor nuclear deal

BEIRUT — In a joint statement on Monday, France, Germany and Britain appealed to Iran to stick with its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal and refrain from responding violently to a U.S. attack.

On Sunday, Iran announced that, unless U.S. sanctions are lifted, the country would abandon the accord’s “final restrictions” on uranium enrichment. The decision followed a U.S. drone attack that killed Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

“We specifically call on Iran to refrain from further violent action or proliferation, and urge Iran to reverse all measures inconsistent with JCPOA,” the statement said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal that Tehran struck with world powers.

The joint statement also stressed the need for de-escalation in the region, where tensions have escalated to a new level over the weekend, and it condemned attacks on forces in Iraq under the U.S.-led coalition to fight the Islamic State.

“The current cycle of violence in Iraq must be stopped,” it said.

By: Sarah Dadouch

5:00 AM: Removing U.S. troops from Iraq may not be that hard

President Trump may have balked at the idea of U.S. troops being asked to leave Iraq, but ending America’s 17-year military presence there may be easier for the country’s government than he thinks.

Unlike most deployments stretching back to the aftermath the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, American troops in Iraq are not operating under a conventional status of forces agreement approved by the Iraqi parliament, according to experts.

The presence of 5,000 U.S. troops as part of a global coalition fighting the Islamic State is based on an arrangement that is less formal and, ultimately, on the consent of an executive branch that urged parliament on Sunday to tell foreign forces to leave.

“The current U.S. military presence is based of an exchange of letters at the executive level,” said Ramzy Mardini, an Iraq scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace who previously served in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

[Getting U.S. troops out of Iraq might not be that hard, say experts]

“If the prime minister rescinds the invitation, the U.S. military must leave, unless it wants to maintain what would be an illegal occupation in a hostile environment,” Mardini said.

Addressing Iraq’s wood-paneled parliament on Sunday, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi urged lawmakers to take “urgent measures” to force the withdrawal of foreign troops. Shortly after, the chamber passed a nonbinding resolution to that effect, and Abdul Mahdi’s office said that legal experts were drawing up a timetable for the pullout.

“At this moment in time [the] government has not yet decided to remove foreign troops but it is probable soon as things stand,” Sajad Jiyad, managing director of the Baghdad-based Bayan Center think tank, wrote on Twitter.

By: Louisa Loveluck

3:00 AM: Iran’s supreme leader weeps at funeral of commander killed by U.S. drone strike

ISTANBUL — Facing a sea of mourners in central Tehran on Monday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, openly wept as he prayed over the body of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the slain commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

The commander’s death has galvanized Iranians who have rallied in major cities, including Ahvaz, Mashhad and now Tehran.

Official President's website

Via Reuters

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Hassan Rouhani pray before the coffins of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Tehran, Jan. 6, 2020.

Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of the capital Monday to pay homage to Soleimani, a larger-than-life figure who oversaw the rapid expansion of Iranian influence across the Middle East. A U.S. drone targeted Soleimani as he left the Baghdad airport in a two-car convoy last week. U.S. officials cited what they said was his role directing rocket attacks on U.S. military bases in Iraq.

Khamenei, who observers said rarely presides over the funerals of senior officials, was flanked Monday by President Hassan Rouhani; Soleimani’s successor, Brig. Gen. Ismail Qaani; and other key security and political figures.

Iran Press

AP

In this image taken from video, Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, openly weeps as he leads a prayer over the coffin of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, in Tehran, Jan. 6, 2020.

The supreme leader has vowed revenge for his killing.

As the crowds wailed in Tehran on Monday, Khamenei recited the Namaz-e Meyet, or prayers of the dead, and choked back tears before beginning to sob.

“We have not witnessed any sins from him,” the supreme leader said.

Soleimani’s body will be carried next to the holy city of Qom, after which he will be buried in his hometown in Kerman.

By: Erin Cunningham

3 AM: China slams U.S. attack on Iranian commander

BEIJING — China on Monday heavily criticized the U.S. killing of Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani as a violation of international norms and said it would work with Russia to “maintain international justice.”

In a flurry of calls with his Russian, Iranian and French counterparts over the weekend, Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi criticized what he called a “risk-taking” U.S. military strike and urged a halt in the American “abuse of force,” according to statements released by China’s Foreign Ministry.

Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed during their phone call to “strengthen joint strategic coordination to maintain international justice,” the ministry said without giving details.

China, which has increasingly close military ties with Moscow, has long sought a neutral position in the Middle East, with friendly relations with Iran, Israel and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

At a regular press briefing, ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China would uphold an “objective and just position” in Middle East politics but lambasted the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and America’s “ignorance of international obligations and international law” as the “root cause of the tension.”

When asked by reporters, Geng declined to say whether China would increase its security presence in the region.

“We urge the U.S. not to abuse force and the relevant parties to exercise restraint to prevent a spiraling of tensions,” he said.

By: Gerry Shih

1:30 AM: Germany says Trump’s threats against Iraq ‘not helpful’

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Monday that President Trump’s threats against Iraq were “not very helpful at this point.”

