Shafaq News/ Abbas al-Kaabi, a member of the Iranian assembly of experts, on Saturday said the Iraqi currency's depreciation might be an attempt to tighten the noose on the countries of the "resistance axis", urging Iran-backed factions in Iraq to ramp up military operations against the US forces in the country.
Al-Kaabi's remarks came in a speech he delivered during a Basra memorial service for the deputy commander of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces-PMF), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, who died in a US airstrike in January 2020.
"The operations that have been taking place since the assassination day will undoubtedly continue with full power and resolve by the factions of the resistance axis in order to force the US out of Iraq and the entire region," he said.
The cleric said the Americans are eying a "cultural, media, economic, social, scientific, and artistic occupation", besides the "military occupation".
Al-Kaabi explained that the US has recently launched a financial policy to undermine the banks of the "resistance axis" countries and establish a complete "economic embargo", denouncing these measures as "complex occupation and soft war".
The member of Al-Fatah's bloc in the Iraqi parliament, Falih al-Khazali, said in a speech he delivered during the same ceremony that the United States, its former President Donald Trump, and other parties and players are fueling the political and sectarian conflict in Iraq.
The lawmaker demanded the Iraqi government to abide by the Iraqi parliament's resolution to expel the US forces outside the country and prosecute the perpetrators involved in al-Muhandis and Soleimani's killing.
"The PMF should be offered all the possible backing at the legislative level," he said, "with a budget approval around the corner, the government should provide it with arms, training, and empowerment. This applies to all the security forces."