Iran Warns Iraq Against US Relations and Opposes Western Military Presence; Impeachment and Compensation Orders Follow

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, warned Iraq against having relations with the United States during Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid's visit to Iran. Khamenei opposed Western military presence in Iraq and told Rashid that the United States was not reliable. Tehran considers the Western military presence in the region to be the root of its insecurity. Khamenei stated, "Americans are not friends of Iraq. Americans are not friends with anyone and are not even loyal to their European friends. Even the presence of one American in Iraq is too much," according to state media. Rashid led a delegation to Iran to deepen relations with the neighboring country.

The United States currently has around 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq to advise and assist the local military in combating the Islamic State militant group, which seized territory in Iraq in 2014.

On Sunday, the hardline Iranian parliament voted to impeach the country’s Industry, Mines, and Trade minister, Reza Fatemi-Amin. He is the first minister under Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s cabinet to face impeachment since his election in 2020. The parliament accused Fatemi-Amin of failing to control the "skyrocketing prices of automobiles and the rising costs of industrial production" and criticized him for mismanagement. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf announced Fatemi-Amin's dismissal on state television.

Last week, an Iranian court ordered the US government and several other individuals, including Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, to pay compensation to Iran for allegedly creating and guiding Islamic State attacks in 2017. The court in Tehran issued the order based on the complaints of the families of three people killed and six wounded during the 2017 attacks in Tehran.