US presence in Iraq is illegal and people have the right to confront it

 Iraq Hezbollah brigade

31 Mar 2020; MEMO: Mohammad Mohi, a spokesman for the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq (Kata’ib Hezbollah), has said that the US withdrawal from some of its military bases in Iraq is not real, and it is rather a “repositioning act after being subjected to strong blows from the Iraqi people’s factions.”

Mohi stressed that the Iraqi people have the right to confront US presence.

Mohi said in statements to the German news agency DPA that “the withdrawal of US forces from some military bases in different regions of the country is meant to be a repositioning operation toward finding safer areas after they were subjected to strong military strikes by factions of Iraqi people who reject their presence.”

He stressed: “We will continue to target them wherever they are because we believe that American moves in Iraq are aggressive and their presence is illegal.”

“We warn the US forces [against] committing any aggression against the Iraqi people and their factions, carrying out any attempted military coup against the political process, undermining the leaders of the popular mobilisation, or assassinating influential Iraqi national figures,” said Mohi.

He added: “Our stance on the strikes to which US forces are being subjected to in Iraq is clear. Although we disagree with some factions about the type and timing of strikes, which may be inappropriate, we still believe that it is the Iraqi people’s right to confront US presence.”

The New York Times revealed two days ago information about American plans to destroy a group of Iranian-backed militias that threatened to carry out more attacks against American forces in Iraq. The newspaper pointed out that the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades are among these militias.

It quoted that some senior American officials believe that “there is an opportunity to try to destroy the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, as the leaders in Iran are bewildered due to the corona pandemic crisis in their country.”