Continuation of US presence in Iraq tantamount to ‘occupation’: Iran's Shamkhani

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani said that following the ratification of an anti-US resolution in the Iraqi Parliament, US forces can no longer continue presence in Iraq.

Pointing to the resolution which was adopted today and requires the government to order the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Shamkhani said that “after this law comes into force, US presence in Iraq is tantamount to occupation.”

He made the remarks Sunday night in a meeting with the visiting Syria’s Chief of the National Security Bureau Major General Ali Mamlouk in Tehran.

Shamkhani said in the meeting that the Iraqi Parliament, government, and people have taken the first step in taking revenge on US by holding a glorious funeral ceremony and adopting the mentioned resolution. He described the measures as a ‘hard slap in the face of Trump and his team of criminals’.

Referring to Iran’s stance on the promised revenge against the US over the assassination of Lt. Gen. Soleimani, Shamkhani highlighted that “we will certainly give a military response but it will not solely remain limited to military measures.”

Americans will soon understand that martyrdom of Qasem Soleimani is more dangerous for them than the time when he was alive, he added.

For his part, the Syrian official expressed condolences on behalf of Syrian President and armed forces to the Iranian nation and officials over the martyrdom of Gen. Soleimani.

Mamlouk said that people of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan share feeling with Iranians over this loss, adding that Soleimani’s martyrdom will be the beginning of Palestine’s freedom and Israel’s destruction.

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