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Iraqi president says nation is ‘100% safe’ amid lingering ISIS, militia concerns
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Iraq is entering «a new phase» of stability and growth, President Abdullatif Jamal Rashid said in an interview, declaring the country «100% safe» as U.S. troops prepare to draw down after more than two decades on the ground.
While praising the U.S. for helping to defeat ISIS, Rashid stressed that Iraq now intends to stand on its own — maintaining ties with both the United States and neighboring Iran.
«Americans have helped us in defeating terrorism… and I think Iraq is 100% safe and secure,» Rashid told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. «It’s a new phase in Iraq, really concentrating on improving the infrastructure.»
Those who served in Iraq in the early 2000s — through the War on Terror and a civil war — may not recognize it as the same place, according to Rashid.
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Rashid spoke with Fox News Digital after his UNGA speech. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
«We have started development in every field of life, and there are good opportunities for number of American companies, American businessmen, to be our partner in improving the situation in Iraq.»
Under this «new phase,» Rashid said he wants Iraq to be defined less by conflict and more by commerce.
«Our relationship with the United States is a long relationship. We want to make a stronger relationship… on trade, on investment, on energy and water.»
The timing is significant. The U.S.-led coalition that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 and later fought ISIS was scheduled under an agreement last year to begin its final withdrawal this September. That exact timeline is unclear, and the Pentagon has disclosed few details.
The issue is sure to dominate next month’s parliamentary elections, where a swath of Iraqis want the U.S. to adhere to its agreement and leave.
«This is a hot button political issue,» said Behnam Taleblu, fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), «with a timetable that was technically — or at least allegedly — already supposed to have started by then, is going to be something that we should be keeping our eyes on.»
American commanders have warned that ISIS cells remain active in rural areas, while Iran-aligned militias have targeted U.S. and Iraqi government facilities with rockets and drones.
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Some argue the counter-ISIS mission is not over, and U.S. troops should remain. Others say the U.S. footprint lacks a clear purpose at this point.
«ISIS is a shell of its former self — the Caliphate collapsed in 2019 and its strikes on Europe have ended since then. The remaining threat can be handled by others, notably the Iraqi government, which is popular at home and capable of carrying the load, along with the Kurdish Peshmerga and other regional states,» said Will Walldorf, a senior fellow at Defense Priorities.
«Iran’s influence has waned with the near-total collapse of its regional proxies. Any threats the U.S. might face in the future can be handled from over the horizon.»
«The deterrent effect of U.S. forces there, I think, could be significant,» countered Taleblu.
Pressed on concerns, Rashid dismissed talk of Iraq being «overrun with Iranian proxies» as exaggerated and said Baghdad is determined to prevent outside powers from dictating its politics.
«We want to keep our independence, our decision-making in Iraq as the Iraqis, not to be influenced by outsiders,» he said.
On reports of militia attacks, Rashid claimed ignorance but insisted such actions would not be tolerated.
«I’m not really aware of any groups [carrying out attacks]. We will not allow it. And these are against the Iraqi security and Iraqi independence,» he said.
Still, the perception of Iranian influence remains a flashpoint in Washington.
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US troops have had a presence in Iraq for over two decades. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters )
«Iranian influence has already taken over Iraq,» Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital.
Tehran has close ties to Shiite parties that shape government coalitions in Baghdad, and it supports militias within the Popular Mobilization Forces that remain powerful players in the country’s security environment.
Iraq also relies on Iranian electricity and natural gas imports, while Iranian goods fill local markets, making Iraq one of Tehran’s most important trading partners despite international sanctions.
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That reach, however, is not uncontested. Iraqi nationalist movements — including many Shiites — have resisted Tehran’s sway, and mass protests in recent years have condemned Iran’s role, sometimes targeting its consulates. Baghdad today remains a space of competing influence.
«The Islamic Republic benefits from Iraq looking like Swiss cheese,» said Taleblu, referring to Iranian pockets of influence across the country and its institutions.
«Iran and Iraq are two neighbors,» Rashid said, emphasizing that they had friendly relations. «We will not allow politicians from either [U.S. or Iraq] to be imposed on Iraqi people.»
Still others say Iran could take note of the Iraqi success story. In less than 20 years, the nation rose from decades of conflict and dictatorial leadership under Saddam Hussein to relative stability and democratic elections.
