BAGHDAD (Press TV) – Iraq’s Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq resistance movement says the Iraqi government is not entitled to keep any foreign troops in the country without the authorization of the country’s parliament, stressing that the American troops’ presence in Iraq runs counter to the Arab country’s constitution.
“The presence of American troops in Iraq is a clear violation of the Iraqi constitution,” Mahmoud al-Rubaie, spokesman of the resistance movement’s political bureau, told Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
“Furthermore, there is no agreement or approval for the presence of these forces in Iraq from the parliament of Iraq, as a country with a parliamentary system, and the government has no right to keep any foreign troops on the Iraqi soil without the consent of the parliament,” al-Rubaei said.
He pointed out that the incumbent Iraqi government has admitted, unlike previous governments, that the U.S. troops are neither training nor advisory forces, but rather, they belong to the U.S. Army’s Ground Force, who have committed a series of crimes in Iraq.
“Among the crimes committed by the American forces in Iraq, we can mention the biggest, which is the martyrdom of the commanders of victory,” al-Rubaei said.
He was making a reference to the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander, General Qassem Soleimani, along with deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020, after which Iraq’s Parliament passed a law demanding the expulsion of all U.S.-led troops.
The spokesman said that Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, in his upcoming visit to Washington, would pursue the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Iraq.
He termed the strategic talks between Baghdad and Washington as “useless”, saying such recurring talks are aimed at prolonging the U.S. occupation forces’ stay on the Iraqi soil, which contradicts the parliament’s law and the will of the Iraqi nation.
“We believe that the Americans will leave Iraq in the near future,” al-Rubaei continued, “because the Islamic Resistance has made its decision to confront them, and this decision was made after the failure of all efforts and the end of all chances given to the Americans and the current Iraqi government for diplomatic and political moves to rid Iraq of these forces.”
He expressed hopes that public pressure and efforts made by resistance groups and some political movements would drive the Iraqi government to publicly demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
The U.S., under both administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, has repeatedly targeted the positions of Iraqi resistance forces, who played a significant role in defeating the Daesh terrorist group.
Biden’s first military strike abroad was against the PMU forces at the Iraqi-Syrian border back in February, only a month into his presidency.