Iraqi cleric condemns U.S. and Iran as fears of wider conflict persist

[January 10, 2020]  By Ahmed Aboulenein and Babak Dehghanpisheh

BAGHDAD/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric on Friday condemned the U.S.-Iranian military confrontation taking place on Iraqi soil, saying it risked plunging the war-ravaged country and the wider Middle East into deeper conflict.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said attacks by both sides inside Iraq this month showed blatant disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and its people stood to suffer the most from Washington and Tehran's conflict.

Also on Friday, European foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to find ways to ease the precarious situation that has unfolded in the past week.

In Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to stop President Donald Trump from further military action against Iran.

But the region remained tense as Iranian military commanders threatened more attacks, fuelling worries that the apparent pause in hostilities could be short-lived.

The latest flare-up in the shadow war between the two foes started with the U.S. killing of Iran's top military commander, General Qassem Soleimani, in an air strike next to Baghdad airport on Jan. 3.

Iran responded on Wednesday by firing missiles at U.S.-led forces in Iraq. In the aftermath, both sides backed down from intensifying the conflict.

But neighboring Iraq looks set to bear the brunt of further violence as the main arena for the U.S.-Iranian military confrontation, its leaders caught in a bind as Washington and Tehran are also the Baghdad government's main allies and vie for influence there.

In a message delivered through a representative speaking at Friday prayers in the holy city of Kerbala, Ayatollah Sistani said the series of attacks were a violation of sovereignty and that no foreign powers should be allowed to decide Iraq's fate.

"The use of over-the-top methods by different sides which possess power and influence...will only entrench the crisis and prevent a solution," he said.

"The latest dangerous aggressive acts, which are repeated violations of Iraqi sovereignty, are a part of the deteriorating situation" in the region, he said.

Sistani, who wields huge influence over public opinion in Iraq, only weighs in on politics during times of crisis. He is seen as a voice of moderation and has urged warring sides in the Middle East and inside Iraq to seek a peaceful way out of the current crisis.

"The (Iraqi) people have suffered enough from wars...Iraq must govern itself and there must be no role for outsiders in its decision-making," Sistani said.

Iraq is struggling to recover from decades of war, sanctions and sectarian conflict including two U.S.-led invasions and the rise and violent military defeat of extremist Sunni militant groups al Qaeda and Islamic State.

CALLS TO LEAVE

Since the killing of Soleimani, Tehran has stepped up its calls for U.S. forces to leave Iraq, which like Iran is a mainly Shi'ite Muslim nation.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said Iran's retaliatory strikes were not enough and "what is important is ending the corrupting presence of America in the region".

Analysts said Iran's focus, for now, would likely be to put more pressure on Iraq's Shi'ite-led government to keep pressing for a U.S. withdrawal and mobilizing Tehran-backed militias in Iraq to harass U.S. forces.

Actions could expected to increase as long as Washington rejects calls to pull out, they said.

President Donald Trump delivers a statement about Iran flanked by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Army Chief of Staff General James McConville and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Mark Milley in the Grand Foyer at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 8, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to stop Trump from further military action, passing the resolution by 224-194 along party lines in the Democratic-controlled House with nearly all Republicans opposed.

It orders termination of Trump's war powers to use U.S. armed forces against Iran without Congress' consent. The measure now goes to the Senate, which is controlled by Trump's Republican Party, and faces an uphill battle.

A White House spokesman called the measure "ridiculous".

Trump said on Thursday Soleimani was killed because he had planned to blow up a U.S. embassy.

"Soleimani was actively planning new attacks and he was looking very seriously at our embassies and not just the embassy in Baghdad, but we stopped him and we stopped him quickly and we stopped him cold," Trump told a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio.

So far, the United States has provided only vague descriptions of the intelligence that drove its decision to kill Soleimani, which critics have called a reckless and inflammatory action.

Soleimani carved out a sphere of Iranian influence running through Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, challenging regional rival Saudi Arabia as well as the United States and Israel.

In Iran, he was a national hero whose funeral drew vast crowds of mourners but the West saw him as a dangerous and ruthless enemy.

Complicating the fraught situation, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. officials said they believed a Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed in Iran on Wednesday killing all 176 people on board was brought down by Iranian air defense by mistake hours after Iran launched its missiles attacks. Iran denies it downed the plane.

PACT PULLOUT

The renewed hostilities followed months of ever-rising tension since Trump pulled the United States out of Iran's nuclear pact with world powers in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that have driven down Tehran's vital oil exports.

Trump said on Thursday it was time for them to replace the 2015 pact with a new deal. But Iran's U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said Tehran could not trust any idea of dialogue when faced with the "economic terrorism" of sanctions.

Analysts say that in an election year, Trump, who was impeached last month, would want to avoid getting into a drawn-out conflict. In turn, Iran will try to avert direct confrontation with superior U.S. forces but can call on proxy militias across the region as U.S. sanctions bite.

In an emergency meeting, EU foreign ministers, to be joined by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, were talking in Brussels on Friday to find ways to push the United States and Iran away from open conflict.

"Iran's desire to prevent the crisis from escalating has bought us some time, it has the effect of cooling this down just a little," a senior EU diplomat told Reuters.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein, John Davison and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Babak Dehghanpisheh and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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