US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a shock go to to Baghdad on Sunday following a day trip to the occupied West Bank in the past in the day. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani met Blinken, the premier’s workplace said, with the two predicted to talk about the dangers of escalation in Israel’s warfare with Hamas.
Blinken’s go to which got here after a quick quit in Cyprus to talk about a feasible maritime resource route to Gaza used to be now not introduced in develop for protection reasons.
Since the begin of the Israel-Hamas war, a sequence of rocket and drone assaults have focused army bases web hosting US forces in Iraq.
“I made very clear that assaults or threats coming from militias that are aligned with Iran are absolutely unacceptable,” Blinken stated on Sunday.
“We will take each integral step to shield our people,” he introduced for the duration of a assembly with Sudani.
Washington has accused Iran of having a hand in the assaults which have additionally centered American troops in Syria.
Most of the assaults have been claimed via a crew recognised as “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, in accordance to Telegram channels affiliated with Iraqi factions shut to Tehran.
Figures launched via the Pentagon on Friday confirmed that between October 17 and November three there have been 17 assaults in Iraq and 12 in Syria.
Some 2,500 American troops are deployed in Iraq, tasked with advising their Iraqi counterparts in the combat towards the Islamic State group.
Sudani condemned the attacks and stated investigations had been beneath way to decide the perpetrators.
Iraq’s top minister has over and over known as for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and has described Israel’s army operation in the coastal territory as a “genocide” in opposition to the Palestinian people.
During his assembly with Blinken on Sunday, he reiterated calls for a ceasefire and pointed to “the urgency of containing the disaster and stopping its spread”, a declaration from his workplace said.
Iraq does now not comprehend Israel as a nation and its authorities is shut to Iran, which in flip backs Hamas.
On Sunday evening, lots of supporters of influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, brandishing Iraqi and Palestinian flags, an AFP journalist said.
Some burned Israeli and US flags at some point of the demonstration, which accompanied a name from Sadr’s motion on X, previously Twitter, to “protest peacefully” in opposition to Blinken’s visit.
Blinken is engaged in a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, having visited Israel on Friday observed with the aid of Jordan on Saturday for talks with King Abdullah II and the place he took phase in ministerial conferences with 5 of his Arab counterparts.
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On Sunday morning, he travelled to the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, accompanied via a quit in Cyprus the place he met the president and overseas minister.