On the day of the funeral service for the killed General Soleimani with tens of thousands of participants, the verbal exchange of blows between the USA and Iran continues. The Iraqi parliament voted for the withdrawal of all US troops.
The US and Iran continue to cover themselves with threats and counter-threats – and the Iraqi parliament surprisingly votes for that Withdrawal of around 5,000 US soldiers stationed in the country.
Trump warned Iran of retaliatory attacks on the night for the killing of General Kassem Soleimani and threatened massive counterattacks. The US military has 52 "important" and "high-ranking" Iranian targets in its sights, which would be attacked if Iran were to attack Americans or American facilities.
Warning from Trump
Trump directed martial words to the Iranians – and wrote the word "warning" in capital letters. The US has just spent two trillion dollars on military equipment and is "the largest and by far the best military in the world." They would send this "brand new beautiful equipment" "without hesitation" towards the Iranians in the event of attacks on American targets.
Iran appoints Swiss ambassadors again
Because of Trump’s threats, Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador to Tehran to take over diplomatic tasks for the United States. The "hostile and threatening" statements by Trump are "absolutely unacceptable and violate international laws," said Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. If the US were to attack Iran’s cultural sites, it would be a war crime.
"USA started war"
The military advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hussein Dehghan, said in an interview with the CNN news channel in Tehran that Iran would react "militarily and against military bases" in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani.
Iran doesn’t want a war. "The US has started the war," said the ex-defense minister accordingly. "The only thing that can end this phase of the war is if the Americans get a blow equal to the blow they did to us," he said, according to CNN. After that, the Americans should not seek retaliation again, he said.
Further partial exit from the nuclear agreement is expected
Foreign Office spokesman Abbas Mousavi announced that Iran is planning another partial exit from the 2015 Vienna nuclear deal. "We will have an important meeting on this in the evening and decide on the fifth phase of the partial exit," he said. It is expected that Iran could move away from the agreement much more clearly than previously planned.
Iraqi parliament wants foreign troops out of the country
The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution calling on the government for one End of the military presence of all foreign troops in the country to care. In addition, the government should revoke its request for help as part of the anti-IS coalition. That would in fact be both the end of the US presence in the country and the end of the fight against terrorism against IS in Iraq.
Unlike laws, resolutions of the Iraqi parliament are not binding on the government. However, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had already spoken out in favor of ending the troop presence.
At the same time, the US-led coalition against IS announced that it would stop all fighting and focus on self-protection.
Efforts to de-escalate
In the meantime, efforts were made to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. "In the coming days we will pull out all the stops to work against a further escalation of the situation – in the United Nations, the EU and in dialogue with our partners in the region, including in talks with Iran," said Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas the "Bild am Sonntag".
Great Britain sends two warships
Great Britain also announced that it would send two warships to the Persian Gulf. The destroyer "HMS Defender" and the frigate "HMS Montrose" were supposed to protect merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz, said Defense Secretary Ben Wallace after an interview with his US counterpart Mark Esper. There were several attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in the summer of 2019, which the US suspects Iran is behind.