The oil-rich port city of Basra is feeling the heat of the intensifying conflict between the United States and Iran. Pro-Iranian armed groups that threaten the United States from time to time are active in the city. The US-Iran tension is expected to affect the economic situation in Iraq in general, and in Basra in particular.

The US State Department announced Sept. 28 its intention to close its consulate in Basra and pull out its diplomats. This comes after three mortar shells targeted the US Consulate there.

On Sept. 29, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Quds Force — a special force unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — and its commander Qasem Soleimani of being behind the threats. The United States “will respond promptly and appropriately to any such attacks,” he said.

The recent escalation got Iraq worried. The governor of Basra, Asaad al-Eidani, warned of the negative repercussions of the intensification of the Iranian-US conflict in Iraq in general, and Basra in particular. He pointed out on Sept. 29 that the closure of the US Consulate in Basra is the result of regional conflicts, stressing the bad repercussions of this closure on Basra.