BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – The head of the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance in Iraq’s Parliament has stressed that Baghdad is determined to expel all foreign troops from the Arab country.
Hadi al-Ameri told Turkey’s ambassador to Baghdad Ali Reza Guney in a meeting that Iraq is working on expelling all foreign troops “as the Iraqi constitution does not allow the presence of any non-Iraqi forces” in the country, Ameri’s media office said in a statement.
Al-Ameri stressed that Baghdad does not allow any threat to be posed to the security of neighboring countries by Iraq-based armed terrorist groups.
During the meeting, the two sides also discussed the bilateral relations between Baghdad and Ankara, and the common security situation between the two countries.
Turkey has been militarily engaged in northern Iraq with the purported aim of fighting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, which it has designated as a terrorist outfit, along with the United States and the European Union.
The Baghdad government has condemned Ankara’s ongoing military operations in northern Iraq, warning of the Turkish government’s expansionist agenda.
Referring to the recent Iraqi vote, al-Ameri on Wednesday noted that political forces that dispute the results of the country’s recent parliamentary elections have been following up the issue with the competent authorities.
He stressed that no international party is allowed to interfere in the results of the elections, or any other internal issue of the Arab country.
The Iraqi capital and a number of major cities have been tense over the past days as several political factions and their supporters in the Arab country have rejected the preliminary results as “fraudulent.”
A total of 329 seats were up for grabs in the election.
The results of the election show the Fatah Alliance has won 15 seats in the October 10 elections after taking 48 seats in the 2018 vote.
Meanwhile, Sadr’s Sairoon coalition, the results show, has won more than 70 seats, which, if confirmed, could give him considerable influence in forming a government.
The elections were originally planned to be held in 2020, but the date was brought forward in response to a mass protest movement that broke out in 2019 to call for economic reforms, better public services, and an effective fight against unemployment and corruption in state institutions.