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Nasser Al-Shammari, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Iraqi Hizbullah Al-Nujaba Movement, said in a July 16, 2020 interview on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon) that nobody in Iraq has the right to authorize the illegal presence of foreign forces on Iraqi soil. He also said that nobody can prevent the Iraqi "resistance" forces from targeting U.S. forces in Iraq. He then threatened that the "resistance" will keep fighting until U.S. forces have completely left Iraq. Al-Shammari said that Iraq does not need the U.S. to protect it from external threats, and he suggested that perhaps the U.S. is cooperating with Turkey to keep Iraq in crisis. He added that the Americans only understand the language of force and that only attacks by the Iraqi "resistance" can successfully banish them from Iraqi soil.
Nasser Al-Shammari: "No one in Iraq - and that includes the government and the prime minister - has the right to legally authorize the presence of foreign forces. Their presence on Iraqi soil is illegal. Therefore, according to Iraqi law, these are foreign occupation forces, if they refuse to abide by Iraqi law. Mr. Al-Kadhimi is in an executive capacity and cannot issue a decision, all by himself, that allows these foreign occupation forces, to remain on Iraqi land. As for the government or anyone else preventing the resistance factions from targeting the occupation forces - this is meaningless. Nobody - not America, not the Iraqi government, and not America's friends in the region - are capable or authorized to prevent the resistance from targeting the American occupation forces. These attacks will continue. They will not stop. The weapons of the resistance will not stop [firing] until the last occupation soldier leaves the land of Iraq. This is not final. It is not up for debate. Nobody in Iraq or elsewhere is capable of breaking this decision.
[...]
"America's friends claim that we need the U.S. presence in order to defend Iraqi sovereignty and unity against external threats. Because these people are weak and defeated, they think that Iraq does not have the power to deal with external threats. Today, Turkish forces have invaded Iraqi land and have occupied Iraqi cities, sowing destruction and displacing people, yet we have heard no reaction from the Americans, who, according to America's friends, are here to defend Iraq's sovereignty and unity. They have done nothing. On the contrary, perhaps this invasion came following an agreement with the Americans, or under an American umbrella, in order to occupy Iraqi lands, and to keep the Iraqis dealing with consecutive crises that would necessitate the presence of the U.S. forces.
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"Unfortunately, the Americans only understand the language of force. Only the attacks by the resistance are capable of forcing the Americans to leave Iraqi soil and to remove their hands - which are soiled with Iraqi blood - from the fate and future of the Iraqi people.
[...]
"Sadly, the Americans have not abided by the decision of the Iraqi parliament or by the request of the Iraqi government to pull out their forces from Iraq, and this led us to the option of armed resistance to expel these forces from Iraqi lands."
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