Iraqi Parliament Votes to Expel All American Troops and Submit UN Complaint Against US for Violation of Sovereignty

Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi speaks during afuneral ceremony in Baghdad on October 23, 2019. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

Iraqi Parliament Votes to Expel All American Troops and Submit UN Complaint Against US for Violation of Sovereignty

"What happened was a political assassination. Iraq cannot accept this."

Update:

Iraq's parliament voted in an extraordinary session Sunday to expel all American troops from the country and file a United Nations complaint against the U.S. for violating Iraq's sovereignty with its assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Ahead of the vote, chants of "No, no, America" rang out inside the hall.

"Iraq called on the U.N. Security Council to condemn the bombing and assassinations," Iraq's foreign ministry said in a statement following the vote.

As The Nationalreported, the Iraqi parliament approved "a five-point action plan that would require the Iraqi government to end the presence of foreign troops in the country, and withdraw its request for assistance from the anti-ISIS global coalition."

"Parliament also called on the government to ban the use of Iraqi airspace by any foreign power," according to The National. The resolution is non-binding, and the plan to expel American troops still requires the approval of the Iraqi government.

The U.S. currently has around 5,000 troops stationed in Iraq.

Earlier:

Speaking before an extraordinary session of parliament Sunday, Iraq's outgoing Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi recommended that the nation's lawmakers approve a measure to end U.S. troop presence in "immediately" following the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

The prime minister's remarks came before Iraqi lawmakers are set to vote on a resolution to end permission for American troops to remain in Iraq.

Washington Post reporter Mustafa Salim summarized Mahdi's recommendations:

The U.S. assassination Soleimani on Iraqi soil was met with fierce condemnation from Iraq's foreign ministry and the prime minister, who called the drone strike a violation of the nation's sovereignty.

"What happened was a political assassination," Mahdi said. "Iraq cannot accept this."

In a previously undisclosed detail one observer described as "stunning," Mahdi said Soleimani was in Baghdad to meet with him about a Saudi request for dialogue to relieve tensions in the region--not, as the U.S. has claimed, to plan attacks against American forces.

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