World
Iraq’s Outgoing Prime Minister Says U.S. Troops Must Leave
WASHINGTON — Iraq’s outgoing prime minister said Tuesday that the United States has no alternative and must pull its troops out of the country, or else face an impending crisis. But President Donald Trump countered that it’s not the right time for a pullout and that it would be the worst thing that could happen to Iraq.
Trump said a U.S. pullout would allow Iran to gain a stronger foothold in Iraq.
“The people of Iraq do not want to see Iran running the country, that I can tell you,” Trump said from the White House.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who resigned in November amid mass anti-government protests, said Iraq wants a U.S. troop withdrawal to avoid further escalation as tensions soar between American and Iran.
His comments came just days after a U.S. airstrike killed Iran’s top general at Baghdad’s international airport. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, senior Iraqi commander of an Iran-backed militia, was also killed in Friday’s strike. His remains were brought back to Iraq from Iran to be buried in the holy southern city of Najaf.
“We have no exit but this, otherwise we are speeding toward confrontation,” Abdul-Mahdi said in a prerecorded televised speech following a weekly Cabinet meeting.
He said the “historic decision” was necessary, “otherwise we will not be taken seriously.”
U.S. troops are present in Iraq based on a request by the government in 2014, when vast swathes of the country were being overrun by the Islamic State group. But now that IS has been largely defeated, Abdul-Mahdi said, the mission has devolved into a U.S.-Iran proxy war.
Trump said he wants U.S. troops out of Iraq — eventually.
“At some point we want to get out, but this isn’t the right point,” Trump said.
Trump also reiterated that he still expects the United States to be reimbursed for some of its expenses, though he didn’t specify a price tag.
“We’ve spent a tremendous amount of money on building airports and building one of the largest embassies we have in the world. And we want to be reimbursed to the various costs that we have had. They’re very significant,” Trump said.
Iraq was barely starting to recover from the devastating four-year war against IS when mass protests erupted in October against the ruling elite, forcing Abdul-Mahdi to resign two months later. He hasn’t been replaced.
Referring to the fight against Islamic State extremists, he said: “Iraq did its part to fight in the war, and I see that any harm to Iraq will be harmful to all regional states and the whole world.”
Iraq’s parliament passed a non-binding resolution to request that the government expel foreign troops from the country on Sunday, in the wake of the U.S. airstrike. The vote was pushed by pro-Iran political factions but appeared to have the support of Shiite lawmakers from rival camps.
The session was boycotted by Kurdish and many Sunni lawmakers who opposed the decision or took issue with elements of the resolution.
Though the death of Soleimani is stoking broader regional tensions and fears of more violence, in Iraq, the killing of al-Muhandis drove a wedge between Iraq and the U.S. Officials in Baghdad consider the strike to be a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, as al-Muhandis, who was also the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces, was assassinated on Iraqi soil without their approval or knowledge.
The PMF is an umbrella group of mostly Shiite militias and a component of Iraq’s armed forces.
“Politically in Parliament, there is cross-bloc support (to oust U.S. troops),” said Sajad Jiyad, managing director of Bayan Center, an Iraqi think tank. “Even people nominally pro-U.S., anti-Iran or neutral are not happy with what the U.S. has done, and believe it’s a dangerous escalation.”
“The common denominator is this was an infringement on sovereignty,” he said.
Al-Muhandis’ remains had been taken to Iran for DNA testing. They were sent back through the Shalamsheh border crossing to his hometown of Basra in southern Iraq before being transferred to Najaf for burial late Tuesday.
Thousands of mourners in Basra’s city center gathered to receive the body. Many waved banners of the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, which al-Muhandis founded. The U.S. has blamed the group, which is separate from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, for a rocket attack in northern Iraq in late December that killed a U.S. contractor. That prompted the airstrike last week.
Amid threats of vengeance from Iran, the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq had said it was putting the battle against IS militants on hold to focus on protecting its own troops and bases.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has finally succumbed to pressure from President Donald Trump and some Republican leaders alleging voting fraud in the 3 November US election, by ordering a probe.
In a letter to federal prosecutors on Monday, he authorised them to pursue investigations into “substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities,” while urging them not to chase “fanciful or far-fetched” claims.
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The letter to prosecutors, which was seen by Reuters, marked the first time Barr addressed President Donald Trump’s repeated and unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud since last week’s election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
It came several hours after Barr met with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who earlier on Monday said Trump was well within his rights to look into charges of “irregularities” in last week’s election.
“I authorize you to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases, as I have already done in specific instances,” Barr wrote in the letter to federal prosecutors and the FBI.
President Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani have repeatedly made broad allegations of voter fraud in a number of states, but have not provided evidence for their claims.
Trump has filed lawsuits in a number of states that he either lost to former Vice President Joe Biden or is trailing in the vote count as the final ballots are tallied.
Biden secured his electoral college victory over Trump in the 2020 election with his projected win in Pennsylvania and Nevada on Saturday.
