Baghdad denounces Netanyahu's threat to carry out attacks in Iraq
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein says Israeli PM’s UN remarks 'unacceptable,' stresses any attack on Iraqis is attack on Iraq.
Iraq has rejected remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatening to target what he called “militias” in Iraq, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said.
Speaking at a press conference in New York on Friday, Hussein said Netanyahu’s comments in his address to the 80th UN General Assembly were “unacceptable,” according to Iraq’s state news agency INA.
“An attack on any Iraqi is an attack on Iraq,” Hussein said.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu claimed that Israel “deterred Iran's Shiite militias in Iraq; they're still deterred, and their leaders, if they attack Israel, will also be gone.”
He gave no further details.
Netanyahu spoke to an almost empty hall after many delegations walked out in protest of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, now nearing its third year.
On September 17, the US designated four Iraq- and Syria-based groups as terrorist organisations, calling them Iran-aligned militias: Harakat al-Nujaba, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, and Kataib Imam Ali.
Analysts described the move as part of Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran.