Iraqi lawmaker says expulsion of US forces from Arab country ‘national decision’

  Speaking to Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Maloumah news agency on Sunday, Mehdi Taqi, member of the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi parliament, stated that the decision to expel foreign troops, particularly US troops, from Iraq is not a mere political decision, but rather a national decision made by representatives of all Iraqis in the Council of Representatives of Iraq. On January 3 last year, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and deputy head of Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were assassinated along with their companions in a US terror drone strike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport.  Both popular commanders played key role in eliminating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.  Two days after Washington’s assassination operation, Iraqi legislators approved a bill, calling for the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the US from the Arab country, which is currently home to some 3,000 American servicemen. “Our country does not need the presence of any foreign force whatsoever on its soil while our national forces are capable of warding off the dangers of terrorism and any external threat to the security and stability of Iraq,” Taqi further said. The lawmaker added that the presence of foreign forces, including those of the US, is causing numerous crises and problems in Iraq, noting that the landmark decision made by the Iraqi parliament demonstrated farsightedness in order to avoid major problems in the Arab country.    Taqi also pointed out that “all Iraqis are aware of the danger that these forces will cause on the Iraqi soil, so everyone has agreed to expel them from the country in accordance with the decision by the parliament, which represents the voice of all Iraqis.” Last year’s US assassination of General Soleimani and Iraqi PMU commander Muhandis significantly raised the already present anti-US sentiment in Iraq and led to numerous popular protests across the Arab country against the presence of American troops.