Yemen’s Mahdi al-Mashat Welcomes US Military Withdrawal from Iraq

President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Mahdi al-Mashat has welcomed the withdrawal of the last contingent of US forces from Iraq, describing the end of more than two decades of US military presence as a significant step toward restoring peace and security in West Asia. In a statement on Saturday, Mashat congratulated Iraq’s leadership, government, people, resistance forces and religious authorities on what he called a “historic achievement and national victory.”

Mashat said the departure of US and other foreign forces demonstrated, in his view, the failure of occupying powers to achieve their objectives in the face of the Iraqi people’s determination to defend their freedom, sovereignty and independence. He said the withdrawal followed more than two decades of what he described as aggression, occupation and foreign dominance, accompanied by repression, social divisions, exploitation of natural resources, destruction and widespread suffering.

The Yemeni official further said the US troop withdrawal reaffirmed the Iraqi people’s right to sovereignty, independence and self-determination. He also stressed Iraq’s right to protect its territorial integrity, portraying the end of the foreign military presence as an important development for Iraq and the wider West Asian region.