The protesters set up tents in its vicinity ... Trump confirms that the embassy is safe and threatens Iran to pay a heavy price

US President Donald Trump held Iran fully responsible for any human or material losses caused as a result of the storming of the American embassy in Baghdad, amid talk of protesters erecting tents in the vicinity of the embassy to start what appears to be an open sit-in.

Trump threatened Iran that it would "pay a very heavy price as a result of storming the embassy," stressing that his statement was "a threat, not a warning."

He added that the US embassy in Baghdad is safe and "still thanks to the intervention of our great fighters equipped with the most deadly weapons."

The American President did not forget to thank the Iraqi President, Barham Salih, and the caretaker Prime Minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, for their prompt response to his request regarding the embassy’s security.

The White House said in a statement that Trump spoke on Tuesday with Abdul-Mahdi and stressed the need to protect Americans and American facilities.

For his part, Abdul-Mahdi called on the protesters to withdraw immediately, and stressed in a statement that "any attack or harassment of foreign embassies and representations is an act that the security forces will strictly prohibit, and the law will punish him with the most severe penalties."

In a statement, the Iraqi President also called on the protesters to withdraw from the embassy and its surroundings and not to escalate the situation, stressing that the attempt to storm it exceeded international agreements binding on the government, and that exposure to diplomatic missions strikes Iraq’s interests and its international reputation as a sovereign state.

Violent protests
Thousands of civilians and people affiliated with the Popular Mobilization gathered in front of the American Embassy in the Green Zone in Baghdad, denouncing the American raids on the locations of the Popular Mobilization in Anbar Province last Sunday, then dozens of them stormed the embassy building, set it on fire and burned the guard towers, before they withdrew to the embassy vicinity with reinforcements arriving Intense security.

Iraqi security forces fired tear gas canisters to disperse the protesters, and security guards from inside the embassy fired sound bombs at the crowd outside the compound's gate.

On the other hand, Abu Alaa Al-Walay, Secretary General of the "Sayyid Al-Shuhada" Brigade, one of the Popular Mobilization Factions, vowed on Tuesday to besiege all the American forces ’camps in Iraq soon.

He added that "the line that extends from the siege of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979 to the siege of its embassy in Baghdad today in 2019, summarizes the whole history."

Iran denies
For its part, the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied on Tuesday that Tehran was involved in the protests at the American embassy in Iraq.

"America has a surprising audacity to accuse Iran of the Iraqi people's protests against the killing of (Washington) at least 25 Iraqis," ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

Open sit
In a related development, Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that hundreds of protesters, supporters of the popular crowd, started installing tents in front of the American embassy in Baghdad, in preparation for the apparently open sit-in.

The correspondent added that the security forces in the vicinity of the embassy did not prevent the demonstrators from setting up their tents at night.

American officials said that additional American forces are being sent to the embassy.

The US embassy in Baghdad has been targeted by separate but non-lethal rocket attacks in recent months, and has been repeatedly bombed in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion, but its compound has never been attacked by demonstrators like this.