ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran will not hesitate to target American bases in Iraq if the United States attacks the Islamic Republic, Tehran’s ambassador to Baghdad said this week in a clear warning from a top Iranian diplomat and former senior member of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.
Speaking to Iraq’s Dijlah satellite TV channel, Ambassador Iraj Masjedi said that if the United States chooses to escalate already heightened tensions between their nations, then American forces will not be safe in Iraq.
"If they [the US forces] don't cause any problem for the Islamic Republic, Iran won't respond to this presence [of US forces in Iraq],” Masjedi said in an interview aired on Thursday. "If the Americans want to cause any problem for the Islamic Republic, they have to expect a response and reaction," Masjedi added.
There are about 5,000 US troops currently based in Iraq.
"A demand of Iran is for American forces to get out of the region because they don't do any positive or constructive work. This is not strictly about Iraq. It is about wherever they exist,” said Masjedi.
Baghdad has repeatedly sought to prevent Iraq becoming a battleground between its allies and neighbours, a stance President Barham Salih stressed when he addressed the United Nations General Assembly: “Terrorism is looking for a gap to rise again, therefore conflict and tensions in the region will create this vacuum that terrorism can take advantage of, so let’s make peace not war.”
Iraq could, however, be dragged into conflict by pro-Iranian factions within its Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known in Arabic as the Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries. Tensions have already spilled into Iraq, albeit on a small scale. Twice, in a little over four months, rockets and mortars have been fired near the US embassy in Baghdad.
The attacks have largely been attributed to Iranian-backed units within the PMF, many of which have called for US troops to leave Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi has ordered armed groups to cease their attacks.
The Iranian ambassador rejected the categorization that some PMF units may be acting on directions from Tehran. "If the Islamic Republic responds [to an attack], they respond too. They can't accept Iran being threatened, but eventually this is their decision… no one can force them to do anything,” Masjedi said, adding that they cannot prevent PMF units from targeting other countries in defence of Iran.
When Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure came under attack earlier this month, US officials suggested the missiles and drones used in the strike may have originated from Iraqi territory – a position later retracted.
Saudi Arabia’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs said this week that resolving the matter of Iraq’s PMF is a global problem. “The entire world is in talks with Iraq to solve the PMF issue,” Adil al-Jubair told reporters at the UN, adding that Iraq’s sovereignty should be respected.
Ambassador Masjedi also gave lip service to Iraq’s independence, telling Dijlah TV Tehran does not intervene in Iraq’s domestic affairs. “Iran doesn't make the decision for these countries, but it asks them and suggests to them [to force US troops out],” he said.
"Surely the Islamic Republic of Iran doesn't want a war, as Iranian officials have said more than once. No to war in the region, with Americans or anyone else,” he said. "War is not in the interest of America, Iran, or anyone else in my opinion."
US-Iran tensions have been on the rise for more than a year, since President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and began imposing severe sanctions with a bid to isolate Iran and cripple its economy. The US has deployed naval forces to the Middle East to up the ante on Iran, which it has blamed for attacks on oil tankers and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco facility. Tehran has denied the charges.
At the geographic heart of this conflict, Iraq is ready to mediate between the US and Iran, should the two countries as for it, Mohammed Ali Hakim, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs, told Rudaw on Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
“We, as Iraq, want stability in the region. Geographically, Iraq is in the middle between gulf countries and Iran. We don’t want a new war in the region,” said Hakim.
