Washington - US President Donald Trump has threatened Iraq with sanctions if there is "any hostility" regarding an Iraqi demand for US troops to leave the country.

Trump's comments came after Iraq's parliament passed a resolution calling to end the presence of foreign troops linked to a United States-led alliance fighting Islamic State. There are currently around 5,000 US soldiers stationed in Iraq.

"If there’s any hostility, that they do anything we think is inappropriate, we are going to put sanctions on Iraq, very big sanctions on Iraq," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday on the way back to Washington from Florida, according to a press pool report.

He said the possible sanctions would make US sanctions on Iran look "somewhat tame."

Trump claimed that the government in Baghdad would have to reimburse the cost of some US-built infrastructure in Iraq, including a modern air base which he said the US paid billions of dollars to build.

"We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it," he said.
The Iraqi parliament approved the legislature in an emergency session on Sunday. It also called for the government to prevent any foreign troops from using Iraqi land or airspace for any reason.

The move comes after a US airstrike in Baghdad killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the deputy head of Iraq's Muslim Shiite militia Hashd al-Shaabi, along with several other Iran-allied militiamen.

Iraq's caretaker prime minister Adel Abdel-Mahdi said steps were being worked out for the departure of foreign troops from the country, the official Iraqi news agency INA reported.

"Iraqi officials in different departments are preparing a memorandum on the legal and procedural steps to implement the parliament’s decision on the foreign troops' withdrawal," Abdel-Mahdi's office said in a statement, without giving details.

Addressing parliament earlier, Abdel-Mahdi said the activities of foreign troops in Iraq should be limited to training, not combat missions.

"We have two options: to immediately end this foreign presence or to set a timetable for this," he added.

The US was "disappointed" by the Iraqi parliament's action, a State Department spokesperson said.

"While we await further clarification on the legal nature and impact of today's resolution, we strongly urge Iraqi leaders to reconsider the importance of the ongoing economic and security relationship between the two countries and the continued presence of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS," Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

"We believe it is in the shared interests of the United States and Iraq to continue fighting ISIS together," she said, adding that the Trump administration remains "committed to a sovereign, stable, and prosperous Iraq."

dpa