Trump wants to use Iraq to 'watch' Iran. Baghdad says not so fast
Source: CNN
By Mick Krever, CNN
Updated 2040 GMT (0440 HKT) June 25, 2019
London (CNN) - Under no circumstances will Iraq allow the United States to use its bases in Iraq to launch an attack on neighboring Iran, Iraq's President Barham Salih told CNN.
"We do not want our territory to be a staging post for any hostile action against any of our neighbors, including Iran," Salih said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour in London on Tuesday.
"This is definitely not part of the agreement between the Iraqi government and the United States."
In an interview with CBS in February, US President Trump said that "one of the reasons" he wanted to keep a base in Iraq was to "be looking a little bit at Iran, because Iran is a real problem." (When asked if he meant that his intention was to be able to attack Iran, he said, "No... all I want to do be able to watch."
Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/25/world/iraq-iran-barham-salih-amanpour-intl/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Politics%29
Response to DonViejo (Original post)
TeamPooka This message was self-deleted by its author.
House of Roberts
(5,120 posts)Iraq is now run by its Shia majority, and the two countries are no longer enemies.
Botany
(70,291 posts)From 1980 to 1988 Iraq and Iran were @ war and they still are mortal enemies to this day.
yaesu
(8,020 posts)Iran is Iraq's third-largest trade partner, at approximately $12 billion annually. In the 2018 elections, Iran loyalists in the Fatah Alliance won 48 of the seats14.6 percentin Iraqs parliament, making it the second-largest bloc in the legislature. And Iran has armed Shiite militias, which have cornered parts of the Iraqi economy and are responsible for security in some regions even after the territorial defeat of the Islamic State.
SWBTATTReg
(21,859 posts)have already said that they wouldn't send ships to the area, troops or the like, and here we got Iraq wanting nothing to do with rump's own mess.
paleotn
(17,778 posts)Mahdi's government and Iraqi Shias want nothing to do with any half ass invasion through their territory, so no easy jumping off point like Kuwait. The key to much of Iran's coastline is the Strait of Hormuz. Difficult at best. Turkey? Forget it. Pakistan? Joking, right? Afghanistan? It would take months, if not years for the necessary build up, and all the heavy stuff has to go through Pakistan. An insurgents paradise. It would cost untold billions, plus, the Stan's are the long way to Tehran. Except...Turkmenistan? Please. They don't like us much. Who can blame them? And they're landlocked. Again, everything would go through Pakistan AND Afghanistan. Ain't happening. And people wonder why the Pentagon is so dead set against any military action against Iran. It's a tough nut and when we fail, we'll look like bigger assholes than we do today. Hmmm....maybe diplomacy is the way to go and not getting caught up fighting the kingdoms wars for them.
modrepub
(3,469 posts)It's no contest. But wars are not won on military strength alone. Iraq went pretty quickly but the real trouble came afterwards with asymmetric warfare. Expect the same with Iran. If our military couldn't control 35 million people in Iraq, with probably a full third (Kurds) openly supporting us than what hope has our military controlling 80 million people with a significant portion probably openly hostile to our presence?
roamer65
(36,739 posts)They will try to turn Arab Shia in Iraq and Irans Khuzestan province against the Persians.
Khuzestan province has 90 pct of Irans oil.
watoos
(7,142 posts)and Putin doesn't want a war in Iran. Putin runs the Iraq/Iran oil /gas pipelines that go to Europe.
What's Trump going to do about the Russian planes that are landing in Venezuela? What's Trump going to do about the Russian military ship with cruise missiles that just docked in Havana? Venezuela and Cuba are quite close to our shores. Putin wants military bases outside of the former Soviet Union and it looks like he is eyeing up Venezuela and Cuba.
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)Is he fucking kidding?