By Jason collie, WASHINGTON USA
United States President, Donald Trump ignored European appeals to step back over
the spiralling Middle East crisis by insisting Iranian cultural sites are
fair game for the US military.
Just hours after Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and
Emmanuel Macron begged all sides to de-escalate tensions following
the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in
Baghdad, Mr Trump also warned Iraq he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in
retaliation for the airstrike.
Iran has
vowed to retaliate and Iraq’s parliament responded by voting on Sunday to oust
US troops based in the country.
Mr Trump first raised the prospect of targeting
Iranian cultural sites Saturday in a tweet. Speaking with reporters as he flew
back to Washington from his holiday stay in Florida on Sunday he doubled down,
despite international prohibitions and fears it could be classed as a war
crime.
“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re
allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs
and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It
doesn’t work that way,” Trump said.
The killing of General
Soleimani sparked outrage in the Middle East, including in
Iraq, where more than 5,000 American troops are still on the ground 17 years
after the US invasion.
Iraq’s parliament voted on Sunday in favour of
a non-binding resolution calling for the expulsion of the American forces.
Mr Trump said the US would not leave without
being paid for its military investments in Iraq over the years – then said if
the troops do have to withdraw, he would hit Baghdad with economic penalties.
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| President Donald Trump |
He added: “We’re not leaving until they pay us
back for it.”
The administration has scrambled to contend
with the backlash to the killing of General Soleimani. Though he was
responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, the American strike marked
a stark escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US
military may well strike more Iranian leaders if the Islamic Republic
retaliates. He tip-toed around questions about Mr Trump’s threat to attack
Iranian cultural sites, a military action that likely would be illegal under
the laws of armed conflict and the UN charter.
Mr Pompeo said any US military strikes inside
Iran would be legal.
“We’ll behave inside the system,” Mr Pompeo
said. “We always have and we always will.”
Mr Trump’s warnings rattled some administration
officials. One US national security official said the president had caught many
in the administration off guard and prompted internal calls for others in the
government, including Mr Pompeo, to clarify the matter.
The official, who was not authorised to speak
publicly, said clarification was necessary to affirm the US military would not
intentionally commit war crimes.
Oona Hathaway, an international law professor
at Yale and a former national security law official in the Defence Department’s
legal office, said Mr Trump’s threat amounted to “a pretty clear promise of
commission of a war crime”.
The president’s threats to Iran did little to quell
Tehran’s furore over the death of General Soleimani.
Iranian state television reported the country would no longer abide by
any limits of the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with the
United States and other world powers. Mr Trump withdrew the US from the deal in
2018 and stepped up economic sanctions on Tehran – actions that accelerated a
cycle of hostilities leading to the last Friday’s assassination.
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| Late General Qasem Soleimani |
Mr Pompeo said the administration would have
been “culpably negligent” in its duty to protect the United States if it had
not killed him. He did not provide evidence for his previous claims that
General Soleimani was plotting imminent attacks on Americans. Instead of
arguing an attack had been imminent, he said it was inevitable.
“We watched him continue to actively build out
for what was going to be a significant attack – that’s what we believed – and
we made the right decision,” he said.
“We continue to prepare for whatever it is the
Iranian regime may put in front of us within the next 10 minutes, within the
next 10 days, and within the next 10 weeks.”
Some Congressional Democrats were sceptical.
“I really worry that the actions the president
took will get us into what he calls another endless war in the Middle East. He
promised we wouldn’t have that,” said Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate’s
top Democrat.
Mr Schumer said Mr Trump lacked the authority
to engage militarily with Iran and Congress needs a new war powers resolution
“to be a check on this president.” To which Pompeo said: “We have all the
authority we need to do what we’ve done to date.”
Senator Mark Warner said the administration
violated the Constitution by not consulting with Congress in advance.
Congressional staffs received their first
briefings from the administration on Friday, and members were expected to be
briefed this week.
But Mr Trump made clear on Sunday he sees
little reason to give Congress advanced warning if he orders the military to
carry out further actions against Iran.
“These media posts will serve as notification
to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any US person or target,
the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a
disproportionate manner,” he wrote on Twitter. “Such legal notice is not
required, but is given nevertheless!”
Moving swiftly to rebuke Trump for not
consulting with Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said late Sunday the House
would introduce and vote this week on a war powers resolution to limit the
president’s military actions regarding Iran.
In a letter to House Democrats, Ms Pelosi
called the airstrike “provocative and disproportionate” and said it had
“endangered our service members, diplomats and others by risking a serious
escalation of tensions with Iran.”
A similar resolution was introduced in the
Senate. - AP
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