Sen. McCain Asks Iraqi Officials expel Iranian Forces

The United States Senator John McCain has asked the Iraqi Prime Minister to expel the Iranian forces from Iraq, according to an Iraqi source.

“During his visit to Iraq, Sen. John McCain asked Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi, to expel Iranian soldiers from Iraq,” a member of the Iraqi Sadr party told a Kuwaiti newspaper.

According to the source: “He has told Abadi not to allow Quds Force commnder Qassem Soleimani to walk freely through Iraq because Iran has been sanctioned by the international community,” said the source.

Senator McCain also has given Abadi details of some 2500 crimes committed in Iraq by Iranian forces.

“McCain has also asked Abadi not to allow Iranian military advisers to enter Iraq because their presence is a threat to the US-led coalition military advisers in the country,” the source was quoted as saying.

According to a senior Iranian cleric quoted by the Washington Post, there are currently some 1000 Iranian military advisors in Iraq.

This source indicated that in addition to those 1,000 there were unspecified elite units also operating in the country, accompanying recent airstrikes and total military aid to date of over one billion dollars.

The Post indicates that Iranian involvement in Iraq has grown tremendously in the past year. But if we stretch back several years into recent Iraqi history the figures given by the above-mentioned cleric may rise even higher, as some Iranian influence has apparently been a mainstay in Iraq since the US invasion that topped Saddam Hussein. The Post quotes a commander with Iraqi Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah as saying, “Iran never left Iraq… This very closer relationship has made Iran support Iraq all they can.”