DE-ESCALATION!!! “Iran ‘Standing Down’ After Missile Strikes” – Donald Trump

While he promised to immediately impose “punishing” new economic sanctions on Tehran, Trump welcomed signs the Islamic republic “appears to be standing down” in the tit-for-tat confrontation, signaling that the United States does not plan an immediate military riposte.

The comments cooled what threatened to become an uncontrolled boiling over of tensions after Trump ordered the killing last Friday of key Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.

However, the US president, facing both an impeachment trial in Congress and a tough reelection in November, defended the targeting of a man seen by many as the second most influential official in the country.

Soleimani, a national hero in Iran, was “the world’s top terrorist” and “should have been terminated long ago,” Trump said.

And although Trump ended his remarks with a call for peace, he opened by stating bluntly that he would never allow Iran to procure a nuclear weapon.

He then urged European allies and other world powers to follow America’s lead in abandoning an international agreement on managing the country’s nuclear ambitions.

And finally he called for NATO to take a more prominent role in the Middle East — a point he also made in a call with the organization’s chief Jens Stoltenberg, who agreed America’s western allies could do more for “regional stability.”

– Missiles blast bases –

Iran’s missiles targeted the sprawling Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq and a base in Arbil, both housing American and other foreign troops deployed in a US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State jihadist group.

AFP / Gal ROMAMilitary escalation

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who earlier promised “revenge” for Soleimani, called the missiles a “slap in the face” against the United States.

He indicated there was more to come.

“The question of revenge is another issue,” Khamenei said in a televised speech.

The strike highlighted the difficult position of Iraq, caught in an ever-deepening conflict between Trump and Iran.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh rejected Iraq being a “battlefield for warring sides.”

However, Iraq’s military said it also sustained no casualties.

– Face saving maneuver? –

The brazenness of the strike was highly unusual for Iran, which has tended to disguise attacks on US interests through its use of proxy Shiite forces.

AFP/File / Ahmad AL-RUBAYEIraqi soldiers are pictured in 2014 at Al-Asad air base, which was attacked in the first act of the Islamic republic’s promised revenge for the US killing of a top Iranian general

But as the dust settled, it appeared that Iran’s strike — coming soon after the burial of Soleimani at a funeral in front of vast crowds — might have been more symbolic than anything.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned any US counter-attack would be met with an even “more crushing response” and threatened to strike Israel and America’s “allied governments.”

However, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif indicated Iran was satisfied for now.

“Iran took and concluded proportionate measures in self-defense,” Zarif said on Twitter.

Iraq analyst Ramzy Mardini told AFP “it’s clear that Iran’s intent wasn’t to inflict pain or cause justification for the US to retaliate in a major way. It was meant to send a signal.”

That signal could either have been a face-saving measure aimed at public opinion or a way of showing Washington that Tehran would not be cowed by Trump’s bellicose warnings, Mardini said.

“The attack tests American resolve,” the analyst said.

– US headaches in Iraq –

AFP / Hussein FALEHA man holds a banner in Arabic calling for revenge as the body of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the slain chief of Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi paramilitary force with close ties to Iran, arrives in the southern city of Basra

The apparent de-escalation did not remove pressure from approximately 5,200 US troops stationed across Iraq, where Iran has close links to powerful armed Shiite militias.

Iranian allies in the country said they still intend to take revenge for Friday’s US attack in which top Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed alongside Soleimani by a drone missile.

Muhandis was the deputy head of Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi, a military network incorporated into the Iraqi state whose factions are backed by Tehran.

Paramilitary chief Qais al-Khazali — blacklisted as a “terrorist” by the US — said his side’s response to the United States “will be no less than the size of the Iranian response.”

ISNA/AFP / Rouhollah VAHDATIIranian emergency teams recover the bodies of the dead from the crash scene of a Ukrainian airliner that went down outside Tehran with the loss of at least 170 people on board

Angered at the drone strike, the Iraqi parliament has called for expulsion of US troops, sparking embarrassing confusion at the Pentagon over how to respond.

National Security Action, a Washington foreign policy think tank headed by Trump critics, said the killing of Soleimani had alienated Iraqis, united Iranians and weakened the international fight against Islamic State.

“Trump’s reckless approach has created a dangerous reality in which the best case scenario is avoiding war with Iran,” the group said.

– Airliner crash kills 176 –

Separately, a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 crashed just outside Tehran after taking off bound for Kiev, killing all 176 people on board.

There was no immediate suggestion of any link with the Iranian strikes but carriers including Air France, Royal Dutch Airlines and Lufthansa announced they were suspending flying though Iranian and Iraqi airspace as a precaution.

The US aviation regulator banned civil flights over Iraq, Iran and the Gulf, citing the potential for “misidentification” of aircraft.

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