In Baghdad over the last day, there was a sense of crisis, American diplomats trapped
in the embassy, U.S. troops on the embassy roof ready to fire into crowds.
Today, the siege outside the embassy is winding down, but the larger U.S.-Iran tensions remain
high.
After the most significant standoff outside a U.S. Embassy in years, demonstrators in
Baghdad today stood down and declared victory.
FADHIL AL-GEZZI, Militia Supporter (through translator): After we achieved what we intended
here, we pulled out from this place triumphantly, and we soaked America's news in dirt.
NICK SCHIFRIN: For 24 hours, supporters of the Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah staged
a sit-in, and scaled the embassy walls, and broke the reception area's windows. They demanded
the U.S. close the embassy and withdraw its more than 5,000 troops from Iraq.
They were responding to Sunday's U.S. airstrikes against members of the same militia. The U.S.
blames the group for killing an American military contractor and attacking U.S. bases in Iraq
11 times in the last two months.
On CBS News yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed the Iranian government.
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. Secretary of State: This is state-sponsored terror. This is Iranian-backed
terrorism that took place that threatened American interests.
NICK SCHIFRIN: During the sit-in, U.S. troops fired tear gas and stun grenades to push back
demonstrators. Helicopters flew over the embassy and dropped flares. And the U.S. reinforced
the embassy, deploying Marines from Kuwait and 750 additional soldiers from the U.S.
The U.S. was concerned Iraqi forces alone couldn't handle the situation. At first, Iraqi
forces allowed demonstrators to stream toward the embassy, inside the normally restricted
Green Zone. Eventually, they tried to act as a buffer between demonstrators and American
troops.
And, today, they continue to act as security. But the end to the crisis in Baghdad doesn't
reduce larger U.S.-Iran tensions. Yesterday, President Trump tweeted that Iran -- quote
-- "will pay a very big price. This is not a warning. It is a threat. Happy new year."
Today, Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denied Iran played a role and mocked President
Trump.
AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, Supreme Leader of Iran (through translator): That gentleman
has again tweeted. They tweet, speak or write articles, and he has said that, we see Iran
responsible for this situation in Iraq, that Iran is controlling this, and we will respond
to Iran.
First, you can't do a damn thing. This has nothing to do with Iran. Second, be logical.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Outside the embassy, there are still a few hundred holdouts. And a few
miles away, a separate demonstration. Thousands of anti-corruption protesters fill Baghdad's
Tahrir Square. They have been in the streets since October, demanding less sectarianism
and more economic opportunity for all Iraqis.
Now two people with first-hand experience with the parties involved in the embassy standoff.
Sarkawt Shams is a member of the Iraqi Parliament representing the Kurdistan region. He joins
me from the city of Sulaymaniyah. And Douglas Silliman, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq until
early last year, he is now the president of the Arab Gulf States Institute, a Washington
think tank.
Sarkawt Shams, the siege is over, but do you right now have criticism of both the Iraqi
forces that allowed some of these protesters, these demonstrators, these members of the
militia to get so close to the embassy, and do you have criticism of what started this,
the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq over the weekend?
SARKAWT SHAMS, Iraqi Parliament Member: Right.
Both countries to blame, both parties to blame for the starting of this crisis. First, the
U.S. unilateral action against elements of the PMU, or the Shia militias that the West
them, some of them. And it was a mistake, it was a strategic mistake by the Iraqi security
forces that are protecting the Green Zone, the international zone, where the U.S. Embassy
and many other embassies and Iraqi -- sensitive Iraqi institutions like Parliament are located
there.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Ambassador Silliman, you were in the embassy up until recently, up until
last year.
So, Sarkawt Shams has two points. One, did the Iraqi forces do enough to keep these people
away from the embassy? I assume you agree that they might have done more. But also that
the U.S. didn't enough -- didn't do enough to actually tell the Iraqi government before
these airstrikes this weekend?
DOUGLAS SILLIMAN, Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq: First of all, in the short term, the
Iraqi security forces that were guarding the Green Zone and the diplomat -- diplomatic
establishment obviously didn't do enough to keep the protesters from attacking the embassy.
