In a meeting with Iraqi Defense Minister Thabet Muhammad Saeed al-Abbasi in Tehran on Monday, Major General Hossein Salami said unlike Iran, which wants a strong Iraq, the Americans and the Zionists want to dominate the region and create insecurity inside Iran and Iraq.
“Wherever the Americans are, there is insecurity,” he said. “It is the oppressed people who are paying the heavy price of the Americans’ profiteering. Iran’s rationale for the expulsion of the Americans from the region is based on this.”
Salami also stressed that the Muslim Ummah, especially the Iranian nation, views as unacceptable the thirst of trans-regional powers for control over Iraq’s security order and their conspiracies to disintegrate the Arab country.
In early 2003, the US invaded Iraq under the later debunked pretext that the regime of Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
It withdrew soldiers from Iraq between 2007 and 2011 but redeployed them in 2014 along with other partners to allegedly counter the threat of the Daesh terrorist group.
Iraq managed to end the territorial rule of the Takfiri outfit in the country thanks to the sacrifices of the national army as well as the anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which had the backing of Iran.
However, Washington kept its forces inside Iraq in defiance of a resolution that required its withdrawal. The resolution was passed by the Arab country’s parliament on January 5, 2020, two days after the US assassinated Iran’s anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the PMU deputy head.
The US military declared the end of its combat mission in Iraq in December 2021, but it still maintains a number of troops there under the guise of playing an advisory role.
Also in his remarks, the IRGC chief commander hailed Iraq’s opposition to normalization with the Tel Aviv regime.
“Despite a decrease in the Americans’ regional presence, we are witnessing the painful phenomenon of the normalization of relations between some Arab Muslim countries and the Zionists. Of course, Iraq has an admirable position in this regard,” he said.
Last May, Iraqi lawmakers passed a law criminalizing normalization of ties, including business contacts, with Israel. The legislation says that violation of the law is punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Elsewhere in his comments, Salami attached importance to boosting Tehran-Baghdad cooperation, especially in defense, military and security fields, as well as preserving Iraq’s unity and integrity.
The IRGC, he noted, stands ready to play an effective role in training the Iraqi armed forces in addition to advisory assistance and the exchange of experience in the counter-terrorism battle.
Abbasi, for his part, appreciated the support of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the Iranian nation for the fight against Daesh in Iraq.
The IRGC has had great cooperation with Iraq in the fight against the Takfiris, he said, calling the martyrdom of General Qassem Soleimani and Muhandis the symbol of such an alliance.
The Iraqi defense minister also underlined the need for enhanced cooperation with Iran to consolidate border security.
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