Maas added in an interview with German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the international community “has invested a lot, not only militarily but also in terms of support for stabilization.” Those efforts, said Maas, were now at risk of “being lost if the situation continues to develop this way.”

Maas remained vague when asked whether Germany would side with the United States on Iran.

“As Europe, we have to make an effort to ensure that we try everything to give diplomacy another chance,” he said.

By: Rick Noack

12:30 AM: Successor to slain Iranian commander vows to drive U.S. from region

The general succeeding the Iranian commander slain in a U.S. drone strike vowed to continue his predecessor’s work and expel the United States from the Middle East.

Brig. Gen. Ismail Qaani was appointed the head of the powerful Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard tasked with spreading the country’s influence abroad.

As Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s deputy, he worked closely with the slain commander on developing Iran’s proxy forces in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.

“We promise to continue down martyr Soleimani’s path as firmly as before with the help of God, and in return for his martyrdom we aim at getting rid of America from the region,” he said in an interview with state television.

Soleimani’s daughter also addressed the funeral ceremony for her father in Tehran, saying that Israel and the United States would soon face a dark day.

By: David Crawshaw

8:30 PM: Trump threatens sanctions against Iraq if it expels U.S. troops

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Sunday the United States would put “very big sanctions on Iraq” if the country forced out U.S. troops.

His remarks came shortly after Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi asked parliament to take urgent measures to pass laws to remove all foreign troops from Iraq. Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution doing just that, but it will have to be followed up by actual legislation for the troops to leave.

Kevin Wolf

AP

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump exit Air Force One on Jan. 5, 2020, at Joint Base Andrews, Md.

The vote Sunday did not immediately imperil the U.S. presence in Iraq, but it highlights the head winds the Trump administration faces after the strike, which was seen in Iraq as a violation of sovereignty and as a dangerous escalation by governments across the Middle East.

[Trump threatens to strike Iranian cultural sites and impose ‘very big’ sanctions on Iraq as tensions rise]

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

Trump also warned that he expected Iraq to compensate the United States for an air base there.

“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there,” Trump said. “It cost billions of dollars to build. Long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it.”

By: Seung Min Kim

1:41 PM: Iran says it’s suspending its commitments to 2015 nuclear deal

ISTANBUL — Iran said Sunday that it is suspending its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal it had struck with world powers and will abandon the accord’s “final restrictions” on uranium enrichment and other activities unless U.S. sanctions are lifted.

“Iran’s nuclear program will now be based solely on its technical needs,” the statement said. The move includes breaching the deal’s caps on uranium production and enrichment capacity, as well as nuclear research and development. 

[Iran announces it is suspending its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal]

“If the sanctions are lifted . . . the Islamic Republic is ready to return to its obligations,” the statement said. It added that Iran will continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

By: Erin Cunningham

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2020-01-06 12:21:00Z
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Here's just how bad the devastating Australian fires are -- by the numbers - CNN

Millions of acres have been torched and entire homes have been swallowed by flames. More than 20 people have lost their lives. About half a billion animals have been killed in New South Wales by one estimate. And the country's summer is only just beginning.

Along with a series of pictures published on his Facebook, Australian politician Leon Bignell called the reality of the fires "ugly."

"We met some of the many families and individuals who are homeless following the fire and we all need to work together to get them back on their feet as soon as possible. The mental scars though may never heal," he said.

Here's a look at just how bad the blazes have scarred the country so far:

By the numbers:

About 2,700 firefighters were battling the blazes as of Sunday.

Three have been killed.

The Australia Defence Force said Sunday it had called 3,000 army reserve forces and others with specialist capabilities to help fight the flames.

There were about 136 fires burning across NSW Monday.

Of those, 69 are not contained, the NSW Rural Fire Service said Monday.

Officials say 24 people have died nationwide this fire season.

The majority of casualties -- 18 -- are from NSW, which has been hit hardest by blazes. Three people have died in Victoria and another three in South Australia.

Two people are also missing in NSW as of Monday.

About 480 million animals have died across NSW, professor Chris Dickman with the University of Sydney, estimates. "The true mortality is likely to be substantially higher than those estimated," the university said in a statement.

Almost a third of koalas in NSW may have been killed in the fires, and a third of their habitat has been destroyed, said Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.

In December, the smoke in Sydney was so bad that air quality measured 11 times the "hazardous" level.

In total, more than 14.7 million acres have been burned across the country's six states. That's larger than the countries of Belgium and Haiti combined.

Just in NSW, there have been more than 1,300 houses destroyed and 8.9 million acres scorched.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday unveiled a $1.39 billion fund to help rebuild communities hit by the fires.

About $347 million of that will be allocated within this year, Treasurer of Australia Josh Frydenberg added.

The prime minister has already said up to $4,200 will go to each of the volunteer firefighters battling blazes for more than 10 days.

CNN's Isaac Yee, Jessie Yeung and Akanksha Sharma contributed to this report.

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2020-01-06 11:30:00Z
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India protests: Masked men storm New Delhi's JNU campus - The - The Washington Post

Adnan Abidi Reuters Police in riot gear stand guard outside the Jawaharlal Nehru University after clashes at the campus Sunday.

