Amid mounting concerns that the Israel-Hamas confrontation may turn into a larger regional conflict, US Secretary of State US’s Blinken travels unexpected trip to Iraq.
While on a multi-country tour of the Middle East, Blinken met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Sunday. Washington is looking to Baghdad for assistance in putting a stop to attacks on US personnel, which it has attributed to organizations with Iranian support.
After the meeting, Blinken told reporters that the discussions with al-Sudani were “productive” and that his Iraqi counterpart was coordinating with his security forces to “take necessary action” in response to the attacks.
Blinken declared, “This is an issue of Iraqi sovereignty.” “No nation desires to have violent militia groups operating within its borders.”
The top US ambassador continued, “We have a shared purpose and commitment in trying to make sure that these attacks don’t happen.”
In a statement, Al-Sudani’s office emphasized “the urgency of containing the crisis and preventing its spread” and renewed demands for a truce in Gaza. Al-Sudani’s government maintains close links to Iran but has openly criticized attacks on US personnel in his nation.
The US Pentagon claims that since Israel and Hamas began fighting, there has been a noticeable increase in rocket and drone assaults against US soldiers in Iraq and Syria. The majority of these attacks have been attributed to a group known as the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq.”
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