Iraqi foreign minister pressed to expel US forces on state visit to Tehran

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein visited Tehran on Wednesday to meet with top Iranian officials, putting US involvement in the region at the top of the agenda, according to state media.

Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif pressed for the expulsion of US troops from the Middle East during his meeting with Hussein, which he says would be a suitable response to the US assassinations of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a senior leader of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) last year, Iran's state-run IRNA reported. 

Zarif offered his appreciation to an Iraqi court, which issued an arrest warrant for former US President Donald Trump for ordering the assassinations in a drone strike on Baghdad in January 2020.

The killing of Soleimani – who headed the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force – sent US-Iran tensions soaring, and prompted a spate of rocket attacks on military bases in Iraq. It also pushed some Iraqi parliamentarians to pass a non-binding resolution calling on the expulsion of US forces from Iraq.

While meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the assassinations were offered as examples of the harmful effects of foreign interference in Iraq.

“Noting that Tehran opposes any foreign interference in the internal affairs of Iraq and considers it to the detriment of the Iraqi people and the entire region, President Rouhani added that the heinous assassination of Lieutenant-General Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was an example of the most brazen foreign intervention in Iraq's internal affairs,” reads IRNA’s account of the meeting.

Both the US and Iran’s presence and interference in Iraq has been under scrutiny over the years.

Rouhani expressed “hope” that the new administration of US President Joe Biden would “decide that its presence is harmful to security of the region and reconsider this policy.”

Hussein's visit to Tehran comes a day after the visit of the United Nations envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert to Iran, to discuss stability in Iraq, calling for the need to preserve Iraqi unity and hold free elections. 

Both Iranian officials discussed the potential of fostering further economic ties. Zarif emphasized cooperation between the two countries and the need to speed up the implementation of agreements on border markets, trade, visiting holy shrines, transportation of goods, debts and banking issues.

Rouhani added that the volume of trade between the countries should reach $20 billion a year, pressing on the formation of a joint commission agreed upon during Hussein’s visit in September.