Baghdad, Jan 19 (IANS) A leading Iraqi political bloc has confirmed it would not retreat from demanding the government to implement Parliament’s decision to withdraw foreign forces from the country.
Monday’s confirmation by the al-Fatih Coalition, headed by Hadi al-Ameri, came because “the decision of ending the presence of foreign forces from Iraq was already passed in the Iraqi Parliament and approved by the government of resigned Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi”, Xinhua news agency quoted bloc spokesman Ahmed al-Asadi as saying.
Al-Asadi said that Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi included the implementation of the decision to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in his political program when he assumed the post.
On January 5, 2020, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq.
The resolution was passed two days after Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq’s paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces, were killed in an American drone strike near the Baghdad airport.
A few thousand US troops are leading international coalition forces tasked with helping the Iraqi security forces in the fight against the Islamic State by carrying out airstrikes against the terror group’s positions in Iraq and Syria.
The American troops also provide military equipment and training to Iraqi forces.
–IANS
ksk/