Streets in tehran. Hundreds of thousands of people are mourning the death of general Qasem Soleimani who was killed by the u. S. Last week. Iran now saying they will abandon their obligations under that 2015 nuclear deal. President trump has renewed his threat to attack cultural site ifs iran retaliates. That would be a war crime. The president is also promising very big sanctions on iraq if they follow through to expel u. S. Troops from the country. Congress returns to this crisis with iran today. And an impeachment trial against President Trump looms in the senate. Want to begin our coverage with Cnns Frederik Pleitgen who is live on the streets in tehran. Were looking at these remarkable pictures, this flood of humanity mourning the death of general soleimani. Yeah, good morning, john. Ive been in the thick of all of this pretty much all morning. You know, obviously theres a lot of grief being kprexpressed here. There are some people who have come out here who said they believe well over a Million People have come out into the streets. And that certainly is something that is pretty remarkable and bigger than anything that ive ever seen here. This is my 15th or 16th time reporting from iran. Ive been in a lot of demonstrations here in this country as well. The people here obviously in a state of mourning but also very much in a state of anger as well. The bodies of Qasem Soleimani and the others killed in that air strike in baghdad were this morning eulogized here in tehran at the tehran university. And it was the Supreme Leader himself who said the prayers over the bodies. That is an honor not bestowed on very many people here in this country. And it shows how important Qasem Soleimani is. Very controversy in western countries but here in iran he was someone revered. The people here on the one hand in a state of mourning. But they are also in a state of anger. One of the things we heard earlier today was people chanting death to america. Also as we were going live on tv and many of them saying what they want, a hard revenge. They want their nation to hit back at the u. S. And do so quite quickly. Over the last few months, weve seen protests on the streets in iran. But theyve been against the iranian government. It seems as if this u. S. Action in a way has unified the iranian people in a way that they werent unified before. Reporter you know what . I would definitely say so. Its an interesting point that you raise. People have been coming to us saying, look. Of course we have problems here in this country. Of course they had those demonstrations not just here in tehran but really throughout the country. And of course those protests in part were met with violence. Now in this moment the country is unifying. It was interesting to see also the makeup of the crowd here on the ground. You have a lot of religious people, but you have a lot of secular and moderate people as well who are very much united in their mourning and anger at the killing that took place. And its not just the killing of Qasem Soleimani itself thats angered a lot of people, but they also say that President Trump poured more gasoline over that fire when he says they have 52 sites in iran. Some of them being sites important to iranian culture. Certainly while there are deep divisions here in the fabric of the nation, theres one thing that all can agree on. Fred, thank you for all of that context and for being on the ground with us. Joining us now to talk about this, we have cnn political analyst david gregory. Cnn Global Affairs analyst bianna golodryga. And max foot, a senior fellow on the council of foreign relations. Max, when you look at these live pictures there on the screen, Fred Pleitgen saying some estimates, there are a Million People. Does that give us any indication of what iran plans to do next . Well, it certainly indicates that the attack on soleimani is not leading to dancing in the streets as secretary of state mike pompeo suggested would be the case. As john was just pointing out, weve seen a complete turnaround from a month ago where youve had antiregime protests in iraq. And now in both countries, youre seeing this surge of nationalism and antiamericanism because of the death of general soleimani. And its still possible we will see that the killing of soleimani will deter some actions that may be the case. Weve seen no indication of that so far. With the Iraqi Parliament voting to kick u. S. Forces out of iraq with this massive surge of antiamericanism in both countries. And donald trump seems and of course with iran exiting the nuclear deal. And donald trump wants iranians and iraqis to hate us, hes doing a good job. By threatening to somehow hold iraq hostage to shake them down for money to pay for a u. S. Air base. This is not the way we influence people in the region. It is interesting because whatever the impact positive impact of killing general soleimani may be, there are already negative repercussions. Its unifying the iranians. It has caused iran to pull out completely from the Iran Nuclear Deal. They will be building centrifuges immediately. They voted to expel all troops from that country. And the United States had to pause, literally pause the fight gins isis in the region because the troops have to take measures to stay safe. And now you have the president threatening not only iranians but iraqis as well. Its distanced us with the european allies. And we saw secretary of state mike pompeo over the weekend say multiple times that they could have done more, sort of