SAEDNEWS: Iran Calls for US Accountability Over Iraq Occupation
According to Saednews, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran congratulates the people and government of Iraq on the withdrawal of US occupation forces and other foreign troops after two decades of devastating military intervention in the country. Iran considers the development a significant and necessary step toward strengthening Iraq’s national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.
The 23-year military presence of the United States and its allies in Iraq, which began with the US invasion on March 20, 2003, under the false pretext of eliminating “weapons of mass destruction,” has had devastating and irreversible consequences for Iraq and the wider region. These consequences include the deaths of more than one million Iraqis, including tens of thousands of women and children; hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to Iraq’s physical, security, and governmental infrastructure; extensive environmental destruction; serious war crimes, including the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison; and the creation of conditions that contributed to the spread of Takfiri terrorism and ISIS in Iraq and neighboring countries.
While paying tribute to the Iraqi people for their resistance and resilience in confronting occupation, terrorism, and sectarianism, the Islamic Republic of Iran stresses the importance of respecting Iraq’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. It further states that the military presence of the United States and its allies in the region has brought nothing but increased violence, insecurity, division, and terrorism.
Honoring the memory of the hundreds of thousands of martyrs who lost their lives in the struggle against occupation and terrorism, particularly Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Haj Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian Foreign Ministry stresses the need for the US government to be held accountable for the crimes committed and the damage inflicted on the Iraqi people and other nations during the period of occupation.
