Trump threatens sanctions on Baghdad after lawmakers call on US troops to leave

Trump threatens sanctions on Baghdad after lawmakers call on US troops to leave
January 6, 2020, 10:52 am

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House. (File photo Reuters)

US President Donald Trump threatened sanctions against Baghdad on Sunday after Iraq’s parliament called on US troops to leave the country, and the president said if troops did leave, Baghdad would have to pay Washington for the cost of the airbase there.

“We have a very extraordinarily expensive airbase that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build, long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

Trump said that if Iraq asked US forces to leave and it was not done on a friendly basis, “we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”

source: Reuters

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