And it was only after the attack was well under way, and there was damage to the embassy
wall and reception area itself, that they called in the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service,
which are the equivalent of U.S. Special Forces.
The trouble is, this issue is much broader and can be put in a couple of different contexts.
So, the Iraqi government has not done enough to prevent the Popular Mobilization Forces,
the -- what are generally called Shia militias, but that's too broad a concept -- these irregular
forces that are now part of the Iraqi government have not been controlled by the government
adequately to prevent them from conducting attacks against Iraq institutions or diplomatic
institutions.
So that's the first issue. The second issue is the larger context. There is still the
context of Iran consistently trying to poke the United States into action. You saw this
in the Gulf of Oman months and months ago, the shooting down of the U.S. drone, and more
recently, in October, the attacks on Saudi Arabian oil installations conducted by Iran,
looking for that pressure point that is going to get the United States to react or, hopefully,
in Iran's eyes, overreact to the Iranian provocation.
And up until this attack that killed an American, there wasn't a U.S. military response.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Sarkawt Shams, there has been a push by the same militia that we saw doing
these attacks and this demonstration outside the embassy to evict the U.S. from Iraq.
Will Parliament now be more likely to take up the question of evicting the U.S. from
Iraq?
SARKAWT SHAMS: I don't think so. It's going to happen in the Parliament.
First of all, it wasn't the Parliament who invited the U.S. Army to Iraq. It was the
prime minister, then Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi. It came at the invite and request
of the Iraqi government, not the Parliament.
If the Iraqi government doesn't need them, if the Iraqi military doesn't need U.S. Army,
which I think they need them now, they can just ask them to leave, and they will leave
eventually, in a few days. We don't need a bill in the Parliament to push the foreign
forces.
Taking the issue, the crisis to the Parliament, that which means these leaders, they don't
want U.S. forces to leave. They just want to show up and just make it a case for their
people -- to satisfy their people. That's not a real step toward removing U.S. forces
in Iraq.
That's just a political show.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Mr. Shams, are you worried that the U.S. military response plays into
Iran's hand? Iran has been goading the U.S. to attack.
And are you worried that Iraq is becoming the main theater for a proxy war between the
U.S. and Iran?
SARKAWT SHAMS: That's already happening. And that's the fear of all Iraqis, including the
-- even the Kurdish government, Iraq to be transformed to a proxy war between the two
nations.
Both nations are important to Iraq. Both, they have strategic relations with Iraq. And
we cannot ignore and favor one over another one. What we want is both countries to have
their conflict resolved elsewhere, not in Iraq.
Ambassador Silliman, he already know -- he have a lot of experience in this country -- that
Iraqi institutions are weak in military institutions, economic institutions and (INAUDIBLE) we have
a caretaker prime minister who cannot really execute his full constitutional power, due
to he resigned, and we are awaiting a new prime minister.
So we are in a very fragile and a very dangerous region. And we require support from the United
States. And we know that it's really easy to start a war, but it is going to be almost
impossible to win
the peace.
DOUGLAS SILLIMAN: The reality is -- I would reframe the entire question, because it is
not a war between the United States and Iran on Iraqi territory.
The goals of the United States in Iraq are internationally recognized. We have got a
17-country coalition to help Iraq defeat ISIS finally and to train and mentor toward the
military. We have been working with the IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations, the European
Union, NATO, and a number of other international organizations to build Iraqi institutions,
so that Iraq can be an independent sovereign state and exercise its own sovereignty positively
in the international community.
It is Iran that has been undermining the Iranian constitution -- the Iraqi constitution, putting
its proxy forces or supporters into positions in the Iraqi government, and not obeying by
the laws and the constitution of Iraq.
And so this is not the United States vs. Iran. This is the world vs. Iran. And the goals
of Iran are to essentially swallow Iraq politically, economically, and give itself security strategic
depth.
The world wants to see Iraq fully integrated into the international community in a positive
way.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Ambassador Silliman, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Sarkawt Shams, member
of Iraqi Parliament, thank you very much to you both.
SARKAWT SHAMS: Thank you for having me.