Rashid confirmed that Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have resolved their dispute over oil exports, paving the way for flows to resume after months of disruption. «It’s a big deal,» said Rashid, who himself is Kurdish by background.
Veterans of the Iraq War may not recognize the Baghdad of today, which President Rashid says is «100% secure.» (Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters)
The Iraqi presidency is reserved for a Kurd under an informal power-sharing agreement, while the prime minister is Shi’a Arab and the speaker of the parliament is Sunni Arab.
Rashid also pointed to November’s parliamentary elections as proof of democratic stability.
«We are going to have elections in two months’ time in November. That’s really an indication of how stable the country is… We want the process to be fully democratic,» he said.
But the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) — a state-sanctioned umbrella of mostly Shiite militias, some with close ties to Tehran — are seen by critics as a parallel power structure undermining Iraq’s sovereignty.
Rashid, however, argued that integrating all armed groups under the constitution strengthens, rather than weakens, the state.
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And on foreign policy, Rashid tried to position Iraq as a bridge.
He welcomed growing recognition of a Palestinian state, cautiously praised Donald Trump’s push for peace in Gaza, and reiterated that war — whether in the Middle East or in Ukraine — «doesn’t solve any problem. It makes the problem more complicated.»
iraq,iran,middle east,middle east foreign policy,world,politics
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The first missile in the U.S. arsenal used against Iranian targets in Saturday’s pre-dawn strike was the Tomahawk, a long-range cruise missile launched from Navy ships and submarines.
About half the length of a standard telephone pole, the Tomahawk flies at the speed of a commercial airliner and can carry a 1,000-pound warhead about the distance from Washington, D.C., to Miami.
Fired from destroyers or submarines positioned hundreds of miles away, the missiles allow a president to respond rapidly to a crisis without sending pilots into contested airspace or deploying ground forces.
The Tomahawk has become a go-to option for limited military action, because it offers precision and flexibility while keeping the U.S. footprint small. The missiles can hit fixed targets with high accuracy, reducing the risk of broader escalation.
Presidents of both parties have used Tomahawks in the opening hours of military operations, from strikes in Iraq in the 1990s to more recent operations in Syria and elsewhere.
Defense officials and military analysts say the weapon’s long range, reliability and relatively low risk to American personnel make it an attractive first-strike option when the White House wants to send a message quickly but stop short of a wider war.
That combination of speed, distance and precision has kept the Tomahawk at the center of U.S. military planning for decades.
The Tomahawk missile is manufactured by U.S. defense contractor Raytheon, also known as RTX. (U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
Manufactured by defense titan Raytheon — now RTX — the Tomahawk has been a mainstay of the Navy’s arsenal since the 1980s. It was first used in combat during the 1991 Gulf War and has since become a go-to option for presidents seeking to strike from long range without putting U.S. service members in harm’s way.
«Year in and year out, administration in and administration out, it’s the long-range land attack cruise missile that presidents reach for first in a crisis,» Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.
But heavy use has taken a toll. «We’ve been using them far more frequently than we’ve been producing them,» Karako said.
Prior to Saturday’s operation, the missile was used in June 2025 during a U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Smoke rises after reported Iranian missile attacks, following strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, in Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 28, 2026. (Reuters)
Overall, the Tomahawk has been deployed more than 2,350 times.
At roughly $1.4 million apiece, the Tomahawk missile has an intermediate range of 800 to 1,553 miles and can be launched from more than 140 U.S. Navy ships and submarines.
The Tomahawk strike was just one piece of a broader U.S. military posture in the region.
Ahead of the strikes, the U.S. military amassed what Trump previously called an «armada» in Iran’s backyard. Mapped out across the Persian Gulf and beyond, the deployment tells its own story, one of calculated pressure backed by credible capability.
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The deployment coincided with indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Trump has warned that the regime must fully dismantle its nuclear infrastructure or face consequences.
An F-35B takes off from the USS America flight deck. (Cpl. Isaac Cantrell/U.S. Marine Corps)
At the center of the U.S. presence are two aircraft carrier strike groups — the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford — each supported by guided-missile destroyers and cruisers and capable of sustained air and missile operations.
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More than a dozen additional U.S. warships are also operating in the region in support roles, according to defense officials.
It was not immediately clear how or when Tehran might respond, though Iranian leaders have previously warned of retaliation in the event of direct U.S. military involvement.
