US sticks Iraq in middle by calling Iran's IRGC terrorists
Iraqis are divided on the recent US action against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as some back Iran while others fear that a US-Iran conflict will engulf Iraq.
After US President Donald Trump designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, all eyes turned to Iraq, where thousands of US troops remain and many armed factions operate with the IRGC’s support.
Shortly after the April 8 announcement, the US Embassy in Iraq clarified what Washington wants Iraqi authorities to do in this regard.
“This designation makes it clearer and clearer that people can have a relationship with the problematic parts of the Iranian government, like the IRGC, or they can have a relationship with the United States and our financial system, but they cannot do both at the same time,” Joey Hood, charge d'affaires of the US mission in Iraq, told reporters April 11.
“If they put the interests of the Revolutionary Guard before the interests of Iraq, they could be caught [up in] these designations,” he said in reference to the Iraqi parties and armed groups close to Iran.
