Officials in Iraq slam Trump’s unannounced visit to base

US President Donald Trump’s unannounced visit to Iraq has sparked a wave of condemnations from the Arab country’s political and military leaders, with some of them demanding the expulsion of American forces.

Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi Shia Muslim group, said that the presence of US troops breached the sovereignty of Iraq.

“Trump must be aware that Iraq’s sovereignty came with blood, not the building of bases in this country of resistance and martyrs. The government has a duty to expel US troops as a violation of the country’s sovereignty,” Nujaba spokesman Hashim al-Mousawi told Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen television channel.

The Kata’ib Hezbollah group also stressed that the resistance front would make the US withdraw its forces from Iraq, adding that the fact that Trump made a surprise trip meant that “he does not feel safe announcing his visit to Iraq.”

“The decision to withdraw US troops belongs to the will of the people and its parliament; the resistance will force the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq,” the group’s spokesman Jafar al-Hussaini told al-Mayadeen.

“Leaders in the Iraqi resistance vowed to cut the hand that extends to neighboring countries including Syria,” he added.

On Wednesday, Trump spent a few hours at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq’s western Anbar Province but did not visit Baghdad. It was Trump’s first visit to troops in a war zone since becoming president.

Qais al-Khazali, the leader of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq group, expressed the Iraqis’ resolve to purge the country of American forces.

“Iraqis will respond with a parliamentary decision to oust your (US) military forces. And if they do not leave, we have the experience and the ability to remove them by other means that your forces are familiar with,” he tweeted.

Sabah al-Saadi, the leader of the Islah parliamentary bloc, also called for an emergency session of the parliament “to discuss this blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and to stop these aggressive actions by Trump who should know his limits: The US occupation of Iraq is over.”

Similarly, the Bina parliamentary bloc denounced Trump’s trip to Iraq, saying, it was “a flagrant and clear violation of diplomatic norms and shows his disdain and hostility in his dealings with the Iraqi government.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, an explosion was reportedly heard in Baghdad’s Green Zone, where the US Embassy and many other foreign diplomatic missions are located.

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