NEW DELHI — Dozens of masked men wielding sticks and iron rods attacked students and professors at one of India’s most prestigious universities late Sunday, injuring more than 30 and heightening concerns about law and order in the world’s largest democracy.

Ten eyewitnesses said the group entered Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and shouted a slogan used by India’s ruling right-wing Hindu nationalist party as they roamed the campus beating students, smashing windows and destroying property.

The incident comes at a moment of high political tension in India, where hundreds of thousands of people — including many students — have participated in protests against a controversial citizenship law passed last month. The law creates an expedited path to citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from three countries, a move that critics say is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The violence at the university was not directly connected to the citizenship law but was rooted in a separate dispute roiling the campus over fees that also pitted student supporters of the government against its opponents.

The accounts of masked men roaming a well-known campus as students cowered in their dormitories and police officers posted at the main gate failed to intervene are inflaming concerns about how Indian authorities treat those they consider adversaries.

Last month, police stormed another university campus in the capital where a protest against the citizenship law turned violent, beating unarmed students and firing tear gas into a library. One student was blinded in one eye. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, police deployed lethal force to put down protests against the citizenship law, leaving at least 19 dead, vandalizing homes and arresting scores of people, most of them Muslims.

[India’s Muslims and activists face mass arrests, beatings amid unrest over citizenship law]

On Monday, fresh demonstrations against the previous day’s campus violence in Delhi took place in at least 19 cities across the country. Some protesters called for the resignation of Amit Shah, India’s powerful home affairs minister who also oversees law enforcement in the nation’s capital.

On Sunday night, several eyewitnesses said police officers stood by as a mob armed with sticks, iron rods and cricket bats entered the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, an influential bastion of left-leaning politics.

The mob yelled “Long live Mother India!” and attacked a meeting led by professors near a main crossroad on campus, hurling rocks at participants, witnesses said. The assailants then smashed through the glass gate at one dormitory, shouting, “We will spare no one today!” Panicked students sent SOS messages to their professors, asking where to hide.

Inside the dorm, Surya Prakash, a visually impaired doctoral candidate in Sanskrit, was sitting at his desk studying. Masked men broke into his ground-floor room and began to beat him with iron rods on his back and arms, he said.

“I pleaded with them that I am blind,” recalled Prakash. “One hit me even harder. There is terror in our hearts.”

Students said that the masked attackers included members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, or ABVP, the student wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Jyoti Kumari, a master’s degree student who filmed some of the violence at the dorm, said she recognized at least five ABVP members in the mob. The ABVP denied the allegation and blamed the violence on “communist goons.”

AFP/Getty Images

Protesters shout slogans outside the Delhi Police Headquarters following clashes at Jawaharlal Nehru University late Sunday.

A senior Delhi police official, Devender Arya, told the television station NDTV that the police responded promptly to calls for help from the university administration and that authorities have begun working to identify the attackers. Arya did not respond to queries about eyewitness accounts of police inaction and allegations that police had also beaten students.

The incident sparked widespread criticism across India’s political spectrum. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar — an alumnus of the university — wrote on Twitter that he condemned the violence “unequivocally” and that it “was completely against the culture and tradition of the university.”

[Why protests are erupting over India’s new citizenship law]

Members of the opposition Congress Party said the brazenness of the attack and the lack of an immediate police response indicated it had some kind of official sanction. “It is an act of impunity and can only happen with the support of the government,” wrote P. Chidambaram, a senior Congress leader.

An official at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, a nearby hospital, said 35 people were admitted with injuries from the incident and that all were discharged by Monday.

Kumari Neelu, who is married to a professor at the university, said she had just stepped outside her home on campus when she saw the approaching mob. As she tried to film them, the men began to run toward her. She fled inside and locked the main door. The mob banged on her door with sticks and rang the bell nonstop. Her husband, Bikramaditya Choudhary, began calling the administration, security officers and the police.

“Nobody responded,” he said. “If the media hadn’t arrived, we may have been butchered.”

Eyewitnesses also alleged that the police not only failed to stop the violence but also beat up students. Vipul Vivek, a master’s degree student in philosophy, watched from behind shrubbery as the violence unfolded. After the mob left, he said, about 30 policemen arrived and beat the students holed up inside the dormitory that was earlier attacked by the mob. He ran toward a forested area and hid for 45 minutes.

“We can’t fight back against the police,” he said.

Tensions also spiked outside the main gate of the university. Hundreds of government supporters assembled and began to shout right-wing slogans in an apparent endorsement of the attack on students.

“Identify the traitors and shoot the bastards!” they yelled. “Get out of India!” At least three journalists were attacked by the same government supporters as they tried to film them.

Amrita Johri, a civil rights activist, said she saw the crowd vandalize an incoming ambulance. “Men whose faces were covered starting hitting and threatening us,” she said. “The police did not intervene even as people pleaded for help.”

 Tania Dutta contributed to this report.

Read more

India’s Muslims and activists face mass arrests, beatings amid unrest over citizenship law

India clamps down on marches, Internet after deadly protests

Protests sweeping India emerge as significant challenge for Modi

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2020-01-06 11:11:00Z
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Getting U.S. troops out of Iraq might not be that hard, say experts - The Washington Post

Prime Minister Office Handout EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi (L) attending an Iraqi parliament session in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 5, 2020.

