Campaigning in Iowa, Joe Biden predicts Iranian dominance in the Middle East following Soleimani's death, Iraqi vote

GRINNELL, Ia. — Former Vice President Joe Biden said Iran is now "in the driver's seat" in the Middle East, pointing to an Iraqi Parliament vote to remove U.S. forces from the country.

In his sharpest rebuke yet of Thursday's killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Biden said Sunday during a campaign stop in Grinnell that U.S. military leaders will lose sway in the region and Iran will speed up its efforts to build a nuclear weapon. He added that Iranian leaders will become more popular in their own country as its citizens rally behind them following the attack.

"This is a crisis totally of Donald Trump's making," Biden said.

The Iraqi Parliament voted Sunday to expel 5,000 U.S. troops from the country, three days after Trump authorized a drone strike on a convoy leaving a Baghdad airport. The convoy included Soleimani, the leader of Iran's elite Quds Force. The U.S. Department of Defense has said Soleimani was plotting an attack on Americans, but the department has not provided details of the plan.

"Iran now is going to be the person occupying and influencing Iraq, which is clearly not very much in our interest," Biden said Sunday.

He added:  "We have to face this alone, without our allies. The (Trump) administration didn't consult or warn them, even though their interests are at stake, too — even though NATO countries have forces in the region as well. NATO countries now are telling both — our allies, NATO — are telling both the United States and Iran, treating us both as part of the problem. Not Iran. Not us. Both of us."

Biden has previously criticized the Trump administration for withdrawing from the nuclear agreement with Iran, which the U.S. negotiated when Biden was vice president. The Iranian government issued a statement Sunday saying it, too, would no longer abide by the rules of the accord — a move that Biden said was yet more fallout from Soleimani's death.

He called the scheduled examinations of Iran's nuclear facilities under the agreement "the most intrusive inspection in all of human history."

"They were not good guys," he said. "But they were not moving toward a nuclear weapon — there was no chance they could get to it without us knowing at least a year, two years in advance, giving us plenty of options. What happens now?"

Biden's statements on the attack have evolved since he began his latest swing through Iowa. He previously told crowds he wanted to reserve full judgment, hoping — but doubting — that Trump had a plan in place.

On Saturday, he echoed U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' calls for Congress to make the decision about any future possible actions by U.S. forces in the region.

But after Sunday's news from Iraq and Iran, the former vice president became bolder in his predictions. He said he was especially troubled by reports of a rally in memory of Soleimani on the streets of Tehran on Sunday. In the minds of moderate Iranians, Biden argued, the attacked turned the Iranian military leader into a hero.

"They expect literally hundreds of thousands of supporters who were initially opposed to the government in Tehran," he said, "now solidified around the leadership in Tehran."

Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Register. Contact him at 515-284-8215 and tjett@registermedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.

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