blaming them. European allies were still in a very tight situation in terms of wanting to retain any hopes of keeping the Iran Nuclear Deal on the table. Now saying we werent even given a heads up about this assassination. And look, its coming when were hearing more and more information about mike pompeo pushing for this route going to the early days of summer when the u. S. Drone was shot down by iranians and there was no forcible response from the president of the United States. And the question is what comes next . There are actually two questions. If there was imminent attack if were going to be exposing our troops or americans in the region to harm, show us that data, one. And two, if this had been something that at least had been on the table for an option for the president to make, that was the day two response going to be . What does day two, day three, month three look like down the road . We have yet to see any evidence of that. And david gregory, from the reporting that we know, its hard to see how the Trump Administration gamed this out completely. You know, the president is known for more impulsive decisions, not sort of being a longterm chess player. And so of course its impossible to know what the iranians are going to do next or what the u. S. Response will be to their retaliatory response. You know, in our conversations over the past four years, my biggest concern has always been this kind of scenario. An International Crisis with an untested president , an impulsive person who doesnt have top advisers around him. A lot of the military with seasoned experience has left the administration. And he doesnt listen to a lot of people anyway. So your ability to ratchet up a response, there has been tension between the United States and iran for months now. He has now ratcheted up, escalated it to such a degree theres not a lot of room to maneuver now. And so theres no identifiable strategy here. Only an impulsive president. And that impulsivity being seen by threatening cultural sites in iran which are only going to inflame tensions. You look at whats happening on the streets. It may be as general David Petraeus was quoted as saying over the weekend that there is some deterrence that has restored the relationship because the president did something that was so brazen. Something his predecessors had an opportunity to do and would not do. And so theres an outcome here that may be extremely positive that is difficult to see at the moment beyond the dangers of the present. We simply dont know. What we do know is this marks a return of the United States having to insert itself into the volatility of the middle east. Something the president said he never wanted to do. And on the nuclear question alone, now it returns the United States to a posture before the joint agreement of 2015 where they may have to take provocative actions to try to set the program back that might be covert, overt, but it really does return the United States to a position of great responsibility without a lot of allies. I want to pick up on what david was just talking about. The impulsiveness of President Trump. We saw that on air force one last night as he was returning to the white house. Number one, he threatened sanctions on iraq. Threatened sanctions on a u. S. Ally iraq if iraq kicks out the u. S. Troops. And then he made that statement reiterating his feeling that the United States should go after iranian cultural sites if iran retaliates. That, of course, would be a war crime. The president said it this way. Theyre allowed to kill our people, allowed to torture and maim our people, use roadside bombs and were not allowed to touch their cultural sites . It doesnt work that way. I wound fnder if you could talkt the impact of statements like that around the world. My first reaction, j. B. , was to say it does work that way. Because they support terrorism. We are a rule of law country. So it doesnt matter what atrocities they commit. We will abide by the rule of law. And i cant imagine our military targeting cultural sites in iran in defiance of international law. But that doesnt seem to matter to donald trump. He doesnt seem to care about international law. And the reality is were unlikely to do this, but the fact he is saying that we will do this, that is a black eye for the United States. That reducing us to the level of the taliban. Those are the kind of people who blow up cultural sites. Thap is not something the United States does. Remember the movie the monuments men. Our men were out there saving cultural sites from the barbarians out there. So donald trump is losing the battle for Public Opinion around the world. This does not help us anywhere. It certainly does not help us in places like iran and iraq where a lot of people hate the Iranian Regime and now he is solidifying their support for that regime by threatening to commit crimes against the iranian people. It doesnt matter if youre a reformer or a hard liner in. Iran, everybody treasures those sites. Im not sure mike pompeo made people feel better yesterday when he was asked by George Stephanopoulos on one of the sunday shows. Listen to how secretary of state mike pompeo explained why people should feel better. Well behave lawfully. Well behave inside the system. We always have and we always will, george. You know that. We always have and always will behave inside the system . Two weeks ago the president was impeached by the house of representatives for behaving outside of the system in terms of whatever theyre doing in