Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr calls for closure of US embassy in Iraq for its support of Israel

Iraq’s Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on the Iraqi government and parliament on Friday to vote to close the US embassy in Iraq for its “unfettered support of Israel”. “If the government and parliament do not abide by this demand, we will go for further actions which we will later announce,” the statement released by the cleric said. Hundreds of supporters of Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups gathered last week at Iraq’s main border crossing with Jordan to express solidarity with Gaza and call for an end to Israel’s blockade. Some 800 supporters of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of mainly Shi’ite militia, departed from Baghdad last week in buses for the Iraqi-Jordanian border crossing in western Anbar province. It is the closest access point from Iraq to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. More than 1,400 people were killed in the unprecedented attacks on southern Israeli towns by Hamas early on October 7. Hamas has held more than 220 people hostage in Gaza. According to authorities in Gaza, around 6,500 people have been killed in retaliatory strikes by Israel. There has been mounting global concerns over the plight of civilians in Gaza in view of Israel’s punitive air strikes.