TEHRAN - Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri predicted on Monday that the resistance front will force the U.S. to exit its forces from Iraq.

“The Iraqi government seeks to implement the approval regarding the expulsion of the United States’ forces, and the resistance front will follow the issue and realize it,” Bagheri said during a conference of commanders of police forces.

Pointing to assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the top commander said the Iranian armed forces gave a proper response and the Iraqi parliament approved a resolution to expel the U.S. forces, which is not a trivial matter.

On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes that martyred General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), in Baghdad’s international airport.

In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC fired dozens of ballistic missiles at a military airbase hosting U.S. forces in Iraq as part of its promised “tough revenge” for the U.S. terrorist attack.

The Iraqi Parliament also voted on January 5 to expel the U.S. troops from Iraq.

Hassan Danaeefar, the former Iranian ambassador to Iraq, has said that the United States has no choice other than exiting its forces from Iraq.

“The people of Iraq will not let the United States influence the country’s sovereignty, and Washington has no way but leaving Iraq,” he told ILNA in an interview published on April 11.

He noted that many of the U.S. forces are leaving bases in Iraq and the Iraqis’ demand is being fulfilled.

In an interview with the Tasnim news agency in January, Danaeefar said that it is essential that the U.S. leave Iraq now that the Iraqi parliament has voted to expel American forces from the country.

The Iraqi people have the experience of fighting the U.S. occupation, the former ambassador said, predicting the Iraqis will rise against U.S. forces if they refuse to leave the country. 

“So, if the occupant does not respect the Iraqis’ approval, they [the Iraqis] will fight them,” he said.

He said if the U.S. refuses to leave, Iraq can file a complaint in international courts.

The U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 under the false claim that the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The invasion took place despite repeated confirmations by international bodies, including the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iraq did not have any secret weapons program.

Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, has said that the U.S. must leave the region, noting that the U.S. is unwelcome in the region.

“Iraq and the region are dissatisfied with the presence of the United States, and the United States must respect the Iraqi parliament’s approval to end the United States’ military presence,” IRNA quoted him as saying in an interview with Aljazeera in January.

He said the Iraqi parliament’s approval is the result of more than 17 years of the U.S. occupation of the country.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in January that the U.S. “corruptive presence” in the region must come to an end.

“This region does not accept the presence of the United States. The people in the region and the regional governments rising from the people do not accept this issue,” the Leader pointed out.

NA/PA