The development came as Iran said it was all but abandoning the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that the Trump administration exited in May 2018. Since the U.S. withdrawal from the accord, tensions with Iran have steadily increased.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi told lawmakers that a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops, including U.S. ones, was required “for the sake of our national sovereignty.” About 5,000 American troops are in various parts of Iraq.

Mahdi described the strike authorized by President Donald Trump as a “political assassination” and said it was “time for American troops to leave.”

Iran official on Soleimani killing: ‘The response for a military action is military action’

The resolution was supported by a majority of about 180 lawmakers present in Parliament, according to Iraqi media. It was backed by most Shiite members of parliament, who hold a majority of seats. Many Sunni and Kurdish legislators did not show up for the session, likely because they oppose the initiative.

Tensions rising

The vote came two days after Soleimani was killed inside Iraq, dramatically ratcheting up tensions between Washington, and Tehran and Baghdad. It was not immediately clear to what extent the resolution would be implemented. It is nonbinding. The resolution specifically calls for ending an agreement in which Washington sent troops to Iraq more than four years ago to help in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Ahead of the vote, U.S.-led coalition forces battling the remnants of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria announced a “pause” in operations precipitated by the need to protect U.S. and coalition troops on bases in Iraq. Iran’s leadership has vowed revenge for Soleimani’s killing and signaled it may target U.S. military personnel in the region.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened “severe revenge.”

Iran moving away from nuclear accord

Iran said Sunday it is ceasing to abide by all “operational restrictions” on its enrichment of uranium, part of the terms of the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

The move marks the “fifth and final” time Iran has moved away from the accord, and effectively marks the end of the deal for Tehran, although it said it would return to full compliance with the accord if the U.S. lifts its sanctions against it.

Heightened tensions: Trump defends Soleimani killing informal notice to Congress

The U.S. action against Soleimani, Iran’s de facto second most powerful figure who oversaw a vast network of pro-Iran militant groups from Iraq to Yemen, has drawn strong criticism from key U.S. allies and foreign policy experts, who believe it will destabilize an already tense and volatile region struggling to overcome decades of sectarianism, political strife, corruption, and economic mismanagement.

Trump’s move has created “a more dangerous world,” Amelie de Montchalin, France’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, told French radio over the weekend.

White House goes on media offensive

On Saturday, Trump tweeted that if Iran attacks any American assets to avenge Soleimani, the U.S. has identified 52 targets across the Islamic Republic that “WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.” Some are “important to Iran & Iranian culture,” Trump wrote on Twitter, apparently drawing Iran’s rich cultural sites into the tensions.

Hackers set sights on the US: DHS website hacked with pro-Iranian messages, an image of bloodied Trump

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the strike against Soleimani, during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. He said Washington would have been “culpably negligent” if it didn’t launch the attack and that he was “100%” certain America was safer because of the strike. He also said the Trump administration is prepared for an Iranian response. “It may be that there’s a little noise here in the interim, that the Iranians make a choice to respond,” he said. “I hope that they don’t.”

U.S. vs. Iran: Anti-war protesters organize around the US following the killing of Iran general

Asked about the Iraqi Parliament’s vote on “Fox News Sunday,” the U.S.’s top diplomat said that “we are confident the Iraqi people want the United States to continue to be there to fight the anti-terror campaign. And we’ll continue to do all the things we need to do to keep America safe.” Pompeo added: “We’ll have to take a look at what we do when the Iraqi leadership and government makes a decision, but the American people should know we’ll make the right decision. We will take actions that frankly the previous administration refused to take to do just that.”

Iran mourns Soleimani

Soleimani’s body was returned to Iran early Sunday for a funeral and burial in his hometown, Kerman, in central Iran. Hundreds of thousands of mourners took to the streets across the nation to pay their respects to a figure who is widely hailed as a war hero in Iran, but who the Trump administration labeled a terrorist.

Soleimani presided over Iran’s foreign military and intelligence operations going back two decades. During this time, the State Department says he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and for numerous attacks on U.S. military installations.

US Army Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division wait to be deployed to the Middle East on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 from Fort Bragg, N.C. Troops will deploy to the Middle East as tensions between the US and Iran continue to rise. MELISSA SUE GERRITS, THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

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A soldier covers his weapon while walking in the rain at Green Ramp at Fort Bragg. MELISSA SUE GERRITS, THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

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Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division arrive at Green Ramp on Fort Bragg before deploying to the Middle East.  MELISSA SUE GERRITS, THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

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U.S. troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division arrive at Green Ramp as they head out for a deployment.  ANDREW CRAFT, GETTY IMAGES

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An 82nd Airborne paratrooper bound for the US Central Command area of operations checks his weapon.  HUBERT DELANEY III, US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE VIA GETTY IMAGES

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U.S. troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division get some rest at Green Ramp before they head out.  ANDREW CRAFT, GETTY IMAGES

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A rifle is seen as U.S. troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division wait to be deployed to the Middle East.  ANDREW CRAFT, GETTY IMAGES

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A soldier with the 82nd Airborne Division rests after having met with his unit at 4 am at Fort Bragg.  MELISSA SUE GERRITS, THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

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Soldiers with the 82nds Airborne Division load a bus to be transported to a military transport aircraft at Fort Bragg.  MELISSA SUE GERRITS, THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

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US Air Force personnel load 82nd Airborne Division equipment onto a C-17 Globemaster aircraft bound for the US Central Command area of operations  JUSTIN STAFFORD, US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE VIA GETTY IMAGES

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82nd Airborne paratroopers march to board a civilian aircraft bound for the US Central Command area.  HUBERT DELANEY III, US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE VIA GETTY IMAGES

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The media films the flight line where U.S. troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division are being deployed to the Middle East.  ANDREW CRAFT, GETTY IMAGES

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US Air Force personnel load 82nd Airborne Division equipment onto a C-17 Globemaster aircraft bound for the US Central Command area of operations.  JUSTIN STAFFORD, US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE VIA GETTY IMAGES

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Contributing: William Cummings and Courtney Subramanian

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/01/05/iraq-expel-us-troops-iran-gen-qasem-soleimanis-killing/2817992001/

The post Iraq votes to expel U.S. troops after Iran Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s killing first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Demonstrators take part in ongoing anti-government protests in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, on Tuesday.Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

Nearly 17 years ago, the United States invaded Iraq and toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. That created a power vacuum partly filled — and exploited — by Iran. The U.S. has been trying, with limited success, to dampen its regional arch enemy’s influence over Iraq ever since. In recent weeks, assistance has come from an unlikely source: the Iraqi people.

In early October, the Arab Spring finally arrived in Iraq. Large-scale demonstrations broke out against the government, pitting thousands of young protesters against a government they believe has failed them economically and politically and want it to step aside. Demands for jobs, respect for human rights, an end to corruption and better public services are at the heart of protesters’ grievances. But so is anger at Iran for trying to use Iraq’s political class for its own ends.

Tehran has tried to build influence in Iraq for well over a decade in a not-so-subtle effort to turn Iraq into a subservient vassal state, provoking deep resentment among many ordinary Iraqis. In fact, the protests were touched off by outrage at the reassignment of a popular Iraqi counter-terrorism official who had been trying to rein in pro-Iran armed militias. And the volume of anti-Iran rhetoric is only growing; a few days ago, Iran’s consulate in the southern city of Karbala was attacked.

In a region with few signs of hope, this popular uprising against political and economic corruption, with anger toward Iran at its center, is both a serious challenge and a beacon of possibility for the United States. It is a ground-up movement that threatens not only the Iranian grip on an important regional ally but Iran as well. The United States has a strong interest in helping Iraq navigate these tough challenges — both to help Iraq itself, which could fall victim once again to a resurgent Islamic State militant group if not shored up, and to counter Iran’s ambitions.

Iran is under growing duress from the Trump administration’s campaign of “maximum pressure,” which has ratcheted up sanctions and moved additional forces to the Persian Gulf to confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions and counter its destabilizing regional policies. In this context, Iran’s leaders see Iraq’s political turmoil in conspiratorial terms, blaming it on “foreign hands” (read: the U.S. and Israel). They know the damage that “losing” Iraq would do to their strategy for attaining regional supremacy.