BEIRUT — President Trump may have reacted furiously at the idea of U.S. troops being asked to leave Iraq, but ending America’s 17 year military presence there may be easier for the country’s government than he thinks.

Unlike some other deployments stretching back to 2008, American troops in Iraq are not operating under a conventional Status of Forces agreement approved by the Iraqi parliament, according to experts.

Instead, the current military presence is based on an arrangement dating from 2014 that’s less formal, and ultimately, based on the consent of an executive which yesterday told the troops to get out.

So, with the stroke of a pen, the 5,000-strong force could technically be asked to leave.

“The current U.S. military presence is based of an exchange of letters at the executive level,” said Ramzy Mardini, an Iraq scholar at the US Institute of Peace who previously served in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

The terms outlined in those letters have not been made public.

“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build,” Trump said on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida on Sunday.

“We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he said, apparently in reference to Ain al-Asad, a base originally built under Saddam Hussein’s government, but later extended by the United States.

Susannah George

AP

U.S. Army soldiers speak to families in rural Anbar on a reconnaissance patrol near a coalition outpost in western Iraq, Jan. 27, 2018.

Trump’s decision to order the killing of Iran’s most influential military figure, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, on small road leaving Baghdad airport, has set off a firestorm in Iraq, angering politicians and intensifying militia threats U.S.-led coalition-bases across the country.

The 81-country coalition began its mission in June 2014 as Islamic State fighters coursed through Iraq and Syria, seizing land that they would come to call their caliphate, and beginning a genocide against Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority.

“If the prime minister rescinds the invitation, the U.S. military must leave, unless it wants to maintain what would be an illegal occupation in a hostile environment,” Mardini said.

With the Islamic State largely defeated, coalition troops now serve in a mostly advisory capacity. U.S. commanders say that the mission remains crucial to preventing the group’s resurgence. The coalition said Sunday that it had been forced to suspend training activities and was focusing instead on simply keeping its personnel safe.

[Trump threatens to strike Iranian cultural sites and impose ‘very big’ sanctions on Iraq as tensions rise]

Addressing Iraq’s wood-paneled parliament on Sunday, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi urged lawmakers to take “urgent measures” to force the withdrawal of foreign troops. Shortly after, the chamber passed a nonbinding resolution to that effect, and Abdul Mahdi’s office said that legal experts were drawing up a timetable for the pullout.

“At this moment in time [the] government has not yet decided to remove foreign troops but it is probable soon as things stand,” Sajad Jiyad, managing director of the Baghdad-based Bayan Center think tank, wrote on Twitter.

“It is plausible that such action from the Iraqi side will build in a lengthy period but not beyond 2020. The other side may decide to withdraw rather than be pushed out,” he wrote.

While parliamentary approval seems not to be needed, at least technically speaking, their vote Sunday provides political cover for a prime minister who has been operating in a caretaker capacity since mass protests forced his resignation back in November.

“There is no law required to kick the U.S. military out because a law did not establish their presence,” Mardini said. “Baghdad has demonstrated its signal to Washington that the presence of the U.S. military is no longer wanted in Iraq. Since parliament is responsible for determining who is the next prime minister, it’s hard to imagine that individual going against the parliament’s vote.”

Read more:

Iran announces it is suspending its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal

Trump’s order to kill Soleimani is already starting to backfire

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2020-01-06 10:29:00Z
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Successor to Slain Iranian General Vows Revenge: Live Updates - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• Teeming crowds chant “Death to America.”
• Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.
• Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.
• Oil prices surge to more than $70 a barrel.
• China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.
• Iraq’s Parliament votes to oust U.S. coalition troops.

Image

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leading a prayer during the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and others killed with him, in Tehran on Monday.Credit...Office of Iran's Supreme Leader, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Teeming crowds chant “Death to America.”

Throngs of people chanting “Death to America” crowded the streets of Tehran on Monday as the country mourned Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, whose funeral was held in the Iranian capital. The military commander was hailed as a martyr, and his successor swore revenge.

“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger,” vowed Esmail Ghaani, the Iranian general who will take over the Quds Force, the foreign expeditionary arm of Iran’s elite paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Certainly actions will be taken,” he added.

State-run news outlets reported that “millions” had gathered in Tehran, and images showed of a sea of mourners, many wearing black and waving the nation’s flag in an outpouring of grief.

General Suleimani was killed by the United States on Friday in Baghdad in a drone strike. American officials said the general had ordered assaults on Americans in Iraq and Syria and was planning a wave of imminent attacks.

His killing has set off fears of escalating retaliatory actions by Iran and the United States, and of a broader regional conflict. In the aftermath of the attack, Iran said it would no longer abide by a 2015 agreement to suspend uranium production.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, wept openly at the funeral while offering prayers over the general’s coffin. Ayatollah Khamenei had a close relationship with the general, who was widely considered to be the second most powerful man in Iran.

General Suleimani’s daughter, Zeinab Suleimani, said in a eulogy that the United States and Israel faced a “dark day.”

