Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said attacks by both sides inside Iraq this month showed blatant disregard for its sovereignty and its people stood to suffer most from Washington and Tehran’s conflict
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi asked Washington to come up with a plan for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, his office said, according to a Washington Post report.The latest flare-up in the long shadow war started with the U.S. killing of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, in an air strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3. Iran responded on Wednesday by firing missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq.
In a message delivered through a representative at Friday prayers in the holy city of Kerbala, Sistani said no foreign powers should be allowed to decide Iraq’s fate. “The people have suffered enough from wars … Iraq must govern itself and there must be no role for outsiders in its decision-making,” Sistani said.Iraq has suffered decades of war, sanctions and sectarian conflict, including two U.S.-led invasions and the rise and fall of Sunni militant groups al Qaeda and Islamic State.
“From now on, having too many bases, especially in this region, will not act as an advantage for them,” Mohammad Javad Haj Aliakbari, a midranking cleric, told worshippers.Since Soleimani’s killing, Tehran has stepped up its calls for U.S. forces to leave Iraq, which like Iran is a mainly Shi’ite Muslim nation. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said the retaliatory strikes were not enough and that ending the U.S. military presence in the region was its main goal.
Trump offered no hard evidence of what drove the decision to kill Soleimani, which critics have called a reckless action.
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