Iraq dismisses US call for Iranian-backed militias to ‘go home’

The Iraqi government has dismissed a call from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for Iranian-backed paramilitary units that helped Baghdad defeat ISIS to end operations in Iraq.

Speaking after a meeting on Sunday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Tillerson said it was time for the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) militias and their Iranian advisers to “go home”.

Washington, which backed Baghdad against ISIS, is concerned Iran will use its expanded presence in Iraq and in Syria to expand its influence in the region.

But Abadi showed unwillingness to meet Tillerson’s demand.

“No party has the right to interfere in Iraqi matters,” the statement from his office read. It did not cite the prime minister himself but a “source” close to him.

Trained and armed by Iran, the Iraqi PMU militias often supported Iraqi government units in the fight against the militants who were effectively defeated in July when a US-backed offensive captured their stronghold Mosul.

They are paid by the Iraqi government and officially report to the prime minister, but some Arab Sunni and Kurdish politicians describe these militias as a de facto branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp.

Iraq’s Sunni neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, share Washington’s concerns over Shiite power Iran’s influence in Iraq, where the population is also predominantly Shiite.

But the office of Abadi, himself a Shiite, said the forces were under the authority of the Iraqi government. “Popular Mobilization are Iraqi patriots,” it said in the statement.

The United States trained tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers in the course of rebuilding the Iraqi armed forces and has over 5,000 troops deployed in the country, providing key air and ground support to the offensive on ISIS.