Middle East
People march with a banner showing (L to R) Iraq's slain PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, other slain members of the group, and Iraq's top Muslim Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, during a symbolic funerary parade in Baghdad on June 29, 2021. Photo: Sabah Arar/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iran’s envoy to the United Nations denied the Islamic Republic played any role in attacking American interests in Iraq, refuting a statement from the United States to the Security Council explaining its recent airstrikes on militia groups on the Iraq-Syria border.
“Any claim to attribute to Iran, explicitly or implicitly, any attack carried out against American personnel or facilities in Iraq is factually wrong and void of the minimum requirements of authenticity and reliability, thus completely baseless. Accordingly, we firmly reject such allegations and consider them legally null and void,” Iranian Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi wrote in a letter to the UN Security Council, IRNA reported on Saturday.
On June 28, the United States killed four Iraqi militiamen in airstrikes on their positions on the Iraq-Syria border, two days after drones attacked an area close to the new US consulate in Erbil.
In a letter to the Security Council the following day, Washington’s Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the airstrikes were an exercise of self-defence, noting a recent escalation of militia attacks on US interests in Iraq.
The US “has taken military action in order to protect and defend the safety of its personnel, to degrade and disrupt the ongoing series of attacks against the United States and its partners, and to deter the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iran-backed militia groups from conducting or supporting further attacks on United States personnel or facilities,” she wrote.
Iran’s envoy said the US airstrikes violated international law.
The airstrikes killed four members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of militias that are formally part of Iraq’s security forces. Many militias however operate outside of Baghdad’s control and are close to Iran.
The PMF want the US to withdraw its forces from Iraq. Its militias are suspected to be behind frequent rocket and drone attacks on American interests in the country, which have escalated since the US assassinated PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.
“Any claim to attribute to Iran, explicitly or implicitly, any attack carried out against American personnel or facilities in Iraq is factually wrong and void of the minimum requirements of authenticity and reliability, thus completely baseless. Accordingly, we firmly reject such allegations and consider them legally null and void,” Iranian Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi wrote in a letter to the UN Security Council, IRNA reported on Saturday.
On June 28, the United States killed four Iraqi militiamen in airstrikes on their positions on the Iraq-Syria border, two days after drones attacked an area close to the new US consulate in Erbil.
In a letter to the Security Council the following day, Washington’s Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the airstrikes were an exercise of self-defence, noting a recent escalation of militia attacks on US interests in Iraq.
The US “has taken military action in order to protect and defend the safety of its personnel, to degrade and disrupt the ongoing series of attacks against the United States and its partners, and to deter the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iran-backed militia groups from conducting or supporting further attacks on United States personnel or facilities,” she wrote.
Iran’s envoy said the US airstrikes violated international law.
The airstrikes killed four members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of militias that are formally part of Iraq’s security forces. Many militias however operate outside of Baghdad’s control and are close to Iran.
The PMF want the US to withdraw its forces from Iraq. Its militias are suspected to be behind frequent rocket and drone attacks on American interests in the country, which have escalated since the US assassinated PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.
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