Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said that the more prosperous and secure Iraq is, the more beneficial it is for Iran. The Supreme Leader expressed satisfaction with the Iraqi Prime Minister Sudanese’s measures regarding the prosperity and security in Iraq. The Leader of the Islamic Revolution called the illegal presence of the US occupation forces in Iraq against the interests of the people and government of this Muslim country and emphasized that there are signs and evidence from which it is not difficult to conclude that an attempt is being made to extend the duration of the US military presence. Without mentioning any specific intelligence information, he indicated that the presence of the US military in Iraq is dangerous for this country. He said that strong efforts will be needed to remove the US military from Iraq and it should be believed that whenever the Iraqi nation decides, no one will be able to stop the US military from fleeing. He recalled that the United States invaded the Muslim country in 2003 under the pretext that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, while the American allegations were completely false. After that, in 2014, the US army once again entered Iraq under the pretext of the ISIS terrorist group, even though at that time it did not even have a UN mandate.
However, the forces of the US-led Western coalition have proven largely ineffective against ISIS, which was ultimately defeated by the Iraqi armed forces with the support of the country’s Popular Mobilization Units, known as the Hashd al-Shaabi. The terrorist group was driven out of its northern capital of Mosul in late 2017, but the US remains there. Ayatollah Khamenei stressed the importance of strong ties between the Iraqi government and the people, and unity and harmony among Iraq’s different sects and ethnicities. He said that the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) are a major source of strength in Iraq and efforts should be made to preserve and further strengthen them. He added that the role of foreign governments in the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria is clear. The Iraqi prime minister expressed hope that the talks and agreements in the Iranian capital will further broaden and deepen relations between the two countries. Sudani He described the Iraqi government’s military organization, the Mobilization Forces, as a manifestation of national unity and harmony as a component of power in Iraq.