Iran Hails US Withdrawal from Iraq as ‘Historic Victory’

TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday welcomed the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, calling it a “historic victory” and urging American troops to leave the Middle East.

In a statement carried by its official media, the Revolutionary Guards “congratulate the proud nation of Iraq, the united front of the Islamic Resistance, and the revolutionary fighters of the Islamic world on this historic victory.”

The US-led coalition, which was deployed to Iraq and Syria in 2014 to fight the Islamic State (IS), formally ended its mission and withdrew on Wednesday.

IS captured large areas of Iraq and Syria and carried out massacres and other atrocities. The group was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but coalition forces remained to fight its remaining members.

“The US must leave the region and entrust the management of security to the nations themselves,” the Revolutionary Guards said.

The statement added that “Two decades of occupation demonstrated that the US presence brought no security; rather, it was the very source of insecurity, terrorism, and instability in West Asia.”

Baghdad and Washington agreed in 2024 to end the coalition’s mission. US-led forces gradually withdrew from bases across Iraq, with their presence eventually limited to the autonomous Kurdistan region.

The Iraqi government says the withdrawal removes the justification used by powerful Iran-backed armed groups to keep their weapons.

On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced June 30 as a new deadline for armed factions to hand over their weapons to the state.