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war with iran,iran,middle east,donald trump,israel,defense
INTERNACIONAL
Iranian ‘top target’ hit in $10M precision strike; US kamikaze drones used to ‘overwhelm’
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Israel struck its key target in Tehran Saturday in what a defense expert has described as a multimillion-dollar precision-guided attack alongside a broader offensive involving U.S. waves of lower-cost kamikaze drones.
Cameron Chell, CEO of drone manufacturer Draganfly, told Fox News Digital the campaign would have likely paired advanced and costly assets against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound, while U.S. forces used cheaper drones to «overwhelm» on land, air and sea.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) also confirmed that the drones were deployed for the first time in history.
«CENTCOM’s Task Force Scorpion Strike — for the first time in history — is using one-way attack drones in combat during Operation Epic Fury,» it said in an X post before adding that the «low-cost drones, modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones, are now delivering American-made retribution.»
«Saturday saw an overwhelming daytime attack with incredible intelligence to target the leadership and a strike on the compound possibly costing tens of millions,» Chell said.
«That would likely have included expensive, precision-strike drones or manned aircraft in highly coordinated attacks to ensure success, not necessarily the lower-cost, one-way version of the suicide drones,» he explained.
«The U.S. has this lower-cost alternative to hit everything at once, but then the very expensive, high-precision assets would likely have gone directly after leadership on Saturday,» Chell added.
A map of Western strikes against Iran (Fox News)
A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the compound strike was a «wildly bold daytime attack.»
«It caught the senior leadership off guard on a Saturday morning during Ramadan and on Shabbat in the daytime,» the official added.
«We hit the senior leaders right out of the gate,» the source told Fox national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.
Iran’s military, government and intelligence sites were targeted, an official briefed on the operation also told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A handful of top Iranian leaders were killed, including the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the public on the 47th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, according to Iranian state television in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 9, 2026. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Anadolu/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump also announced Saturday that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been killed in the strike.
«If drones were involved in that top target attack, it would have been the very sophisticated MQ-type or Global Hawk-type drones,» Chell said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said other attacks across the country were being done «to remove threats.»
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, those targets included Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command and control centers, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields.
Chell described how those secondary targets would have been hit by the U.S. with the cheaper one-way «kamikaze» drones before adding that the strikes «seemed to be an excellent example of mass overwhelm at a new level.»
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U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine monitors U.S. military operations in Iran after an Israeli strike in Tehran alongside several Cabinet members Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (@WhiteHouse/X)
Chell suggested Iran’s defenses were likely degraded well before the strike began because of the coordination.
«I think likely the defense systems, communication systems, were overwhelmingly compromised,» he added. «And so I think they just overwhelmed them,» he said.
«I’m sure there would have been days, if not even weeks, of work and preparation to take out those defense communication systems.
«They would have compromised those defense communications in some way through electronic warfare or cyberattack.
«The battlefield now is so multidimensional,» Chell emphasized.
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«It’s about cyber warfare, misinformation and electronic warfare as well.
«This was seemingly so swift because it was incredibly well-planned and coordinated by the U.S. and Israel on a massive level that’s not been seen before.»
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war with iran,iran,ali khamenei,military,us navy,wars
INTERNACIONAL
El turismo internacional se derrumba en Cuba, pero crece el número de visitantes argentinos: ¿qué buscan?
El turismo internacional en Cuba, una de las principales fuentes de divisas de la Revolución, se derrumba a causa del colapso energético que vive el país bajo un bloqueo de combustible dispuesto por Donald Trump. Pero paradójicamente, mientras el flujo de visitantes se desploma, cada vez más argentinos vuelan a La Habana a pesar de la recomendación de la Cancillería de no visitar la isla.
Es un fenómeno extraño que se mantiene constante en los últimos años. Si bien México es el país de la región con más viajeros a Cuba, el número de turistas mexicanos viene cayendo año a año.
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“En la última década, solo un país latinoamericano ha estado sistemáticamente por delante de Argentina y lo sigue estando: México. El país norteamericano cerró el pasado año con 56.438 turistas, más que los 49.428 argentinos. La diferencia está en la evolución: mientras los mexicanos cayeron un 21%, los argentinos subieron un 13,6%”, escribió el portal cubano 14ymedio, dirigido por la periodista disidente Yoani Sánchez.
A qué van los argentinos a Cuba
La actual crisis no cambió la tendencia. Cuba atraviesa hoy la peor emergencia social, económica y humanitaria en los 67 años de Revolución.