And they are all too aware of the possibility that Iraq’s mass demonstrations could inspire a similar popular uprising in their own country, having been buffeted by the massive demonstrations of 2009’s “Green Movement” as well as countrywide protests early last year against the government’s economic policies and repressive theocratic rule.

That’s why Iranian security officials have advised Iraqi counterparts to get tougher on the protesters. Militia forces aligned with Iran have been suspected of involvement in the killings of demonstrators, and there have been allegations that Iranians took part. New reports suggest that Iran may be preparing to intervene on a larger scale.

The United States has a strong interest in helping Iraq chart a different course in dealing with the protesters. Beyond neutralizing Iran, Iraqi stability is vital to many U.S. interests, including minimizing the threat posed by ISIS and maintaining security in the Persian Gulf. Perhaps most important, a stable Iraq can show that an electoral democracy can take root in a volatile region and that there is a middle path between autocracy and chaos.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has issued a 13-point reform plan in response to the criticism of the protesters, but he acknowledges there is no quick and easy fix and has offered to resign, a prospect the Iranians abhor as they see him as a political ally. President Barham Salih pledges to hold new elections eventually, but the process of forming another government would take months. Iraq, a country awash in weapons, needs to see conciliatory rhetoric and promises of change backed up by quick and decisive action rather than talk of change months down the road, or the situation could deteriorate dramatically.

It’s bad enough right now. Protests have turned steadily more deadly as government forces have turned their weapons on the demonstrators. At least 260 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded since the protests began in October, according to Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights., and daily clashes between security forces and demonstrators are escalating in number and ferocity. A massive crackdown failed to tamp down the unrest.

As if the mounting challenge to Iraq’s political order were not worrying enough, chaos in neighboring Syria following the sudden withdrawal of most U.S. troops has opened the door for the re-emergence of ISIS. Since 2016, the group has transformed itself into a covert network with as many as 20,000 fighters in northern Syria and Iraq, where the United Nations believes it is preparing for an “eventual resurgence” to re-establish its “caliphate,” the quasi-state that once controlled an area the size of the U.K. Iraqi officials are clearly worried that the return of ISIS could exponentially magnify their internal crisis.

What’s taking place in Iraq is similar to the Arab Spring protest movements that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya beginning in 2011. They came close to overthrowing Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, too, before Russia and Iran intervened to prop him up. And they find echoes in the protests that have taken place recently in Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, and Morocco. Events in Iraq show that it, too, is vulnerable to the same discontent that brought down authoritarian, unresponsive governments elsewhere.

Ultimately, only Iraqis can fix Iraq. But Washington incurred a responsibility when it invaded the country in 2003. The United States must now do what it can to help provide the economic tools Iraq needs to address its problems, particularly by doing more to organize international efforts in support of long-neglected reconstruction projects in the hardest-hit provinces.

The U.S. should provide strong diplomatic backing for Iraqi leaders as they strive to implement the bold political plans and compromises they need and insist on respect for the human rights and civil liberties of the protesters. And Washington should make clear its commitment to Iraq’s security by increasing training, logistical support and equipment transfers to the Iraqi Security Forces.

American leadership on Iraq can begin to undo the damage the Trump administration’s chaotic policy in Syria has done to perceptions of U.S. regional leadership and put Iran on notice that it cannot have a free hand in the Middle East. These are tough challenges indeed, but challenges the U.S. cannot afford to ignore.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/iraq-protests-against-iran-government-corruption-are-rare-sign-hope-ncna1078746

The post Iraq protests against Iran and government corruption are a rare sign of hope in the Mideast first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Illustrative: Iran says it successfully tested the Hoveizeh cruise missile on February 2, 2019 (Screen grab via Tasnim)

Israel is readying for a direct cruise missile or drone strike by Tehran in response to recent attacks on Iranian regional proxies which have been attributed to the Jewish state, Army Radio reported Tuesday evening.

