Al-Sadr Warns Armed Groups Against Turning Iraq into Regional Battleground

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of Iraq's Shiite National Movement, called on Wednesday for the protection of Iraq's territorial sovereignty and strongly condemned any party or country targeting Iraqi territory, while urging Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and domestic militias not to turn Iraq into an arena for regional wars and conflicts.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Sadr said Iraqi territory has not been a base for attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran, and on that basis called on what he described as "brothers in the Revolutionary Guard" to halt strikes and bombardments on Iraqi soil. At the same time, he called on "outlawed militias" not to give Gulf countries a pretext to target Iraqi territory.

The Shiite leader strongly denounced the conduct of armed groups he said were attempting to drag Iraq into a fruitless war, calling on all sides to embrace a spirit of brotherhood and peace and to avoid falling in line with what he called plots by the "Israeli-American enemy" to sow conflict and turmoil among brothers.

Sadr called on the Iraqi government to work seriously to establish security, enforce the rule of law, and protect the safety of the Iraqi people and their sacred sites, while preventing the country from being drawn into sectarian superstition. He emphasized that "Iraq and its people need peace, and wars have exhausted the country's full capacity and dignity."

In another part of his message, Sadr warned against the activation of sleeper terror cells, both domestic and foreign, that seek to use sectarianism as a pretext to undermine Iraq's security.

Sadr closed his message with an appeal for peace directed at all neighboring countries, expressing hope that the region would be free of foreign military bases, normalization of relations with Israel, and colonial hegemony.