Bahrain Embassy ‘assisting citizens leave Iraq’ amid escalating tensions

Bahrain Embassy in Iraq has been receiving calls from citizens, who wanted to return to the Kingdom following escalation of clashes in the country. The embassy stated that it is working with an airlines to ensure their safe return to the Kingdom as soon as possible.

“All Bahraini citizens in Iraq will receive required attention and support,” the embassy stated. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned citizens against travelling to Iraq amidst the recent developments. “The Kingdom of Bahrain is following the development of events in the brotherly Republic of Iraq that came as a result of the condemned terrorist acts which the Kingdom previously denounced, stressing the need to de-escalate in order to overcome this period, and to address all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism,” the ministry stated.

“The Kingdom also stresses the importance of immediate action to be taken by the international community, affirming the need to take all necessary measures to ensure security and stability in the region because of its vital and strategic importance for the whole world,” it added. Meanwhile, Iraq’s parliament yesterday urged the government to remove thousands of American troops from the country, stepping up pressure over the US killing of a top Iranian general in Baghdad.

US installations were also facing new military stresses, with missiles slamming into the Baghdad enclave where the US embassy is located and an air base north of the capital housing American troops. Ties have deteriorated after an American precision drone strike on the Baghdad international airport on Friday that killed Iran’s Major General Qassem Soleimani and top Iraqi military figure Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis.

Iraq’s foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador, while caretaker premier Adel Abdel Mahdi attended an extraordinary parliamentary session to slam the strike as a “political assassination.” He joined 168 lawmakers — just enough for quorum in Iraq’s 329-seat parliament — to discuss the removal of US troops. Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of Daesh. They are deployed as part of the broader international coalition, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help fight Daesh.

“The parliament has voted to commit the Iraqi government to cancel its request to the international coalition for help to fight IS,” speaker Mohammed Halbusi announced, using another acronym for Daesh. The cabinet would have to approve any decision but the premier had earlier indicated support for a removal. “We face two main choices,” he told MPs: either immediately voting for foreign troops to leave or revisiting their mandate through a parliamentary process.

Hard-line parliamentarians with ties to the Hashed Al Shaabi military force, which is close to Iran, had demanded a tougher decision calling for the immediate expulsion of all foreign troops. No Kurdish and most Sunni MPs boycotted the session as they were more supportive of a US troop presence, seen as a counterweight to Iran. They had been threatened by Hashed-linked MPs, who said they would be seen as having “betrayed” Iraq if they boycotted.

Tom Warrick, a former US official and current fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Soleimani and pro-Iran factions within the Hashed had long sought the US’s exit. “If US forces do end up withdrawing, it could grant Soleimani a post-humous victory,” Warrick told AFP. As the session got under way, the US-led coalition announced it was suspending its Iraq operations due to deadly rocket attacks on their bases.

“This has limited our capacity to conduct training with partners and to support their operations against Daesh and we have therefore paused these activities, subject to continuous review,” it said. There had been fears of a volley of rocket attacks following a warning from a hard-line Hashed faction for Iraqis to move away from US forces by Sunday afternoon. Already, increased tensions prompted NATO to suspend its training activities in Iraq and a US defence official told AFP American-led coalition forces would “limit” operations.

Iraq’s foreign ministry said it had summoned US ambassador Matthew Tueller to condemn American strikes on Iraq. “They were a blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement, and “contradict the agreed-upon missions of the international coalition.” The ministry also said it submitted complaints to the United Nations Security Council over the strikes, asking it to condemn Soleimani’s death as an “assassination.”