SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A top advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has sparked anger among Iran-backed parties in Baghdad with comments about an Iran’s top commander who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last year.
Hosham Dawod told BBC that Iranian general Qasem Soleimani did not think he was “just a co-coordinate with Iraq”.
His comments came as thousands of Iraqis marked the anniversary of the January 3, 2020 U.S. drone strike near Baghdad international airport that killed Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Soleimani headed an elite overseas unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, while Muhandis commanded Hashid al-Shaabi paramilitary network.
They both had worked closely together.
“He actually believed himself responsible for Iraq. That is why he entered and left [the country] when he wanted,” Dawod said.
“The founding principles of the Iraqi state were not in his [Soleimani’s] priorities,” he added.
“So, with Qaani, we, the Iraqi government, made him apply for a visa,” he said, referring to Soleimani’s successor, Esmail Qaani.
Dawod’s remarks sparked an angry reaction from Ahmad al-Assadi, one of the leaders of the Hashid’s paramilitary bloc, who said Soleimani had been entering Iraq “officially and legally” and had been there to “help the government and the people,” according to AFP.
“Where was this ‘advisor’ when Soleimani went from trench to trench to defend Iraq, until his blood was spilt at the international airport?” Assadi asked.
An Iraqi official told AFP that Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi had “frozen” Dawod’s post as his advisor since his comments.
AFP said Dawod had apologized to “all those who misunderstood his words” in a statement.
Lawmaker Mahdi al-Amerli, member of the parliamentary defense committee, demanded Kadhimi sack Dawod immediately or to “clearly state his position”, according to AFP.
Shoalan Abu al-Jon, a lawmaker from the pro-Iran Badr armed faction, said that Kadhimi “no longer deserves to remain” as leader.
“A prime minister who does not act, and does not say a word to defend the Iraqis and Iraq’s guests, must resign,” he said.