“You crazy Trump, the symbol of ignorance, the slave of Zionists, don’t think that the killing of my father will finish everything,” she said at the funeral.

The general’s funeral was attended by a broad swath of Iranians, including reformers who oppose the government of President Hassan Rouhani but who perceived the killing as an attack on all of Iran.

“I felt like he was our safety umbrella spread above Iran,” said Amir Ali, 22, a university student. “I felt safe knowing he was out there.”

Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.

President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threats to attack Iranian cultural sites and warned of a “major retaliation” if the Iranian government planned tit-for-tat attacks in the aftermath of the killing of a senior military commander.

Mr. Trump defended the drone strike that killed General Suleimani.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump said in a tweet that the United States had selected 52 Iranian sites, some “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” to attack in the event of Iranian retaliation.

That prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to say that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.”

But on Sunday evening, aboard Air Force One on his way back from his holiday trip to Florida, Mr. Trump did not back down.

“They’re allowed to kill our people,” he said to reporters. “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 site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.

Iran’s government said it would no longer abide by a commitment it made under a 2015 nuclear deal, limiting its enrichment of uranium.

The decision to lift all restrictions on the production of nuclear fuel spelled the effective end of the nuclear deal, experts said, though Iran left open the possibility that it would return to the limits if sanctions were lifted.

“It’s finished. If there’s no limitation on production, then there is no deal,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit in Washington.

The announcement came after Iran’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the country’s nuclear policy in the aftermath of General Suleimani’s assassination.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges,” Iran said in a statement. “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 announcement followed several steps by Iran to move away from the terms of the agreement, nearly two years after Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal. Since that renunciation, the Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

The nuclear agreement ended some economic sanctions on Iran in return for its verifiable pledge to use nuclear power peacefully.

Iran’s statement Sunday did not include details about its enrichment ambitions. And the country did not say it was expelling the inspectors who monitor its nuclear program.

Oil prices surge to more than $70 a barrel.

Oil prices surged and stock markets in Asia fell on Monday morning, as the impact of General Suleimani’s death ricocheted around the world.

The price of Brent oil, the international benchmark, jumped above $70 in futures trading as markets digested a steady flow of news over the weekend.

The sudden escalation in tensions in a region that supplies much of the world’s petroleum has roiled oil markets. The West Texas Intermediate, the American oil benchmark, rose 1.9 percent to $64.22 a barrel in futures trading.

Analysts at Capital Economics have warned that the price of oil could spike to $150 a barrel if the bellicose rhetoric between the two countries turned into action.

“The price of oil would soar in the event of full-blown military conflict in the Middle East,” said Alexander Kozul-Wright, a commodities economist at Capital Economics.

China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.

Chinese state-controlled news media on Monday condemned the United States for the killing of General Suleimani, amplifying China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who warned of a “vicious cycle of confrontation” between the United States and Iran.

“Solving the conflicts between the United States and Iran can’t be achieved through military strikes or extreme pressure,” People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial. The editorial appeared under the pen name “Zhong Sheng,” which is widely used to offer the paper’s views on foreign affairs.

The editorial likened the latest crisis to the United States-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 and Western intervention in Libya in 2011.

“The facts prove time and again that unilateral resorts to armed force will not solve problems,” the paper said. “Instead the outcome will be the opposite, leading to a cycle of confrontation that will be difficult to clean up.”

China has been reducing its imports of oil from Iran as United States sanctions have deepened, but it remains heavily dependent on crude from the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia. Beijing has also tried to shore up the international agreement that curtailed Iran’s nuclear development.

On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Washington warned Chinese citizens to be extra careful about their safety in the wake of the crisis with Iran.

Fears of worldwide conflict were shared across social media over the weekend, but Xinhua, China’s main official news agency, published a commentary saying that outright war between the United States and Iran still seemed unlikely.

“Faced with the 2020 election, Trump has deliberately used attacking Iran to shift the focus from domestic tensions and add to his electoral chips,” read the commentary, “but he has no intention of launching a war.”

Iraq’s Parliament votes to oust U.S. coalition troops.

Iraqi lawmakers voted 170-0 on Sunday in favor of expelling American troops from their country.

The vote was not final and many lawmakers did not attend the session. But Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi drafted the language and submitted the bill to Parliament, leaving little doubt about his support.

The drone strike that killed General Suleimani also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias.

The attack was viewed in Iraq as a violation of the nation’s sovereignty, and the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it had summoned the American ambassador in Baghdad.

Iraq’s Parliament was divided over demands from angry citizens to expel American troops. Many of its 328 members, primarily Kurds and Sunnis, did not attend Sunday’s session and did not vote. In his speech to lawmakers, Mr. Mahdi laid out two possibilities: to either quickly end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, or to set a timeline for their expulsion.

The measure approved by Parliament did not include a timeline, and only instructed the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq. Officials said no decision had been made about whether any American troops would be able to stay, or under what conditions.

Iranian officials reacted to the vote with congratulatory messages and said General Suleimani’s death had delivered a huge victory over the United States.

Hesameddin Ashena, a top adviser to President Rouhani, in a Twitter post, said: “Expanding friendship with our neighbors and domestic unity are the best gifts for protecting our national security. America and Israel are the only winners of a rift between neighbors.”

Asked about the vote on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States would continue to battle the Islamic State. “It is the United States that is prepared to help the Iraqi people get what it is they deserve and continue our mission there to take down terrorism from ISIS and others in the region,” he said in an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

Reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Alexandra Stevenson, Farnaz Fassihi, Christopher Buckley, Alissa J. Rubin, Ben Hubbard, Megan Specia, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt, Vivian Yee, David D. Kirkpatrick, Edward Wong, Tess Felder, Yonette Joseph, Mariel Padilla and Maggie Haberman.

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2020-01-06 10:20:00Z
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Successor to Slain Iranian General Vows Revenge: Live Updates - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• Iranian general’s successor vows revenge.
• Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.
• Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.
• Oil prices surge to more than $70 a barrel.
• China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.
• Iraq’s Parliament votes to oust U.S. coalition troops.

Image

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leading a prayer during the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and others killed with him, in Tehran on Monday.Credit...Office of Iran's Supreme Leader, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Iranian general’s successor vows revenge.

Thousands of people on Monday attended the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Tehran, the Iranian capital, where the military commander was hailed as a martyr, his successor swore revenge and teeming crowds chanted, “Death to America."

“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger,” vowed Esmail Ghaani, the Iranian general who will take over the Quds Force, the foreign expeditionary arm of Iran’s elite paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Certainly actions will be taken,” he added.

General Suleimani was killed by the United States on Friday in Baghdad in a drone strike. American officials said the general had ordered assaults on Americans in Iraq and Syria and was planning a wave of imminent attacks.

His killing has set off fears of escalating retaliatory actions by Iran and the United States, and of a broader regional conflict. In the aftermath of the attack, Iran said it would no longer abide by a 2015 agreement to suspend uranium production.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, wept openly at the funeral while offering prayers over the general’s coffin. Ayatollah Khamenei had a close relationship with the general, who was widely considered to be the second most powerful man in Iran.

General Suleimani’s daughter, Zeinab Suleimani, said in a eulogy that the United States and Israel faced a “dark day.”

“You crazy Trump, the symbol of ignorance, the slave of Zionists, don’t think that the killing of my father will finish everything,” she said at the funeral.

The general’s funeral was attended by a broad swath of Iranians, including reformers who oppose the government of President Hassan Rouhani but who perceived the killing as an attack on all of Iran.

“I felt like he was our safety umbrella spread above Iran,” said Amir Ali, 22, a university student. “I felt safe knowing he was out there.”

Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.

President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threats to attack Iranian cultural sites and warned of a “major retaliation” if the Iranian government planned tit-for-tat attacks in the aftermath of the killing of a senior military commander.

Mr. Trump defended the drone strike that killed General Suleimani.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump said in a tweet that the United States had selected 52 Iranian sites, some “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” to attack in the event of Iranian retaliation.

That prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to say that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.”

But on Sunday evening, aboard Air Force One on his way back from his holiday trip to Florida, Mr. Trump did not back down.

“They’re allowed to kill our people,” he said to reporters. “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 site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.

Iran’s government said it would no longer abide by a commitment it made under a 2015 nuclear deal, limiting its enrichment of uranium.

The decision to lift all restrictions on the production of nuclear fuel spelled the effective end of the nuclear deal, experts said, though Iran left open the possibility that it would return to the limits if sanctions were lifted.

“It’s finished. If there’s no limitation on production, then there is no deal,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit in Washington.

The announcement came after Iran’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the country’s nuclear policy in the aftermath of General Suleimani’s assassination.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges,” Iran said in a statement. “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 announcement followed several steps by Iran to move away from the terms of the agreement, nearly two years after Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal. Since that renunciation, the Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

The nuclear agreement ended some economic sanctions on Iran in return for its verifiable pledge to use nuclear power peacefully. The European parties to the deal, including Britain, France and Germany, as well and China and Russia, also signatories to the deal, had struggled to preserve the agreement amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Iran’s statement Sunday did not include details about its enrichment ambitions. And the country did not say it was expelling the inspectors who monitor its nuclear program.

Oil prices surge to more than $70 a barrel.

Oil prices surged and stock markets in Asia fell on Monday morning, as the impact of General Suleimani’s death ricocheted around the world.

The price of Brent oil, the international benchmark, jumped above $70 in futures trading as markets digested a steady flow of news over the weekend.

The sudden escalation in tensions in a region that supplies much of the world’s petroleum has roiled oil markets. The West Texas Intermediate, the American oil benchmark, rose 1.9 percent to $64.22 a barrel in futures trading.

Analysts at Capital Economics have warned that the price of oil could spike to $150 a barrel if the bellicose rhetoric between the two countries turned into action.

“The price of oil would soar in the event of full-blown military conflict in the Middle East,” said Alexander Kozul-Wright, a commodities economist at Capital Economics.

China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.

Chinese state-controlled news media on Monday condemned the United States for the killing of General Suleimani, amplifying China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who warned of a “vicious cycle of confrontation” between the United States and Iran.