Biden is leading Trump in Arizona and Georgia, states that he will have flipped Democratic if he’s ultimately victorious in them.
The United Nations (UN) has blamed recent widespread public protests in various countries, including Nigeria, on the harsh socio-economic effects of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic the Nation reports.
Deputy Secretary-General of the UN Amina Mohammed stated this on Monday after separate meetings with President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The UN Executive, who was responding to a question on the global body’s stand on the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria, however lauded the nation’s response to the demands of the protesters, describing it as the quickest so far.
According to Mrs. Mohammed, the lessons learnt from Nigeria’s response to the protests are part of what would be taken into the future on how to manage conflict situations.
She noted that the demands of the protesters and the steps now being taken by the Nigerian government are the building blocks to the process of needed reforms for security as well as rebuild trust between government and the people.
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“The UN stance is clear, like the UN Secretary General had said in his speech, we believe everyone has a right to demonstrate peacefully for those issues they want to raise with their government.
“There is a social contract in place between the government and the people and it is important to have that freedom of speech, provided it is done peacefully.
“I think in the case where we heard that lives and property were lost, it was unfortunate and we believe that in addressing the demands that were made by young people, that in fact this is perhaps a lesson we can take into the future and how we engage in such issues.
“I have to say that there are lots of protests around this world that have been exacerbated by COVID because, COVID has left people out of work, left people hopeless because of the socio-economic impact and in many of those protests, we have not seen governments turn around in response as quickly as this government did.
“So, the UN’s response to this is that, we must make sure that what happened in this protests we are able to address those issues, those gaps and begin the reform, in fact I will say the transformations that are needed to address many of these outstanding issues and for that we need to engage youths, we need to engage government.
“I think what has been put in place are those building blocs and the support of the UN has been asked to make sure that those convenience can happen and that we can build back trust and have confidence-building measures in order to get to where we need to, where the social contract between government and the people is firm and trustworthy and is working for the benefits of the Nigerian people”, she said.
She expressed regrets over the break down of the protests into chaos, which had led to the loss of lives and destruction of property.
“We did raise while we were with Mr. President the issue around the recent challenges of ENDSARS protests that happened in the country. It was of course one that the Secretary-General, we all alarmed and of course support the country in trying to get back on track.
“Young people and their demands for social justice, governance are all legitimate ones and must be done peacefully. But we were all disturbed by the damage level, loss of lives and we continue to condole with those families who suffer those loses.
“Today was one in which we encourage efforts that are being made by government to that the process of engaging with the demands that have been made by the young people. It’s a start on that journey of reforms that are needed in the security sector, but also root causes to the issues that are happening today, which is about investing in development”, she said.
She said the global body would continue partner the Nigerian government, disclosing the launch of a new support programme; UN Plus Offer, which is targeted at the nation’s post-COVID-19 plan, the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP).
“We look forward to continuing our partnership with the government of Nigeria. We are happy today to launch the UN Plus Offer, which has to do again with supporting Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) over the next two years so that we can respond a little bit better.”
Peru’s Congress voted to oust President Martín Vizcarra on Monday in an impeachment trial over corruption allegations, the second effort by lawmakers to remove him in a matter of months PM NEWS reports
The opposition-dominated Congress put forward 105 votes to oust the centrist leader over accusations that as a governor he accepted bribes from companies that won public works contracts.
The 105 votes far exceeded the 87-vote threshold out of 130 needed to remove him from office. There were 19 votes against his ouster and four abstentions.
Vizcarra has rejected the corruption allegations as “baseless” and “false.”
He warned of “unpredictable consequences” earlier on Monday if lawmakers impeached him just months ahead of the April 11 presidential election, in which he is not eligible to run.
His removal from office plunges the world’s No. 2 copper producer into political turmoil as it looks to recover from an economic recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Vizcarra, 57, lacked a party in the fragmented Congress, and had a tense relationship with lawmakers, with whom he frequently locked horns over his anti-graft agenda.
He dissolved Congress last year after a long-running standoff, a move that prompted criticism by right-wing lawmakers.
Vizcarra survived a first ouster attempt in September in a separate impeachment trial over alleged links to a case of irregular government contracts with a little-known singer. Only 32 in the chamber voted in favor of his ouster in that vote.
In November, however, lawmakers voted to move forward with a new impeachment trial over accusations that Vizcarra accepted bribes from companies that won public works contracts when he was the governor of the southern region of Moquegua..
Vizcarra’s removal could usher in a period of political tensions and uncertainty in the months leading up to elections as Peru is already strained by economic instability, analysts said.
“Political turmoil related to the latest impeachment process and corruption allegations add to deep distrust of the political class ahead of upcoming elections,” international firm Eurasia said in a report earlier on Monday.
The head of Congress, Manuel Merino, an agronomist and businessman who is a member of minority party Popular Action, is expected to assume the presidency on Tuesday and will remain in office until the end of July 2021, when Vizcarra’s term was due to expire
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