This archive report was first published on 6 January 2020.
US-Iraq Tensions Escalate ¶
US President Donald Trump has threatened severe sanctions against Iraq after its parliament called on US troops to leave the country.
Speaking from the presidential plane, Trump said that if Iraq asked US forces to depart on an unfriendly basis, 'we will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before, ever. It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.'
Trump's comments come after the US assassinated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last week, sparking a wave of retaliatory threats from Iran.
Iran has vowed 'severe revenge' for Soleimani's death, and has announced it will no longer abide by restrictions imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal.
The deal, which was abandoned by Trump in 2018, restricted Iran's enrichment of uranium to 3.67% and allowed international inspectors to monitor its nuclear activities.
Iran has now said it will no longer observe these limitations, and has increased its enrichment of uranium to 20%.
Trump has vowed to strike back at Iran in the event of retaliation for Soleimani's death, 'perhaps in a disproportionate manner.'
He has also repeated a controversial threat to target Iranian cultural sites, despite criticism from within the US and overseas.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has drawn parallels with the destruction of the Middle East's cultural riches by the Islamic State group.
Targeting cultural sites is banned under the Geneva and Hague Conventions, and violating them would constitute a war crime in the US.
Iran has always insisted that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, but suspicions that it was being used to develop a bomb covertly prompted the UN Security Council, US and EU to impose crippling sanctions in 2010.
The 2015 deal was designed to constrain the programme in a verifiable way in return for sanctions relief.
It restricted Iran's enrichment of uranium to 3.67% and allowed international inspectors to monitor its nuclear activities.
Before July 2015, Iran had a large stockpile of enriched uranium and almost 20,000 centrifuges, enough to create eight to 10 bombs, according to the White House at the time.
US experts estimated back then that if Iran had decided to rush to make a bomb, it would take two to three months until it had enough 90%-enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon – the so-called 'breakout time'.
Iran's current 'breakout time' is estimated to be around a year, but this could be reduced to half a year or even a matter of months if enrichment levels are increased to 20%, for example.
