Najaf: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi on Monday ruled out any foreign ground intervention to assist government forces in retaking territory lost to militants and urged Sunnis to give up such hopes.
Al Abadi was speaking in the city of Najaf after a rare meeting with the most revered figure among Iraqi Shiites, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, and before a trip to neighbouring Iran.
“No ground forces from any superpower, international coalition or regional power will fight here,” Al Abadi told reporters, reiterating previous remarks on the issue.
“This is my decision, it is the decision of the Iraqi government.”
Some officials and tribal leaders in areas most affected by the unrest have argued the world should step up its involvement from air strikes to a ground intervention against Daesh militant group.
“I am telling our brothers in Anbar and Salaheddin who asked for foreign ground troops that such an appeal should not be made for two reasons,” Al Abadi said.
“We don’t need foreign combat troops. And there is no country in the world which would be willing to fight here and give you back your land even if they were asked to.”
The prime minister had just met with Al Sistani, a reclusive Iranian-born cleric who is the highest Shiite religious authority in the country.
Iraqi state television said it was the first time in four years that Al Sistani had met a high-ranking Iraqi government official.
“Al Sistani welcomed and blessed the formation of the new government and stressed the necessity for me to be open to other Iraqi factions to preserve the country’s national unity,” Al Abadi told reporters.
Al Abadi said that the Grand Ayatollah supported Al Abadi’s stance to reject foreign ground troops on Iraqi soil.
He also said that the Iraqi capital is secure enough against any possible attack by Daesh militants, saying “our defensive lines are far away from Baghdad and there is security and intelligence efforts by the security forces to monitor the situation around the capital”.
Al Abadi confirmed that the Iraqi security forces have recently carried out military operations and made some progress in their fight against Daesh militants, including the latest advance of the troops toward the militant-seized town of Baiji, some 200km north of Baghdad.
He was due to travel to Iran later on Monday for talks on Iraq’s war against Daesh, which has since June seized control of swathes of the country and brought it to the brink of collapse.
Daesh fighters hold towns just a few kilometres from the Iranian border, and the Islamic republic has been reported by senior Kurdish officials to have deployed troops inside Iraq.
Major General Qasim Sulaimani, the chief of Iran’s elite Quds Force, has been spotted in Iraq, where he is believed to play a key role in coordinating Iraqi military operations.