ukraine. And yet the president designated mike pompeo to be the face of all of this on all of the talk shows over the weekend and he has remained steadfast in saying were going to be following the law. And here we are at a place where weve grown accustomed to these erratic tweets from the president of the United States. Republicans, havent seen many speaking out in outrage about his tweet threatening to blow up cultural sites in iran. And its sort of become the new normal. But you also had secretary of state pompeo suggesting that this war was started with iran as soon as the u. S. Got into the jcpoa and that is just not factually accurate. Whatever you want to say about fringe and proxy attacks. Look, iran has always been a bad actor and malevolent. But the jcpoa was talking about Nuclear Proliferation and iran was actually complying within that. So if anything, the argument can be made once the president and u. S. Got out of the jcpoa, thats when things began to become heated. Were not taking with irans defense. Here. They were always a bad actor. The question is how do you contain them. Can i underline the gravity here . I think its obvious because we have so many levels of threat now between the United States and iran. We also dont have floem si between the United States and iran. And to me, its an obvious point but a really frightening point is miscalculation. Leaders make mistakes in a cycle of attack and response. And thats what everybody has to have their eyes open to now is a cycle of mistakes. If iran responds in some fashion, what comes next . Miscalculation has led to such horrible outcomes throughout history. All right. Thank you. All of this is a sobering conversation. Thank you for your expertise with this. Democrats in congress are trying to rein in the military actions with iran. How can they do that . Next, a member of the Armed Services committee. The tempurpedic breeze™ makes sleep feel cool. 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Joining me now is mikey cheryl, a former navy pilot who did fly in the middle east. Congresswoman, thank you for being with us. I wouldnt be surprised if you know people who suffered at the hands of general soleimani. I do. There were countless, hundreds of Service Members in iraq who suffered in attacks that he planned or sponsored, the technology. That is one thing. I am struck with iraq voting to remove u. S. Troops from that country. The United States saying it has hit the pause button on operations against isis. Where do you think things stand this morning . Thats right. I was a policy office in my final tour in the navy. We were always thinking about our actions and how they would affect the country 10, 20 years from now. What was the goal of any action we took. And when you think of the middle east, youre thinking of, you know, how do i make sure iran moves away from a Nuclear Program . How do i make sure we form a more stable middle east ripe for democracy. And when you look at this action, taken alone it doesnt achieve those goals. However, with a long er term strategy, we ask what it is. How does this fit into that piece of the puzzle. Why is the vote that nancy pelosi is now pushing for important in your mind . I think were all uneasy in congress. This administration has taken its time Briefing Congress on exactly what there was posed and why we needed to move forward right now with this attack. We havent heard the longterm strategy. In fact, the president said he didnt need a strategy which i really disagree with in this region. And so i think we want to make sure that this administration realizes that if its going to move forward into a conflict with iran, it cannot do so without the ae prooufl of dprs. Have you seen any of this intelligence yet or information that mike pompeo told me on friday there was an imminent attack that killing soleimani would somehow thwart . So i am headed down tomorrow to look at some of the specific intelligence information. But i have been in touch with the chairman. I have been talking to members and from what i understand, there is still some question over how imminent the threat was. Do you trust their word . I you know, i certainly want to see the information. I think we have had some question about some of the information weve received in the past. So i would want to see the firsthand information. Thats not just a question for this administration. I think americans are rightly skeptical of any intelligence when it comes to this portion of the world. Which mings me to impeachment. When do you think nancy pelosi should deliver the articles of impeachment to the senate . As you know, that was one of the last votes we took of last year. Well just be back in session tuesday. I would anticipate it wouldnt be very long. But we really do need to see now what the procedure is. Thats what i hear in my district. Are they going to be fair procedures . This is a trial. And you want people going into a trial i was a federal prosecutor. I would want and expect people going into a trial to not have preconceived notion. You said you expect it not to be very long. What do you want as a member of the freshman caucus whos gone in there . It was a tough vote for you. Do you want nancy pelosi to deliver the articles soon . I do. I want, i think my district wants, i think the nation wants resolution to this. How do you think the military action against iran will factor into this . Well, its certainly a separate issue, but so i dont i really do look at these as two very separate