Speaking to Tasnim, Hakim pointed to the US government’s move to assassinate Iran’s revered commander, Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and his comrades last month and said, “The most important revenge for this great martyr’s blood is to continue his path and accomplish the goals for which he sacrificed his life.”
“In Iraq, we believe that foreign military forces should leave the sacred territory of Iraq,” the cleric said.
“The Iraqi national sovereignty and political independence should be achieved at the hands of the brave children of the Iraqi nation,” the resistance figure went on to say.
General Soleimani, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was the deputy head of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi (PMU), and a number of their entourage were killed in a strike by American drones near Baghdad International Airport on January 3.
The White House and the Pentagon claimed responsibility for the assassination of General Soleimani in Iraq, saying the attack was carried out at the direction of US President Donald Trump.
In reaction to the assassinations, the Iraqi parliament voted to remove US troops from the Arab country.
In an extraordinary session on January 5, the Iraqi lawmakers backed a resolution to ask the government to end an agreement with Washington to station 5,200 troops in Iraq.