Iraqi PM Slams Tillerson’s Comments against Popular Forces
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi dismissed US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s remarks against Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) as an example of interference in the internal affairs of the Arab country.
“No party has the right to interfere in Iraqi matters…,” Abadi’s media office said in a statement on Monday, according to Lebanon’s Arabic-language Al Mayadeen TV network.
The forces of the PMU, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, are Iraqi citizens and have sacrificed themselves to defend their country, the statement read.
Tillerson said on Sunday it was time for Iranian-backed militias and their Iranian advisers who helped Iraq defeat Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) to “go home”, after a rare joint meeting with the leaders of Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
In recent years, Iraq has faced the growing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the Daesh terrorist group.
Daesh militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the PMU volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for the fight against the militants, blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and later forced the terror group to withdraw from all the major areas it had occupied.
