Shiite cleric al-Sadr calls on US troops to leave Iraq

Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday called on President Joe Biden to withdraw US troops that currently serve in Iraq, to spare the country from becoming an arena for regional and international conflicts. Al-Sadr has always been opposed to the US presence in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Iraqi lawmakers voted to oust US troops, following the US drone strike that killed Iran's top general Qassim Soleimani, along with Iraq's militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.But the way to achieve that is still unclear.

During Wednesday's news conference near his residence in Najaf, al-Sadr also warned against the normalization with the Zionist enemy.

"It has been said that the Israeli ambassador (to Iraq) has been named, and I challenge him to come," he said.

Al-Sadr added that there must be parliamentary and political action to prevent normalization with Israel saying that "we will not allow it even if costs us our blood."

The Shiite leader's political bloc won the largest share of seats in the last parliamentary elections in 2018.