Iraqi factions condemn Trump’s anti-Iran remarks

Tabnak – While claiming that he has ordered the withdrawal of American troops from Syria, US President Donald Trump has said he would maintain troops in Iraq in order to monitor Iran. The announcement has been faced with strong reactions from different Iraqi factions who say Washington is violating their country’s sovereignty.

In this vein, Iraqi politicians Monday hit back at Donald Trump after the US president said he plans to keep American forces in the country to watch Iran. Sabah al-Saadi, a member of parliament in the bloc led by influential anti-American religious scholar Moqtada Sadr, has proposed a bill demanding a US pullout. Trump's latest remarks had made passing such a law "a national duty."

Deputy speaker of parliament Hassan Karim al-Kaabi, also close to Sadr, said they were a "new provocation," weeks after the US president sparked outrage in Iraq by visiting US troops at Ain al-Asad without meeting a single Iraqi official.

Kurdish MP Sarkawt Shams tweeted that the mission of US troops in Iraq was "to help Iraqi security forces against terrorism, not 'watching' others." "We are expecting the United States to respect our mutual interests and avoid pushing Iraq into a regional conflict," he said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi President Barham Salih said Baghdad attaches great importance to its ties with Tehran, saying President Donald Trump did not ask Iraq’s permission for US troops stationed there to “watch Iran.”

US troops in Iraq are there as part of an agreement between the two countries with a specific mission of combating terrorism, Salih, speaking at a forum in Baghdad on Monday, said, Reuters reported. They should stick to that, the president stressed.

Iraq’s former foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari also condemned Trump’s remarks, saying they were embarrassing for Baghdad. The veteran Kurdish politician warned Iraqi officials that the country would face difficult choices in future following Trump’s controversial statements.

Jaafar al-Husseini, a spokesman for the Iraqi pro-government Kata'ib Hezbollah voluntary forces, warned the Trump administration against mounting offensives against Iran and Syria from Iraq. He also called on parliament to speed up legislation to drive out foreign forces, warning that the anti-terror force won't wait long.

The spokesman noted that Iraq's security agencies should deem American military forces as "appropriate targets" as Iraqi resistance groups already do.

In an interview aired on Sunday, Trump defended his decision to end "endless wars" in Syria and Afghanistan by pulling out US troops from those countries. However, he said not all of thousands of American forces stationed in Iraq, especially at the Ain al-Asad Air Base in the western Anbar Province, were going to return home.

“And one of the reasons I want to keep it (the base) is because I want to be looking a little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem,” said the American president. Asked whether he wanted the troops there to “strike” Iran at a later time, Trump responded: “No… All I want to do is be able to watch.”