things. There has been some concern that they are related. Thats, again, why we want to look at what the threat was, what the imminent threat was. What kind of concern that they are relateed . Well, you know, why was this determined why was it determined that we needed to strike soleimani now . The president said this will make it safer. The president s had plans to do this for almost four years now. I think we just want to make sure that were all coming up and understanding the longterm strategy to promote interests worldwide. Do you fear having an impeachment trial while there is an International Crisis going on somehow undermines his authority and the ability of the commander in chief to chaarry out those actions . I dont think that would undermine his authority. I think he has moved forward as a commander in chief in the way he is determined he would like to do. What we want to understand is how is this in the best interests of the people of the United States and values abroad . How do we make sure we further deter iranian Nuclear Programming . How do owe make sure this enables us to further deter terrorism here at at home . Congresswoman mikie cher ril. Thank you very being with us. I hope the information will be public soon. I know senator menendez has asked it be made public. Thank you very much. Irans new military commander is pledging revenge for the u. S. Killing their top general. Is the u. S. Prepared for whatever comes next . You always want to be able to deliver relief for your patients. Get them out of pain, get them out of pain fast. We have a new product out there sensodyne rapid relief. If you use it on monday, by thursday, youll be enjoying that Chocolate Ice Cream again. They can start it, and 3 days later, i know that theyre going to have the results they were looking for. When you say the attacks were imminent, how imminent were they . Talking about days, weeks . If youre an american in the region, days and weeks, this is not something thats relevant. We have to prepare. We have to be ready. We took a bad guy off the battlefield. All right. That was secretary of state mike pompeo not revealing information about how imminent any potential attacks on the u. S. Were that led to President Trump ordering the killing of irans top military commander. So how will iran retaliate now and what should the u. S. Do to protect the National Security . Joining us now is lisa monaco. She is the form er Homeland Security adviser. You spent countless hours in the situation room in the white house analyzing intelligence trying to figure out the chess moves involved in protecting National Security. So what dough you make of the claim this was because of an imminent threat o the u. S. . Good to be with you. I think were right now in a situation that seems to be spiraling and theres no real clear offramp. In terms of the explanations thus far, i think what weve seen is a series of kind of mixed messages. And its very, very important that the administration brief on a bipartisan basis congress about what this did lead to the attack. Lets be clear. No one shower mourning Qasem Soleimani. The man is pure evil. He has the blood of hundreds, thousands of innocents on his hands. So he was absolutely pure evil. But the fact of the matter is when you conduct a strike like this that is going to have incredible amounts of backlash, unintended consequences, and result in the chaos that weve seen frankly unfold over the last four days, tough do it in a way that is considering whether or not the cure, frankly, is going to be worse than the disease. Was there a process that resulted in evaluating this intelligence . Why did it have to be taken now . What was the intelligence that said that this was an imminent attack . Look, qasem seooleimani was the head of the quds force. He was not a soldier in that operation. He was a planner, a mastermind. But the fact hes taken off the battlefield does not mean that the threats from the quds force goes away. So we really need to hear a lot more. Congress should be getting briefed on what led to this attack and what led to this strike. And frankly, our partners in the region need to know because they need to know what happens next. Its interesting to hear you say that soleimani was pure evil and that nobody in the u. S. At least is mourning his absence. But the Trump Administration says that it was all of you in the administration that didnt get the job done. And that theyre having to do cleanup. And so was there a point in the Obama Administration where you considered a targeted attack against soleimani . Look, i served for nour yefos in the second term of the homeland advise tore the president. To my knowledge, we were never presented with an option or proposal to kill Qasem Soleimani. In part i think thats because of the very real concerns about the type of backlash that it would engender. So, look. Im not sure why the actions of, you know, three years ago and going back further are all that relevant at this stage. What we need to be focused on is what is the threat right now to the u. S. , our citizens, our military, our diplomats in the region an beyond. We know the quds force obviously in iran has pledged retaliation. We know they have demonstrated the capability and the intent to strike here at home. In 2011 i was the head of the National Security division at the Justice Department and oversaw a prosecution of a quds force director to assassinate the saudi ambassador. We know they have the capability and the intent to mount attacks against