Anger Grows in Iran Over General Soleimani's Death; Trump Threatens Iraq if U.S. Troops Get Expelled; Trump Administration Deploys 3,000-Plus U.S. Troops to the Middle East.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Routine.</s>LAURA JARRETT, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: EARLY START continues right now.</s>ROMANS: Huge crowds in Tehran following the U.S. strike that took out an Iranian commander. The nuclear deal now in jeopardy, and President Trump doubles down on a threat which could amount to a war crime.</s>JARRETT: Flying in fire, a desperate evacuation effort from wildfires in Australia. The smoke is so bad the emergency management agency has shut down. CNN is live this morning in Tehran, Baghdad, Nairobi and Australia. Good morning and welcome to EARLY START, I'm Laura Jarrett, good morning Christine --</s>ROMANS: Good morning, good morning, I'm Christine Romans, it is Monday, January 6th, it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. And breaking overnight, huge crowds on the streets of Tehran. Anger growing over the U.S. airstrike that killed the head of Iranian special forces. Giant crowds at the burial Sunday of General Qasem Soleimani. Iran now weighing how to retaliate against the U.S. Death to America chants from Iranian lawmakers. The Iranian cabinet voting to no longer obey restrictions imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal including limits on uranium enrichment.</s>JARRETT: President Trump aboard Air Force One, repeating his threats to target Iran's cultural sites, action that would likely be considered a war crime. He said "they're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people, and we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way."</s>ROMANS: Two senior U.S. officials describe widespread opposition within the administration to targeting cultural sites. But earlier, Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo backed the president's position.</s>JAKE TAPPER, HOST, THE LEAD: So cultural centers are theoretically fair targets in your view?</s>MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE, UNITED STATES: Jake, we're going to do the things that are right and the things that are consistent with American lives. I've been part of the discussion, planning process, everything I've seen about how we will respond with great force and great vigor if the Iranian leadership makes a bad decision. We hope that they won't. But when they do, America will respond.</s>JARRETT: Meantime, President Trump appearing to notify Congress of potential military retaliation for an Iranian attack via Twitter. "The United States will quickly and fully strike back and perhaps in a disproportionate manner. We should note that a disproportionate strike would also violate international law." Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a letter to Democrats says the house will vote on a war powers resolution aimed at limiting the president's military actions against Iran. Senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen standing by live in Tehran for us. Fred, obviously, a lot of angry down there, what are you hearing the most from folks on the ground?</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Laura, yes, absolutely right. I mean, there is definitely a lot of anger here on the streets of Tehran. A lot of people who are -- who are quite angry and who have been chanting the moment that we go on air, and have been chanting things like "death to America", have been very critical also of President Trump and the Trump administration. And so, you could see also the large crowds that have been turning out. It's really something that I haven't seen in this country even though I've been here, I would say about 15, 16 times already. There have been a protest that have been organized, but these certainly are a lot bigger than anything that I've seen here in Iran before. It all started very early in the morning today when the body of Qasem Soleimani and the others who were killed were essentially eulogized -- that's Tehran University, the supreme leader himself there speaking the prayer. And that also goes to show how important a figure Qasem Soleimani was for many people here in Iran. You can see people here have Qasem Soleimani's likeness, many people here also saying that they want revenge for the death of Qasem Soleimani. It was quite interesting because I spoke to the main adviser of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and that adviser told me first of all, there would be revenge, it would be military revenge against military targets, but also that Iran does not want a full-on-war with the United States. Let's listen in.</s>HOSSEIN DEHGHAN, MILITARY ADVISER TO IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER (through translator): The response for sure would be military and against military sites. Let me tell you one thing, our leadership has officially announced that we've never have been seeking war and we will not be seeking war. It was America that started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they've inflicted. Afterwards they should not seek a new cycle.</s>PLEITGEN: So, the Iranians, they're essentially saying they're going to strike back against the United States -- there's a bit of breaking at least, chants of "death to America" -- essentially saying, they're going to lash out at the United States, but they want it to end there. They don't want this to escalate any further. It's also quite interesting, Laura, because that senior adviser also telling me that despite the fact that obviously Qasem Soleimani was a big and important figure to so many Iranians and also in the military structure, they've already named his successor. And they say, as far as their foreign operations are concerned, they're not deterred and they're going to be able to operate exactly the way that they had before, Laura.</s>JARRETT: All right, Fred, stay safe there in Tehran, we'll see you real soon.</s>ROMANS: All right, President Trump is threatening sanctions on Iraq after its parliament voted to order all foreign troops out of the country. Sources tell CNN administration officials tried unsuccessfully to convince Iraqi leaders to prevent this non-binding vote. Too soon to know whether U.S. troops will actually be expelled. President Trump telling reporters on Air Force One, "if they do ask us to leave, we will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before ever. It will make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame." Let's go live to Baghdad and bring in CNN's Jomana Karadsheh. This is -- this is an ally of the United States, I'm sure Iran will like nothing better than to see the United States leave Iraq for good. What's your view from there?</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, you know, when you mention those comments by the president, Christine, that is definitely going to anger Iraqis, when he talks about sanctions like they've never seen before. Well, you know, Iraqis did go through some of the worst sanctions here. You know, the U.N. imposed sanctions in the '90s where thousands of people died, and that was attribute to the limits on imports of food and medicine. So, this is really not going to go down very well with Iraqis. And as you mentioned, this is the key ally that the U.S. president is threatening. The message from the Iraqis has been clear. The Shia majority in this country, the Shia political leadership have said they want U.S. and foreign forces out. And the Prime Minister explained that to parliament yesterday saying that they are currently in a situation where the only option really for the interests of the United States and Iraq is to ask these forces to leave because Iraq is basically turning into a battleground between Iran and the United States. And Iraq is going to be ending -- it will end up paying the price, and there, forces cannot protect or guarantee the protection of U.S. forces here. So, they're now -- you know, they've passed this resolution in parliament. The Iraqi government is going to have to work on a way of asking these forces to leave. Of course, there's legal, legislative and procedural issues here. This is a caretaker government. But the biggest concern of course is the repercussions of a decision like this, asking forces to leave especially when it comes to the fight against ISIS. We've heard from the U.S.-led coalition, saying that right now, they've halted all their operations and they're focusing on protecting their forces, Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right, Jomana Karadsheh for us in Baghdad this morning. Thank you.</s>JARRETT: Well, President Trump is not ruling out the possibility that he can release intelligence related to the air strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Top U.S. national security officials continue to defend White House claims of impending -- of an impending threat to American lives. But some congressional Democrats are questioning how imminent the threat was. After a briefing with administration officials on Friday failed to provide any convincing evidence.</s>ROMANS: Over the weekend, the White House officially notified Congress of the drone strike that killed Soleimani under the War Powers Act Notification is required within 48 hours of an action that could lead to armed conflict. Even though President Trump said this, Friday.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.</s>ROMANS: More than 3,000 service members are being deployed to the Middle East, many from the immediate response force of the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Here's the wife of one of those service members.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's stressful for sure especially with everything that has escalated with Soleimani. He was supposedly only doing like training, and now it has obviously transpired into something else. So, we are making it through, though.</s>ROMANS: The soldiers will first go to Kuwait, one of several countries with a big U.S. military footprint, and then military leaders will decide where they need to be deployed.</s>JARRETT: Growing fires in Australia have now burned an area the size of West Virginia, and this is just the beginning. CNN is live with more on the largest peace time evacuation effort in Australia's history.