Unlike ballistic missiles, which usually fly through a high arc on the way to the target, cruise missiles and drones fly at low altitude, making them harder to detect.

The report cited anonymous “Israeli sources,” who said the IDF was already on high alert for the possibility and that the security cabinet will convene for an “unplanned” meeting next Tuesday against a backdrop of tensions with the Islamic Republic.

This would be the second time this month that the high-level security cabinet has convened. On October 6, its members gathered amid cryptic warnings by Israeli leaders of a growing security threat from Iran. That meeting lasted for nearly six hours.

During the meeting, ministers discussed a proposal, being pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for a NIS 1 billion ($290 million) project to boost Israel’s air defenses that would place particular focus on defending the country against cruise missile attacks.

A suicide drone developed by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, October 26, 2016 (AFP)

Channel 12 at the time cited anonymous officials who believed Tehran may have publicized information about an allegedly foiled “Israel-Arab” plot to assassinate General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as a pretense to attack Israel.

Both Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin have mentioned crucial security needs in recent days as they called for the formation of a broad unity government after the September 17 elections.

Iran appears to have been building up its drone activities and attacks in recent months — in August, Israeli fighter jets carried out airstrikes in Syria to thwart a planned attack on Israel by Iran-backed fighters using armed drones, the Israel Defense Forces said. The Israeli military said its strike targeted operatives from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force as well as Shiite militias who had been planning on sending “kamikaze” attack drones into Israel armed with explosives.

In September, a cruise missile and drone attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities knocked out half the kingdom’s oil production. Although Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, the US, Britain, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran of being behind the attack.

Channel 12 News reported that defense officials who have studied the weapons used in the attack on the Saudi facilities concluded that a similar assault by Iran on Israel if it came, would likely be launched from western Iraq, where there is a strong presence of Iran-backed militias.

Iran regularly threatens Israel, viewing the country as a powerful enemy allied with the United States and Sunni countries in the region against Tehran and its nuclear ambitions.

Israel has also thwarted Iranian operations in neighboring Syria where its fighters and those of Iranian proxy Hezbollah have been fighting alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad since 2011.

In this photo from August 12, 2019, plumes of smoke rise after an explosion at a military base southwest of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Loay Hameed)

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Israel has vowed to prevent Iran’s regional proxy militias from obtaining advanced weapons to use against the Jewish state and has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria that it says were to prevent delivery of weapons and to stop the Iranian military entrenchment in that country.

Late last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi announced that investigations have determined the recent spate of airstrikes targeting powerful Iranian-backed militias in Iraq were carried out by Israel.

The Qatari-funded TV network also quoted him as saying that “many indicators show that no one wants war in the region except for Israel,” according to a translation by the Reuters news agency.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on the statements from the Iraqi premier, saying “these are reports from foreign media and we do not comment on them.”

Since July, there have been at least nine strikes both inside Iraq and across the border in Syria, targeting the Iran-backed militias, known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF.

Leaders of the powerful Shiite paramilitary group have repeatedly blamed Israel and by extension its US ally, which maintains more than 5,000 troops in Iraq.

Israel has not confirmed its involvement in the attacks, though Netanyahu has hinted at the possibility that it has struck in Iraq.

Earlier this month, a senior Iranian lawmaker blamed Israel, the United States, and Saudi Arabia for an alleged attack on an oil tanker off the Saudi coast and said he would take the complaint to the UN.

This photo taken on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019, and released by the official news agency of the Iranian Oil Ministry, SHANA, shows the scene of damage by two missiles that allegedly struck the Iranian oil tanker Sabiti, at the Red Sea. (SHANA via AP)

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Tehran says the Iranian-flagged Sabiti tanker was hit by two separate explosions off the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

Hassan Beigi, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, claimed without evidence that the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia were alleging the Islamic State jihadist group or Afghanistan’s Taliban for an alleged attack on an oil tanker last week off the Saudi coast and said he would take the complaint to the UN.

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Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-bracing-for-direct-cruise-missile-or-drone-attack-by-iran/

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The post Israel said bracing for direct cruise missile or drone attack by Iran first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.