President Trump has threatened severe sanctions against Iraq after its parliament called on US troops to leave the country.
“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he told reporters.
Tensions are high after the US assassinated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last week.
Iran has vowed “severe revenge”.
Soleimani, 62, spearheaded Iranian military operations in the Middle East, and was regarded as a terrorist by the US.
The general’s remains have now returned to his home country, where mourners packed the streets of Tehran early on Monday.
Huge crowds packed the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran for the funeral of the slain Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.
Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike in Iraq on Friday on the orders of President Donald Trump.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei led prayers and at one point was seen weeping.
Iran has vowed “severe revenge” for the death of Soleimani and on Sunday pulled back from the 2015 nuclear accord.
Soleimani, 62, headed Iran’s elite Quds Force, and was tasked with protecting and boosting Iran’s influence in the Middle East.
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia. The capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Yazidis, Shabakis, Armenians, Mandaeans, Circassians, Sabians and Kawliya. Around 99% of the country’s 38 million citizens are Muslims, with small minorities of Christians, Yarsans, Yezidis and Mandeans also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish.
Iraq has a coastline measuring 58 km (36 miles) on the northern Persian Gulf and encompasses the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation.
Iraq is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of 19 governorates, four of which make up the autonomous Kurdistan Region. Disputes over the sovereignty of Kurdistan Region continue.
Iraq is a founding member of the UN as well as of the Arab League, OIC, Non-Aligned Movement and the IMF.
