Iran ends
nuclear deal commitments as fallout from Suleimani killing spreads
Iraqi
parliament votes to expel US-led troops, while hundreds of thousands march in
Iran
Martin
Chulov, Middle East correspondent, and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Baghdad
Sun 5 Jan
2020 19.23 GMTLast modified on Sun 5 Jan 2020 21.05 GMT
Iran has
announced that it will no longer abide by any of the limits imposed by the
unravelling 2015 nuclear deal, and Iraq’s parliament urged its leaders to expel
troops from the US-led coalition, as the aftershocks of the assassination of
Iranian general Qassem Suleimani reverberated through the Middle East.
In a
statement broadcast on state TV late on Sunday, the Iranian government said the
country would no longer observe limitations on uranium enrichment, stockpiles
of enriched uranium or nuclear research and development. But the statement
noted that the steps could be reversed if Washington lifted its sanctions on
Tehran.
The
announcement came hours after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Iran
to mourn Suleimani as his remains were carried through the cities of Ahvaz and
Mashhad, ahead of a burial in his hometown on Tuesday.
Mourners
thronged Mashhad, Iran’s second city, as Suleimani’s coffin was paraded on a
truck through the streets to the floodlit Imam Reza shrine, chanting, “Iran’s
wearing black, revenge, revenge” and holding up portraits. The scale of the
procession forced the cancellation of a Sunday night ceremony in Tehran,
according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who urged citizens instead to attend
a memorial at Tehran University on Monday.
The Iraqi
parliament’s call to expel US troops was another clear sign of blowback from
the assassination – and was quickly hailed by Suleimani’s supporters as a major
step towards one of his main goals.
Though the
Iraqi debate that called for the US exit is not binding, and would require a
one-year notice period, the fact that the move was led by a prime minister
regarded as a US ally showed just how divisive the killing has become, and how
quickly US interests in the region could unravel as a result.
Adel Abdul
Mahdi, who stepped down as leader last November and now serves in an acting
capacity, said “urgent procedures” were needed to start a US exit, which he
described as necessary to restore “our national sovereignty”.
Abdul Mahdi
said he had been due to meet Suleimani on the morning he was killed by a US
Reaper drone on a road leaving Baghdad airport.
“He was to
come to me with a message from Iran responding to the message we delivered from
Saudi to Iran,” he added. Suleimani and an Iraqi official, Mohammed al-Hashimi,
otherwise known as Abu Jihad, had acted as conduits in a recent Saudi-initiated
move to de-escalate tensions between the two regional heavyweights.
Shortly
after Abdul Mahdi’s statement, the US announced that it was suspending
operations against the Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and a five-year-old
training mission to equip local forces. A US statement claimed the suspension
was a reaction to rocket attacks on US bases, carried out in recent weeks by
Shia militia members.
Suleimani
was the second most powerful person in Iran and the most influential Iranian
outside the country, travelling the region like a Persian viceroy as he
directed conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and as far away as Yemen. The
extraordinary scenes of mourners thronging Iranian cities were a powerful
testament to his popularity at home and the anger directed at the US for his
killing a figure so central to Iran’s presence on the regional stage.
In Lebanon,
one of Suleimani’s main arenas, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah,
claimed the so-called “axis of resistance”, in which the Lebanese militia is a
key player, was aiming for the removal of the US military presence from the
Middle East.
“The US
army has killed these people,” Nasrallah said, referring to Abu Mahdi
al-Muhandis, an ally of Suleimani also hit in the airstrike in Baghdad in the
early hours of Friday. “We do not at all mean the American people and citizens
across our region … It is up to anyone from the axis of resistance to deliver a
fair punishment after Soleimani’s assassination.”
Nasrallah
said he had met Suleimani a week before his death. “I warned him that there was
talk about him in the US media and told him that that was a precursor to his
assassination. He laughed and shrugged off the possibility,” he said. “This was
not a separate assassination operation. This is the start of a new US war in
the region.”
Hezbollah’s
reaction had been seen as a harbinger of how coming days and weeks might play
out in a region deeply unsettled by Suleimani’s death, and Nasrallah drawing a
distinction between US citizens and the country’s military allayed fears in
Beirut diplomatic circles of a broader risk to western interests.
In Tehran,
a former chief of the Revolutionary Guards said the Israeli city of Haifa would
be included in Tehran’s retaliation. “Iran’s revenge against America for the
assassination of Suleimani will be severe … Haifa and Israeli military centres
will be included in the retaliation,” Mohsen Rezaei said in a televised speech.
Withdrawing
US forces from Iraq would be damaging to Washington’s interests in a region
still recovering from the invasion of Iraq 17 years ago and the rampage of
Isis, which forced millions of people from their homes and led to widespread
destruction across the country. While Isis has been defeated on the
battlefields of Iraq and Syria, it remains a residual insurgent threat and
there are growing signs that the terror group is reorganising, despite being on
its knees in its former heartland.
In Iraq’s
parliament, the resolution urging a US exit was passed by 170 votes to nil.
However, Kurds and Sunni members boycotted the vote, which meant it was carried
by mostly Shia lawmakers. During the debate, members of the pro-Iranian Asa’ib
Ahl al-Haq militia, which also has a political bloc, led chants of “no, no
America, yes, yes Suleimani”.
Suleimani
enjoyed wide popularity among the Shia population of Iraq, although he was
scorned by nationalists, who viewed his enormous influence as subversive to the
country’s interests. He was also a deeply contentious figure in the broader
region; he was widely regarded as the architect of the Syrian regime’s
pushback, which saw a civilian uprising crushed and drew accusations of a sectarian
project to advance Iran’s interests.
In the
southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, a clash erupted between mourners carrying a
replica coffin and protesters who tried to stop their entry to a town square.
“All those celebrating the martyrdom of Suleimani will pay a high price, said a
mid-level commander of local security forces. “We have their faces recorded on
cameras and we will go after them one by one. The fact that millions
participated in the funeral of Suleimani and Muhandis is a sign of divine grace
and proof that they are more popular than the anti-Iran demonstrators.”
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