BAGHDAD — U.S. plans to station troops across the Mideast after withdrawing from Iraq amount to occupying other Islamic countries, Iraq's influential religious and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr said in an interview broadcast Thursday.

Sadr said he's not satisfied with President Barack Obama's pledge to pull out U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year, calling it a partial withdrawal because of the thousands of diplomats and security guards who will stay behind, The Associated Press reported.

“The American occupation will stay in Iraq under different names,” Sadr told Al-Arabiya TV in his first interview since Obama announced the troop pullout last month.

Sadr noted the Pentagon's recent reminders that it will keep an estimated 40,000 troops across the region.

“America is not only occupying Iraq but also other Islamic countries,” he said. “Occupying Iraq means occupying what is around Iraq, and then to control the Middle East.”

The Pentagon is preparing to boost the number of U.S. forces just across the Iraqi border in Kuwait and across the region.

Last month, Sadr said Washington will continue hatching plots against Iraq through its remaining forces in the US embassy and security firms in the country. 

He also accused the U.S. of plotting chaos and sectarian strife in Iraq in order to prolong their stay in the already-war-scarred country. 

There are about 39,500 American troops currently deployed in Iraq. Under a 2008-clinched bilateral security accord, known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), all the troops are required to leave the country by the end of this year. 

Washington has, however, successfully pressured Baghdad to agree with prolonged stay of a number of the forces, while insisting on non-prosecution of the remaining forces. 

Iraqi politicians have strongly resisted the prospect of immunity. 

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent occupation, the Arab nation has lost over one million people due to the violence.