The prime minister of Iraq has lauded Iran’s role in helping the Arab country’s fight against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, saying the two neighbors have many common grounds.
According to Iraq’s Al-Ahed news agency, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani made the comments in an interview with al-Rafidain Center for Dialogue, which was published on Sunday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is our neighbor and we have many religious and social commonalities. During the war on Daesh, Iran stood by us,” Sudani said.
He added that the government of Iraq is trying to get the viewpoints of different parties present in the country close together.
The Takfiri terrorist group began a campaign of terror in Iraq in 2014 and took control of vast swathes in lightning attacks across the region.
Iraq declared victory over the terrorist group in December 2017 after a three-year counter-terrorism military campaign, in which Hashd al-Sha’abi also known as Popular Mobilization Units also played a major role.
Last December, Iraq’s former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, admitted that late commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, played a pivotal role in anti-terrorism fight in his country, saying Iraq would have failed to defeat Daesh terrorists if it was not for General Soleimani’s assistance.
Elsewhere in his interview, Sudani reflected on the presence of foreign forces in his country within the framework of a US-led international coalition.
“All conditions and issues, which had caused the international coalition to be present in Iraq are now gone,” the Iraqi prime minister said.
He added that his government will continue efforts to end the presence of foreign troops in Iraq.
Sudani noted, “The mission of foreign [military] advisors will come to an end according to a timetable to be drawn up by the Higher Military Committee,” whose establishment was announced in January to set a timetable for a phased withdrawal of foreign troops and ending the US-led coalition’s presence.
The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 based on false claims about Baghdad possessing weapons of mass destruction, leaving a trail of destruction, death, and chaos in the Arab country.
The US and its allies re-launched a military campaign in 2014 to supposedly fight off Daesh. The group had emerged in Iraq and neighboring Syria earlier as Washington was running out of excuses to extend its meddling in the West Asia region or enlarge it in scale.
The US military claimed to be ending its combat mission in Iraq in 2021, but said it would retain some 2,500 troops in the country as alleged advisors.
The Iraqi prime minister also criticized the international community’s failure to put an end to the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“The issue of Palestine is a fundamental issue for the people of Iraq,” Sudani said, adding, “The [Iraqi] government’s position is that the aggression against Gaza must stop and the scope of [the Israeli] war [on the territory] should not expand.”
The death toll from Israel’s onslaught on Gaza since early October 2023 has surpassed 30,400, most of them women and children. More than 70,000 others have been injured while thousands more remain unaccounted for.
The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to more than two million Palestinians living there.
