United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said Iranian-backed militias that are fighting alongside the Iraqi army should “go home” in an attempt to curb the Islamic Republic’s growing influence in Iraq, CNN reported Monday.
“Those militias need to go home,” Tillerson stated during a press conference with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister. “Any foreign fighters in Iraq need to go home and allow the Iraqi people to regain control of areas that had been overtaken by ISIS and Daesh that have now been liberated. Allow the Iraqi people to rebuild their lives with the help of their neighbors,” he added.
A senior U.S. official said the Secretary of State was referring to a militia known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), or Hashd al-Shaabi, and the Quds Force, the foreign arm of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The PMF is an umbrella group of mostly Shiite militia, many backed and funded by Iran, with allegiances to powerful clerics such as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Iraqis, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and Muqtada al-Sadr. Some of these units have been accused by leading human rights organizations of war crimes and sectarian violence, including torture and killings of Sunni civilians.
The PMF were also involved in last week’s takeover of large areas held by the Kurds since 2014, when Islamic State swept through northern Iraq amid an Iraqi army collapse. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds force, had traveled to the region on Sunday and hours later, Kurdish forces came under fire by Shiite militia in the city of Kirkuk.
The Iraqi government, however, has dismissed Tillerson’s demand. A statement issued by Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s office on October 23 responded to the Secretary of State’s remarks by saying that “no party has the right to interfere in Iraqi matters.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lobbied world leaders to throw their support behind the Kurds and contain Iran’s hegemonic ambitions in the Middle East.
Israeli officials said Netanyahu raised the issue in phone calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week and with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. He also discussed the situation with French officials and Israeli national security advisers are said to have raised the matter with Trump administration officials in Washington.
An Israeli official told Reuters that Israel wanted to see Iraqi Kurds provided with the means to defend themselves, adding: “It would be best if someone gave them weaponry, and whatever else, which we cannot give, obviously.” Another official added, “They (Kurds) are a deeply pro-Western people who deserve support.”
Israel has supported the Kurdish independence referendum which took place on September 25 and, several times in the last few years, Netanyahu has also voiced his support, saying that the Kurds are a “brave, pro-Western people who share our values.”
[Photo: Kurdistand24 English / YouTube ]