our citizens and our military and diplomats overseas as well as to try and do something here. Most specifically what im worried about, frankly, in the near term for a homeland impact is on the cyber front. I do want to ask you about that. I know youre concerned about the cyber attack and they could launch that. What would that look like . Well, we know what they have done in the past, the worldwide threat assessment from the Intelligence Community says that iran has been posturing their kind of Cyber Capabilities for future attacks against critical infrastructure. We know already that they have a track record. They have done destructive cyberattacks against not only saudi aramco, the saudi oil company, but also against a company and an entity right here in the United States against the sands casino. People need to remember that was a destructive attack. We know that they have attacked our Financial Services sector in 2012 with denial of service attacks. And we know theyve mounted attacks against our energy sector. So those were all the things we need to be looking at. The private sector quite frankly is on the front lines in what is frankly a game of geopolitical one upsmanship when it comes to the assistant secretary chris krebs did the right thing in taking to twitter and warning about these types of threats. So thats what we need to be focused on right now. We really appreciate your expertise on this. Thank you very much. Thank you. So boeing has discovered yet another problem with its embattled 737 max jet. The New York Times reports the Company Found a wiring issue in the max fleet as part of a december audit. Boeing is now looking into whether two bundles of wiring or too close together that could lead to a short circuit and could result in a crash if pilot dos not react properly. The fleet has been grounded since the crashes. Homefield did not look to be an advantage in the nfl playoffs. I heard this in peru. Coy wire, you have more in the Bleacher Report . Yeah. Three of the four home teams lost including johns patriots. Alisyn, new orleans is the loudest place i ever played in my nfl career, but it did noz phase kirk cousins. He silenced his critics. The vikings went up against the saints yesterday as the weekends biggest underdogs. But in overtime when it matters most, look at cousins throw a perfect 43yard pass to adam thielen. And it puts the vikings right there at the goal line. Three plays later, cousins seals the win with a fade to kyle rudolph. It wouldnt be a playoff game in new orleans without a little controversy. Saints fans pointing out that rudolph pushes the defender. What do you guys think . Officials say it wasnt enough to draw a penalty. Minnesota wins 2620. They face the 49ers next. The saints eliminated from three straight playoffs on the final play of the game. In philadelphia, eagles quarterback carson wentz making his playoff debut. He missed the last two post seasons with injuries. And hes hit in the head in the First Quarter against seattle. No penalty called. Wentzs season is over. And now so is phillys. The seahawks had a huge game from a rookie. D. K. Metcalf yards receiving is the most by any in playoff history. The eagles, though, they had a chance down eight with under two minutes to go. Back up, josh mccown is sacked. The seahawks defense have a season high sacks in this game. Seahawks advance to play the packers. Theres a bit of the changing of the gourd this season. Its the first time in the divisional round in 17 years no ben roethlisberger, no peyton manning, and no unfortunately tom brady. Just taking a break. Taking a break. Wow. Thats a great way to look at it. Youre eternally optimistic. I feel good about this. Coy, thank you. All right. Dozens killed by fires raging out of control in australia. Well take you there live next with the extreme danger still ahead. groans hmph. food grunting menacingly when the food you love doesnt love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. Tum tumtum tum tums with tums smoothies. Trumpand total disaster. Mplete let obamacare implode. Nurse these wild attacks on healthcare hurt the patients i care for. 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Only with xfinity xfi. Download the xfi app today. Fires are burning out of control in australia with a state of emergency in new south wales. At least 24 people have died at 23,000 square miles have burned leading to the countrys largest peacetime evacuation in history. Andrea stevens live on the ground with the latest. Reporter john, it has been an absolutely extraordinary and terrifying weekend for tens of thousands of australians who got caught up in these fires. One stage there was a fire burning roughly the size of manhattan. In new south wales. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated before the fires got into their towns. But many, many others had to wait. They lifted too late to leave so they had to wait and pray and hope the fires did not engulf their homes. So far weve seen in the past 24 hours its now late monday night here. Weve had a rest piet finally. The wind has stopped and theres been some rain. The temperatures are expected to pick up again towards the end of the week. The hot winds are expected to come back. The emergency signal is expected to rise. What we saw at the weekend, we saw temperatures hitting 120 degrees in some parts of sydney. We saw these hot, hot winds really fanning the flames across the state. That has been the problem here. Australia is dry. Its been in drought for three years now. Theres no moisture. So anything that takes fire really does take hold. Theres been tentative evacuations, thick smoke covering things. This is the nations capital. Behind me is the parliament building. Yesterday you couldnt see this parliament building. It was covered with thick, black smoke. So bad they stopped people working today in the nations capital. So theres a respite. Expect to it pick up in the next few days. We are at the beginning of australias bushfire season. Weve got perhaps two more months to go and theres no predictions of any significant rain. Oh, my gosh. These pictures that weve seen and your reporting, its all so heart breaking. Even just watching the wildlife and how theyre trying to respond to all of this. Thank you for your reporting. Well check back, of course. So the Trump Administration claims that soleimani had to be killed because an attack on americans was imminent. They they provided no public evidence of that. And what about those comparisons to benghazi . Do those make sense . Only one mans and thats john avalon. Hes here with our reality check. Hi, guys. Lets start with what we should be able to agree on. General soleimani was a very bad guy. He facilitying terrorism in the middle east and around the world and no one should shed a tear for his loss. But we should also care when our government misleads us onto a path of war. So far weve heard three sketchy defenses. First that this is the antibenghazi. When protesters backed by iranian militia stormed the embassy in baghdad, they were repelled by u. S. Troops firing tear gas. Had some great warriors come in and do a fantastic job. They were there instantaneously. This will not a benghazi. Benghazi should never have happened. Don jr. Echoed the antibenghazi sentiments as well. But there are lots of differences between the breach of our massive embassy in baghdad and the situation in blg. Perhaps the most relevant being we had military forces in place at the baghdad embassy. There were no military units in the region could have made it in time to stop the killing in benghazi. Despite conspiracy theories, president tru president obama did not delay his response. Number two. The connection to 9 11. 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the september 11 attacks. As far as the 9 11 commission report, it doesnt mention soleimani at all. It does, however, state that eight to ten of the hijackers traveled between iran and afghanistan but says we found no evidence that iranian or hezbollah was aware of the planning for the 9 11 attack. Why would pence bring 9 11 into this but possibly to argue the administration could kill the general under the original iraq war authorization from 2002. Okay. So as for evidence that soleimani was about to strike u. S. Targets, Administration Still has not publicly revealed what that evidence is. And when jake tapper asked the secretary of state about the urgency of the threat, pompeo dismissed the idea it would be measured in days or weeks. That brings me to number three. This war kicked off when the jcpoa was entered into. Whats that now . You can disagree with the enrichment period saying its too short. But you cant say this war kicked off when the deal was made. Because since trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, iran restarted the Nuclear Weapons program it had halted under the agreement. While the Iraqi Parliament just voted to oust u. S. Troops and President Trump threatened to attack iranian cultural landmarks which would violate International Treaties and unite a divided iran while pulling back u. S. Forces from the fight against isis. Months after abandoning our kurdish allies in syria. This is the Trump Administrations arsonist as a firefighter approach. Lots of tough talk, but few honest answers. And more antiobama impulse than longterm strategy. All while leaving america more isolated in the world. And thats your reality check. Really helpful, john. Thank you very much for explaining those comparisons. This morning weve been watching these live pictures of hundreds of thousands of iranians mourning the death of their top general who was killed by the u. S. Is all of this, well, it appears it is affecting the relationship between the u. S. And iraq. So we have a new interview with iraqs president on what he plans to do next. Im bad. Youre stronger than you know. So strong. 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You may pay as little as zero dollars for botox®. Ask your doctor about botox® for chronic migraine. You got this. Threatening to impose harsh sanctions on iraq if they expel u. S. Troops. This comes as hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in tehran and iran to mourn the death, the killing of their top general who was really so much more than a military figure. Joining us is robin wright, she has known the iraqi president for years and just published an interview with them in the new yorker. I had a chance to meet him many times. Hes a figure wellknown in europe, u. S. And iraq. He had one interview that jumped out to me and i know it jumped out to you because you opened and closed with it. The United States is our ally, iran is our neighbor. What do you think he meant by that. Iraq cant change the geography of where it is. It shares a 1400 kilometer border with iran and trying to establish some peace given they waged their own war against one another for years, it is still the middle easts bloodiest longterm conflict. The last thing iraq wants is to become a