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President Donald Trump has threatened Iraq with heavy sanctions if Baghdad forces the US military to leave. What to remind the Iraqis of the embargo imposed following the war of Kuwait in 1990.
Fear prevails in Iraq, three days after the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad by an American drone strike. The population fears a new conflict and its consequences, whether military or henceforth economic. On Sunday, after Parliament's request to expel the 5,200 American soldiers present in the country, Donald Trump warned: "If they do ask us to leave, if we don't do it on a very friendly basis, we will impose them sanctions like they have never seen before. "
These threats bring back the painful memory of the embargo imposed by the United States on Iraq in the 1990s after Saddam Hussein's army invaded Kuwait. Some residents speak of this period as the worst they have known, reports our correspondent in Baghdad, Lucile Wasserman . Worse than wars or terrorism, which they have faced in recent decades. Many today remember the hunger that consumed them during these dark years, or the image of their parents trying to sell all their goods for a little food.
Due to the embargo, Iraq's GDP has been cut in half and dozens of factories have closed. The country now has 40 million inhabitants, a tenfold vehicle fleet, mobile phones and computers in all houses, which has caused consumption to explode, notes Agence France-Presse. The consequences of economic sanctions would therefore be much more serious today, say observers.
For the Iraqis, the American sanctions would not punish the political class, but only, once again, the population, powerless in the face of the current spiral between the United States and Iran. Donald Trump justified his warnings by recalling the colossal investment made by the United States in Iraq. " We will not leave if they do not reimburse us ," warned the American president.