Sin combustible, con apagones eternos y una escasez generalizada de servicios y productos de primera necesidad, los cubanos sobreviven con lo poco que tienen y dependen en gran parte de la ayuda que llega desde el exilio a través de remesas familiares. Una imagen de archivo de Cuba (Foto: EFE)
En ese panorama desolador, los argentinos siguen viajando a la isla. A diferencia de otros turistas, como los canadienses, que viajaban a Cuba solo para disfrutar de las playas con vuelos directos a paradisíacos cayos del archipiélago, los argentinos mezclan sus intereses.
Los viajeros argentinos suelen visitar La Habana, alguna playa como Varadero, Cayo Largo o Cayo Coco y viajar a Santiago de Cuba o a la histórica ciudad de Trinidad. Desde ahí, muchos visitan la cercana Santa Clara para conocer el Mausoleo del Che. Se trata, en síntesis, de un turismo que mixtura ocio, sol, visitas urbanas y un acercamiento “político” y social a la realidad cubana.
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El flujo de visitantes argentinos se mantuvo incluso en enero pasado, tras la captura de Nicolás Maduro que inauguró una etapa crítica para la Revolución, que dependía del suministro de crudo venezolano para mantener activa su vetusta infraestructura energética.
En ese mes, México aportó 3384 turistas (casi un 8% menos que el mismo mes de 2025), la mitad que Argentina que llegó a los 7336 contra los 4057 de enero de 2025. Pero hay un dato adicional: un vuelo desde Ciudad de México a La Habana dura solo dos horas y media. Desde Buenos Aires un viaje puede superar las 16 horas porque no hay conexiones directas. Solo Copa mantiene sus vuelos vía Panamá. Latam, Andes y Aerolíneas suspendieron sus operaciones a la isla.
La caída turística es general: en enero llegaron apenas 184.833 viajeros internacionales. Pero esta cifra representa apenas una caída de 5,9% comparado con igual mes del año pasado cuando arribaron 196.004, según las estadísticas obtenidas por 14ymedio. En 2019 habían rozado el medio millón.
En 2025 la caída del turismo fue brutal. El desplome llegó al 25%. Solo llegaron 1,8 millones de turistas.
Qué está pasando con el turismo argentino a Cuba
En las oficinas de Buenos Aires de Havanatur, considerada la empresa estatal cubana líder del sector turístico, las cotizaciones de paquetes de viajes y vuelos son constantes, según dijo a TN una fuente de la empresa.
“No está bajando, aunque el año pasado había más llamados”, indicó. Imagen cotidiana en una calle de La Habana (Foto: EFE)
Pero otros operadores no son tan optimistas.
El cubano Hector Danilo Pompa, de Guajira Viajes, dijo que el turismo argentino a Cuba se mantuvo porque se habían programado vuelos directos a Cayo Largo. “Ahora se hace difícil vender un paquete porque solo llega Copa y se encarecen los tramos aéreos”, indicó.
Copa viaja desde Buenos Aires a Ciudad de Panamá y, desde allí, previa espera, se debe abordar un vuelo a La Habana.
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Guajira ofrece paquetes de nueve días a La Habana/Varadero por 3170 dólares por persona y una estancia similar en Cayo Largo por 1985 dólares. Ambas opciones incluyen vuelos y traslados en la isla, pero no el seguro médico obligatorio.
Havanatur ofrece viajes de 9 días a Cayo Largo por 1559 dólares. A Varadero el mismo viaje cuesta alrededor de 1600 dólares. El precio varía según el hotel.
“Cuba está en un momento difcil de su historia, con un cambio social y politico que se avizora. Ahora viajan menos aerolíneas por falta de combustible. Hay menos hoteles. No veo que haya aumentado el flujo turístico desde la Argentina. Se mantiene porque se habían programado vuelos directos a los cayos. Hoy solo viaja a Copa. Se hace muy difícil vender un paquete a la isla”, resumió.
La situación es tan compleja que Pompa les hace firmar a los turistas que viajan a Cuba una carta de compromiso en la que la agencia de viajes no se responsabiliza por la suspensión de vuelos que puedan sufrir los viajeros. “Yo no me hago responsable”, concluyó.
En ese panorama, el flujo turístico desde la Argentina podría mermar en los próximos meses a medida que se agrava la situación en la isla.
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