“Solving the conflicts between the United States and Iran can’t be achieved through military strikes or extreme pressure,” People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial. The editorial appeared under the pen name “Zhong Sheng,” which is widely used to offer the paper’s views on foreign affairs.

The editorial likened the latest crisis to the United States-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 and Western intervention in Libya in 2011.

“The facts prove time and again that unilateral resorts to armed force will not solve problems,” the paper said. “Instead the outcome will be the opposite, leading to a cycle of confrontation that will be difficult to clean up.”

China has been reducing its imports of oil from Iran as United States sanctions have deepened, but it remains heavily dependent on crude from the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia. Beijing has also tried to shore up the international agreement that curtailed Iran’s nuclear development.

On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Washington warned Chinese citizens to be extra careful about their safety in the wake of the crisis with Iran.

Fears of worldwide conflict were shared across social media over the weekend, but Xinhua, China’s main official news agency, published a commentary saying that outright war between the United States and Iran still seemed unlikely.

“Faced with the 2020 election, Trump has deliberately used attacking Iran to shift the focus from domestic tensions and add to his electoral chips,” read the commentary, “but he has no intention of launching a war.”

Iraq’s Parliament votes to oust U.S. coalition troops.

Iraqi lawmakers voted 170-0 on Sunday in favor of expelling American troops from their country.

The vote was not final and many lawmakers did not attend the session. But Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi drafted the language and submitted the bill to Parliament, leaving little doubt about his support.

The drone strike that killed General Suleimani also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias.

The attack was viewed in Iraq as a violation of the nation’s sovereignty, and the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it had summoned the American ambassador in Baghdad.

Iraq’s Parliament was divided over demands from angry citizens to expel American troops. Many of its 328 members, primarily Kurds and Sunnis, did not attend Sunday’s session and did not vote. In his speech to lawmakers, Mr. Mahdi laid out two possibilities: to either quickly end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, or to set a timeline for their expulsion.

The measure approved by Parliament did not include a timeline, and only instructed the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq. Officials said no decision had been made about whether any American troops would be able to stay, or under what conditions.

Iranian officials reacted to the vote with congratulatory messages and said General Suleimani’s death had delivered a huge victory over the United States.

Hesameddin Ashena, a top adviser to President Rouhani, in a Twitter post, said: “Expanding friendship with our neighbors and domestic unity are the best gifts for protecting our national security. America and Israel are the only winners of a rift between neighbors.”

Asked about the vote on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States would continue to battle the Islamic State. “It is the United States that is prepared to help the Iraqi people get what it is they deserve and continue our mission there to take down terrorism from ISIS and others in the region,” he said in an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

Reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Alexandra Stevenson, Farnaz Fassihi, Christopher Buckley, Alissa J. Rubin, Ben Hubbard, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt, Vivian Yee, David D. Kirkpatrick, Edward Wong, Tess Felder, Yonette Joseph, Mariel Padilla and Maggie Haberman.

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2020-01-06 09:58:00Z
52780536809258

Successor to Slain Iranian General Vows Revenge: Live Updates - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• Iranian general’s successor vows revenge.
• Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.
• Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.
• Oil prices surge to more than $70 a barrel.
• China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.
• Iraq’s Parliament voted to oust U.S. coalition troops.

Image

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leading a prayer during the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and others killed with him, in Tehran on Monday.Credit...Office of Iran's Supreme Leader, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Iranian general’s successor vows revenge.

Thousands of people on Monday attended the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Tehran, the Iranian capital, where the military commander was hailed as a martyr, his successor swore revenge and teeming crowds chanted, “Death to America."

“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger,” vowed Esmail Ghaani, the Iranian general who will take over the Quds Force, the foreign expeditionary arm of Iran’s elite paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Certainly actions will be taken,” he added.

General Suleimani was killed by the United States on Friday in Baghdad in a drone strike. American officials said the general had ordered assaults on Americans in Iraq and Syria and was planning a wave of imminent attacks.

His killing has set off fears of escalating retaliatory actions by Iran and the United States, and of a broader regional conflict. In the aftermath of the attack, Iran said it would no longer abide by a 2015 agreement to suspend uranium production.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, wept openly at the funeral while offering prayers over the general’s coffin. Ayatollah Khamenei had a close relationship with the general, who was widely considered to be the second most powerful man in Iran.

General Suleimani’s daughter, Zeinab Suleimani, said in a eulogy that the United States and Israel faced a “dark day.”

“You crazy Trump, the symbol of ignorance, the slave of Zionists, don’t think that the killing of my father will finish everything,” she said at the funeral.

The general’s funeral was attended by a broad swath of Iranians, including reformers who oppose the government of President Hassani Rouhani but who perceived the killing as an attack on all of Iran.

“I felt like he was our safety umbrella spread above Iran,” said Amir Ali, 22, a university student. “I felt safe knowing he was out there.”

Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.

President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threats to attack Iranian cultural sites and warned of a “major retaliation” if the Iranian government planned tit-for-tat attacks in the aftermath of the killing of a senior military commander.

Mr. Trump defended the drone strike that killed General Suleimani.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump said in a tweet that the United States had selected 52 Iranian sites, some “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” to attack in the event of Iranian retaliation.

That prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to say that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.”

But on Sunday evening, aboard Air Force One on his way back from his holiday trip to Florida, Mr. Trump did not back down.

“They’re allowed to kill our people,” he said to reporters. “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 site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.

Iran’s government said it would no longer abide by a commitment it made under a 2015 nuclear deal, limiting its enrichment of uranium.

The decision to lift all restrictions on the production of nuclear fuel spelled the effective end of the nuclear deal, experts said, though Iran left open the possibility that it would return to the limits if sanctions were lifted.

“It’s finished. If there’s no limitation on production, then there is no deal,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit in Washington.

The announcement came after Iran’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the country’s nuclear policy in the aftermath of General Suleimani’s assassination.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges,” Iran said in a statement. “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 announcement followed several steps by Iran to move away from the terms of the agreement, nearly two years after Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal. Since that renunciation, the Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

The nuclear agreement ended some economic sanctions on Iran in return for its verifiable pledge to use nuclear power peacefully. The European parties to the deal, including Britain, France and Germany, had struggled to preserve the agreement amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Iran’s statement Sunday did not include details about its enrichment ambitions. And the country did not say it was expelling the inspectors who monitor its nuclear program.

Oil prices surge to more than $70 a barrel.

Oil prices surged and stock markets in Asia fell on Monday morning, as the impact of General Suleimani’s death ricocheted around the world.

The price of Brent oil, the international benchmark, jumped above $70 in futures trading as markets digested a steady flow of news over the weekend.

The sudden escalation in tensions in a region that supplies much of the world’s petroleum has roiled oil markets. The West Texas Intermediate, the American oil benchmark, rose 1.9 percent to $64.22 a barrel in futures trading.

Analysts at Capital Economics have warned that the price of oil could spike to $150 a barrel if the bellicose rhetoric between the two countries turned into action.

“The price of oil would soar in the event of full-blown military conflict in the Middle East,” said Alexander Kozul-Wright, a commodities economist at Capital Economics.

China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.

Chinese state-controlled news media on Monday condemned the United States for the killing of General Suleimani, amplifying China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who warned of a “vicious cycle of confrontation” between the United States and Iran.

“Solving the conflicts between the United States and Iran can’t be achieved through military strikes or extreme pressure,” People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial. The editorial appeared under the pen name “Zhong Sheng,” which is widely used to offer the paper’s views on foreign affairs.

The editorial likened the latest crisis to the United States-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 and Western intervention in Libya in 2011.

“The facts prove time and again that unilateral resorts to armed force will not solve problems,” the paper said. “Instead the outcome will be the opposite, leading to a cycle of confrontation that will be difficult to clean up.”

China has been reducing its imports of oil from Iran as United States sanctions have deepened, but it remains heavily dependent on crude from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia. Beijing has also tried to shore up the international agreement that curtailed Iran’s nuclear development.

On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Washington warned Chinese citizens to be extra careful about their safety in the wake of the crisis with Iran.

Fears of worldwide conflict were shared across social media over the weekend, but Xinhua, China’s main official news agency, published a commentary saying that outright war between the United States and Iran still seemed unlikely.

“Faced with the 2020 election, Trump has deliberately used attacking Iran to shift the focus from domestic tensions and add to his electoral chips,” read the commentary, “but he has no intention of launching a war.”

Iraq’s Parliament voted to oust U.S. coalition troops.

Iraqi lawmakers voted 170-0 on Sunday in favor of expelling American troops from their country.

The vote was not final and many lawmakers did not attend the session. But Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi drafted the language and submitted the bill to Parliament, leaving little doubt about his support.

The drone strike that killed General Suleimani also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias.

The attack was viewed in Iraq as a violation of the nation’s sovereignty, and the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it had summoned the American ambassador in Baghdad.

Iraq’s Parliament was divided over demands from angry citizens to expel American troops. Many of its 328 members, primarily Kurds and Sunnis, did not attend Sunday’s session and did not vote. In his speech to lawmakers, Mr. Mahdi laid out two possibilities: to either quickly end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, or to set a timeline for their expulsion.

The measure approved by Parliament did not include a timeline, and only instructed the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq. Officials said no decision had been made about whether any American troops would be able to stay, or under what conditions.

Iranian officials reacted to the vote with congratulatory messages and said General Suleimani’s death had delivered a huge victory over the United States.

Hesameddin Ashena, a top adviser to President Rouhani, in a Twitter post, said: “Expanding friendship with our neighbors and domestic unity are the best gifts for protecting our national security. America and Israel are the only winners of a rift between neighbors.”

Asked about the vote on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States would continue to battle the Islamic State. “It is the United States that is prepared to help the Iraqi people get what it is they deserve and continue our mission there to take down terrorism from ISIS and others in the region,” he said in an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

Reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Alexandra Stevenson, Farnaz Fassihi, Christopher Buckley, Alissa J. Rubin, Ben Hubbard, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt, Vivian Yee, David D. Kirkpatrick, Edward Wong, Tess Felder, Yonette Joseph, Mariel Padilla and Maggie Haberman.

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2020-01-06 09:02:00Z
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