Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said on Wednesday that his
military had dealt the United States a “slap in the face” when it
unleashed missiles at American forces stationed in Iraq.
In
a televised address from the holy city of Qom, Ayatollah Khamenei said
incremental military actions against the United States alone were “not
sufficient.”
“What
matters is that the presence of America, which is a source of
corruption in this region, should come to an end,” he said to a hall
filled with imams and others.
“Death to America!,” the crowd chanted. “Death to Israel!”
Ayatollah
Khamenei said that “sitting at the negotiating table” with American
envoys would open the door to greater American intervention in the
region and that such negotiations therefore must “come to an end.”
“This region,” he said, “does not accept the U.S. presence.”
The
ayatollah provided no additional details about the strikes on Tuesday
night, in which, American allies say, no one was killed.
He
called Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, considered to have been the
second-most powerful man in Iran, a “dear friend to us,” and praised him
as a “great, brave warrior.”
Iran’s
president, Hassan Rouhani, in his meeting with the council of ministers
on Wednesday morning, detailed his country’s larger regional goal in
comments directed at the Americans. “You cut off the hand of Qassim Suleimani from his body and we will cut off your feet from the region,” he said.
Iraq calls for de-escalation as conflict plays out on its soil.
Prime
Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq released a statement on Wednesday
saying his government would “continue its intense attempts to prevent
escalation” in the simmering conflict between Iran and the United
States.
After
Iranian missile strikes on bases housing American troops in Iraq, Mr.
Abdul Mahdi objected to the violation of his country’s sovereignty,
echoing comments he made after the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani
on Friday and after American strikes on an Iranian-backed militia in western Iraq in late December. But Mr. Abdul Mahdi noted that the Iraqis were given some warning about the Iranian strike.
In
a statement, he said the government had received an official message
from Tehran that the “retaliation” for General Suleimani’s killing had
begun and that it would target American sites in Iraq. But there had
been no prior warning about the exact locations, he added.
“At
the same time, the American side called us as the rockets were falling
on the American side,” at the two bases, Mr. Abdul Mahdi said in the
statement. He noted that there had been no loss of life on the Iraqi
side and no reports of coalition deaths.
Although
the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Wednesday
that his country had concluded its attack, officials around the region
cautioned that the statement did not mean Tehran was done maneuvering,
and Iran’s leadership has reiterated its goal of forcing United States
troops out of the Middle East.
Two bases housing American troops were targeted
by Iran in Wednesday’s missile strikes: Al Asad Air Base in Anbar
Province and another installation in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region.
In December 2018, President Trump visited American military forces at the Asad base. It was his first trip to troops stationed in a combat zone.
The
base is an Iraqi installation that has long been a hub for American
military operations in western Iraq, and other international coalition
troops have also been stationed there in recent years.
The
base in Erbil has been a Special Operations hub, home to hundreds of
troops, logistics personnel and intelligence specialists. Transport
aircraft, gunships and reconnaissance planes have used the airport as an
anchor point for operations in both northern Iraq and deep into Syria.