battlefield for a conflict from the United States and iran. I think the iraquis have been at war with various players in the region for 40 years, since 1980, 23 under Saddam Hussein and 23 since u. S. Intervention. Its a deep fear it could be whether overtly or covertly the stage or arena for another war that could dwarf the earlier ones. President salih told you iraq could not survive another conflict in the middle east. What do you think, if forced to choose between iran and the United States, which seems to be a choice that is very real at this moment, what will the iraquis decide . We saw that play out in the Iraqi Parliament yesterday when it voted to ask the president to expel american forces. That vote is far from final, and its noteworthy that only 170 of the 368 members of parliament actually voted and yet it was 1700. There still is much to play out. This has to be signed by the Prime Minister. As you know, the Prime Minister is a caretaker at the moment. We may actually have to hold see new elections in iraq before we get a new Prime Minister that signs off on this. But it reflects the deep tension. Iraq has been dependent on the United States for 17 years. First to fight al qaeda, now to fight isis. As barham salih pointed out, the last war is not over, between 14,000 and 18,000 isis fighters still along iraqs border with syria. There is still a lot of military challenges to be faced and to conquer before you can see some kind of tension play out or a sellingment between iran and the United States. This is a very messy situation that plays out in iraq. I think also across the wider middle east youre seeing threats from hezbollah in lebanon. Theres locktown by American Missions across the middle east and south asia and americans are fleeing the region. The consequences of this are just beginning to be felt. Youre talking about the battle against isis. I think one thing that has been overlooked in the last 24 hours, the u. S. Military put out an order saying operations against isis are paused, literally paused right now because of the threat of iranian retaliation. If youre looking at the shortterm impact for the killing of general soleimani, this is one of the shortterm consequences. Its one of the shortterm consequences. The fact is in some ways the iranians are winning as the United States says its going to pull back from operations to train Iraqi Military or train isis and even be faced with the possibility of leaving. Soleimanis whole mission was to get the United States out of the middle east. In death hes being almost as effective as he was in life. You into to barham salih before President Trump made a fresh round of threats against iraquis, the u. S. Ally of iraq for what would happen if the iraquis did expel u. S. Troops. President trump said if they do ask us to leave, if we dont do it on a very friendly basis, we would charge them sanctions like they have never seen before. It will make iranian sanctions look tame. Pointed out iraq was under a regime harsher that iran is seeing now. Yes, they have seen sanctions like that before. Leave that aside for a moment, i wonder how president salih would respond from this threat from the United States. I think its terrifying. He pointed out to me what iraq really needs is to attract jobs so young arent attracted to extremist movements like isis and al qaeda that undermine the state. That the big challenge of iraq as a microcosm of the whole region is building the problem of building stable states, stable economies and the idea the United States would impose sanctions on a country that has been so pivotal, which the United States has invested hundreds of billions of dollars, has spent more than 4,000 american lives to me is crazy. This eggs not a strategy that will win hearts and minds in the middle east anywhere. Robin wright, thanks for speaking with us. Your interview is fascinating in the new yorker. Everyone should check it out. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Cnn newsroom is next. For viewers, the war of words right now escalating between the United States and iran. New day continues now. Iran continues to be in a state of mourning but the same time is vowing retaliation after the killing of Qasem Soleimani. We took a bad guy off the battlefield. We made the right decision. The president threatened to hit iran cultural sites if iran struck any american or any american asset. I worry the actions the president took will get us into what he calls another endless war in the middle east. Iran needs to understand if we attack, we will respond. Announcer this is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. Good morning and welcome to your new day. January 6th, 8 00 in the east. We do begin with breaking news. At this hour, hundreds of thousands of iranians are lining the streets of tehran to mourn the death of general Qasem Soleimani who was killed in that usair strike. These are some of the pictures weve been seeing all morning long. That right there is irans Supreme Leader praying and weeping over soleimanis slain body. Soleimanis daughter is threatening an attack on u. S. Military. Iran announced it is abandoning what is left of the 2015 agreement to contain its Nuclear Program. Another consequence, iraqi lawmakers have voted to expel u. S. Troops from their country. A vote u. S. Officials tried to keep from happening. President trump meanwhile is repeating his threat to hit irans cultural sites if iran retaliates. Doing that is considered a war crime under international law