Iraqi president worries his country couldn't survive a U.S.-Iran conflict

Iraqi President Barham Salih is being candid about one of his biggest fears: that Iraq won't be able to "survive another conflict in the Middle East."

The New Yorker's Robin Wright interviewed Salih on Sunday, just days after President Trump authorized an airstrike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was targeted while in Baghdad, and the United States did not inform the Iraqi government of its plans. In the aftermath of the strike, the Iraqi parliament voted to compel the government to expel foreign troops from the country; there are more than 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Iran has also promised to retaliate against the U.S.

Iraq has seen its share of conflicts, including a war with Iran that lasted for eight years and achieved nothing. "Did this gain us any security?" Salih asked. "Did this bring us any stability? No. A lot of people were killed. A lot of people were maimed. A lot of resources were wasted and squandered." War should never be started "because you never know how it ends," he said, and Iraq "should never serve as a gate for others" or "fight a war, paid for by Iraqi resources and Iraqi lives, for others."

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Should a conflict break out between the U.S. and Iran, it would likely "undermine the hard-won stability that we have achieved after years of conflict, and certainly after the last war against ISIS," Salih said. "If we are not careful, we may go beyond the brink, God help us all, in the neighborhood and internationally, as well." This would have "terrible consequences for Iran and the region at large," and countries in the Middle East should focus instead on creating job opportunities for youth and educational reforms, he added. Otherwise, young people could "fall prey to extremism and destabilize not only our societies but global security." Read the entire interview at The New Yorker.