Iran (IMNA) – In a statement, the Foreign Ministry congratulated the Iraqi people and government on the withdrawal of US occupying forces and other foreign troops from Iraq after two decades of what it described as a disastrous military presence. It called the development an important and necessary step toward consolidating Iraq’s national sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.
The statement said the 23-year presence of the United States and its allies in Iraq, which followed the US invasion of the country on March 20, 2003, under the false pretext of confronting “weapons of mass destruction,” had irreversible consequences for Iraq and the wider region.
According to the statement, the consequences included the killing of more than one million Iraqis, including tens of thousands of innocent women and children, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars in material damage to Iraq’s infrastructure, security and governmental institutions.
It also pointed to environmental destruction and serious war crimes, including the torture of Iraqi men and women at Abu Ghraib prison, as well as the conditions that paved the way for the rise of Takfiri terrorism and ISIL in Iraq and the surrounding region.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, while paying tribute to the resistance and steadfastness of the Iraqi people against occupation, terrorism and sectarianism, emphasized the need to respect Iraq’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Foreign Ministry recalled that the military presence of the United States and its allies in countries across the region has brought nothing but the promotion of violence, insecurity, division and terrorism.
It also commemorated the memory of hundreds of thousands of martyrs who lost their lives in confronting occupation and terrorism, particularly Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Qassem Soleimani.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry further stressed the need to hold the US government accountable and question it over the crimes committed and the damage inflicted on the people of Iraq and other countries during the occupation period.
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