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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday called on the Iraqi government and parliament to close the United States embassy in Baghdad in protest of Washington’s support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement on X, Sadr called on the “Iraqi government and the Iraqi parliament with all its components” to vote for the shutdown of the American embassy, due to what he called “limitless American support for terrorist Zionists against Gaza.”
He also said diplomatic missions in the country must be protected against “impudent militias” that want to disturb Iraq’s peace and safety.
“If the government and parliament do not respond, we will have another stance that we will announce later,” Sadr concluded, without elaborating.
Sadr has in the past called his large number of followers into the street to protest. He also controls an armed militia, Saraya al-Salam.
Iraq is a firm supporter of Palestine. At a peace summit in Egypt last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani criticized global failure to support human rights and justice in the Israel-Palestine conflict. “Palestine stands as a living testament for this recurring failure,” he said.
Anger over Washington’s support for Israel in its war against Palestinian Hamas in Gaza is behind a spate of recent attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria blamed on pro-Iranian militias. Bases housing American troops as part of the international coalition to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) have come under rocket and drone attacks.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups backed by Iran and affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on US troops in Iraq. On Friday, the group claimed on its Telegram channel that a drone of theirs had hit its target in the Ain al-Assad military base in western Iraq’s Anbar province. A day before, it said it had used two drones to attack US forces near Erbil.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Sudani to pursue the attackers.
Iraq’s National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji on Wednesday told a visiting European Union delegation that Sudani has issued orders for Iraq’s security forces to protect diplomatic missions and tighten security measures around their embassies.
On Monday, Sudani condemned the repeated strikes on bases hosting US troops, noting that Washington is in the country upon an official invitation from the Iraqi government to support and train security forces in the fight against ISIS. The condemnation came after the US updated its travel advisory to warn American citizens against traveling to Iraq.
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