{"id":22946,"date":"2021-01-10T04:48:30","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T04:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=22946"},"modified":"2021-01-10T04:48:30","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T04:48:30","slug":"us-sanctions-chairman-of-iraqi-anti-terror-popular-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/us-sanctions-chairman-of-iraqi-anti-terror-popular-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"US Sanctions Chairman of Iraqi Anti-Terror Popular Forces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Alwaght- The US sanctioned chairman of Iraq&#8217;s\u00a0Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF),\u00a0Falih al-Fayyadh, as Washington has escalated its measures against the popular anti-terror forces.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Friday it had blacklisted 64-year-old Falih al-Fayyadh, accusing him of being responsible for a crackdown by security forces on anti-government demonstrations in\u00a0the Iraqi capital\u00a0Baghdad\u00a0and\u00a0later in several other cities in late 2019.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The rallies erupted as a result of public anger at mass\u00a0unemployment\u00a0and failing public services.\u00a0Reports say some 550 people were killed and 30,000 injured\u00a0as the anti-government rallies took a violent turn.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Then Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi pledged to address demonstrators\u2019 grievances by reshuffling his cabinet and delivering a package of reforms.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The moves did little to quell the demonstrators, however,\u00a0and the protests caused Abdul Mahdi\u2019s resignation.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Fayyadh is one of the most senior Iraqi officials to be placed on the US sanctions blacklist.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The sanctions seek to freeze any assets a designated person has under US jurisdiction and bans American firms, including banks and other companies with US branches, from doing business with them.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">\u2018US sanctions on PMU chairman out of despair\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Meanwhile, a leader of Iraq&#8217;s al-Nujaba Movement, whose group is part of the PMU, has dismissed Washington\u2019s sanctions on Fayyadh as \u201ca sign of failure of US conspiracies against the forces.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">\u201cThe action against Falih al-Fayyadh follows US inability to dissolve Hashd al-Sha\u2019abi, and conspiracies against the forces are a failed American project,\u201d Hashim al-Moussawi said.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">He added, \u201cThe inclusion of the PMU chairman in the Treasury\u2019s sanctions list\u00a0is a sign of US frustration, and does not deserve a response.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The sanctions against Fayyadh come as he recently warned against certain attempts to tarnish the image of the PMU forces.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">\u201cHashd al-Sha\u2019abi represents people from all strata of the\u00a0Iraqi society, and will always remain faithful to Iraqi people and their legitimate demands. Hashd al-Sha\u2019abi is not a tool of repression or a tool in the hands of an oppressor or a corrupt [official]. It seeks to secure peace and stability in the country,\u201d Fayyadh said.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">\u201cPMU forces are guardians of Iraqi people and will remain loyal to them. They will fight those who want to plunge the country into turmoil,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Hashd al-Sh\u2019abai fighters have played a major role in the liberation of Daesh-held areas to the south, northeast and north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, ever since the terrorists launched an offensive in the country in June 2014.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Back in November 2016, the Iraqi parliament approved a law giving full legal status to the fighters.\u00a0It recognized the PMU as part of the national armed forces, placed the forces under the command of the prime minister, and granted them the right to receive salaries and pensions like the regular army and police forces.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">On March 27 last year,\u00a0the\u00a0<em>New York Times\u00a0<\/em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/27\/world\/middleeast\/pentagon-iran-iraq-militias-coronavirus.html\">reported\u00a0<\/a>that the Pentagon had ordered a secret directive, which called on US military commanders to prepare a campaign against Kata&#8217;ib Hezbollah, which is part of Hashd al-Sha\u2019abi.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"LTR\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">But the United States\u2019 top commander in Iraq at the time, Lieutenant General Robert P. White, warned that such a campaign could be bloody and counterproductive.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/wilayahh\"><strong>https:\/\/t.me\/wilayahh<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/F65qRYlNhDJEA3u38Qid0N\"><strong>https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/F65qRYlNhDJEA3u38Qid0N<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alwaght- The US sanctioned chairman of Iraq&#8217;s\u00a0Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF),\u00a0Falih al-Fayyadh, as Washington has escalated its measures against the popular anti-terror forces. The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Friday it had blacklisted 64-year-old Falih al-Fayyadh, accusing him of being responsible for a crackdown by security forces on anti-government demonstrations in\u00a0the Iraqi capital\u00a0Baghdad\u00a0and\u00a0later &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":22947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[432],"tags":[1478,1482,1480,1481],"class_list":["post-22946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-supreme-leader","tag-islam_is_our_symbol","tag-purposeful_lectures","tag-stay_at_home_to_be_safe","tag-the_zionist_mice-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22948,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22946\/revisions\/22948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}