Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed militia, has condemned Iraqi President Barham Salih’s meeting with his American counterpart, Donald Trump, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday.
Mohammad Mohie, a spokesperson for Kataib Hezbollah, told Al Jazeera that the group considered the Salih-Trump meeting “deeply humiliating and inconsiderate of the loss of Iraqi blood”.
“Trump has committed unforgivable crimes against the Iraqi people. How could Salih join hands with someone who has no respect for Iraq’s sovereignty and the blood of its martyrs?” Mohie asked.
“He [Salih] has positioned himself against the Iraqi people. We call on him to step down and not return to Baghdad. He is no longer welcome among us.”
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Last December the US killed nearly 28 armed militiamen from Kataib Hezbollah in airstrikes in Anbar province, western Iraq in retaliation for killing a US “civilian contractor” two days earlier.
The US went on to kill one of the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, General Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy leader of the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in an airstrike near Baghdad airport earlier.
Al-Muhandis was also the founder of Kataib Hezbollah.