Iraq
A session of the Iraqi parliament chaired First Deputy Speaker Muhsin al-Mandalawi on February 10, 2024. Photo: Mandalawi's office/Facebook
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - With many Kurdish and Sunni lawmakers absent, the Iraqi parliament on Saturday condemned recent deadly strikes carried out by the United States against pro-Iran armed groups and referred a petition calling for the expulsion of foreign forces to the legislature’s relevant committees for review.
“The Council of Representatives calls on the government to prevent all forms of attacks targeting Iraqi territory, not to allow the country to be made an arena for settling scores, and for countries to adhere to agreements and treaties without distortion or different interpretation,” First Deputy Speaker of the parliament Muhsin al-Mandalawi said during Saturday’s session.
Mandalawi, who has chaired parliament since the speaker was removed from his post in November, said that the legislature condemns any violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, regardless of where it comes from and under what pretext. He called on the government in Baghdad to take diplomatic measures to protect Iraq’s stability.
A US drone strike in eastern Baghdad’s Mashtal neighborhood on Wednesday killed three people, including Abu Baqer al-Saadi, a leading commander of Kataib Hezbollah. The Iraqi government condemned the attack, saying Baghdad was now “more than ever” compelled to end the mission of the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in the country and force the withdrawal of foreign forces.
The parliament met to discuss a petition signed by more than 100 MPs that proposes a binding resolution to remove all foreign troops from Iraq. Mandalawi referred it to the parliament’s security and legal committees.
A large number of Kurdish and Sunni MPs did not attend Saturday’s session, resulting in an uproar from Shiite lawmakers inside the parliament building and on social media.
Faleh al-Khazali, a Shiite MP, said that through boycotting the session, the Kurdish and Sunni lawmakers violated the constitutional duty of devoting themselves to preserving Iraqi sovereignty.
“The Shiite political forces must bear their responsibilities. Responsibility is borne by its own people and extremism in loving the homeland is a blessing,” Khazali wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Hussein al-Amri, another MP, said during a press conference that not attending the session was a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and warned that “a lack of solidarity will lead to more bloodshed and instability.”
The recent American strike in Baghdad was in retaliation for a series of rocket and drone attacks by Iran-aligned armed groups that have targeted US personnel in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan since mid-October over Washington’s support for Israel in its war on Gaza.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.
Baghdad is currently engaged in talks with the international coalition to wind down the mission and end the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi soil. The talks were instigated by Iraq’s anger over repeated US airstrikes on its territory.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said earlier this month that coalition forces are still needed in the country, pointing to a deadly Iranian missile attack on Erbil as an indication that Iraq and the Region are still very prone to terrorist attacks.
Thousands of foreign military personnel are stationed in Iraq as part of the international coalition that has assisted Kurdish and Iraqi forces in the fight against ISIS and has continued to provide training and advice since the terror group’s territorial defeat in Iraq in 2017.
In January 2020, angry over the US killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi deputy Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution to expel all foreign forces.
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