Unacceptable to impose US sanctions on Al-Fayyadh, Iraq’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs said

Shafaq News / the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday expressed surprise at the US Treasury sanctions on the head of the Popular Mobilization Authority, Falih al-Fayyadh, saying the decision as an "unacceptable."

The Ministry affirmed, that “would proceed carefully with the current and new US administration the US Treasury decisions against Iraqi figures."

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on the Iraqi leader and former national security adviser, connecting him to human rights abuses during the 2019 anti-government demonstrations in which hundreds of protesters were killed.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement it was blacklisting Falih al-Fayyadh, chairman of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Committee (PMC).

The Treasury accused him of being part of a crisis cell formed in late 2019 to suppress protests with the support of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, which is blacklisted by the United States.

Washington said al-Fayyadh was the head of the PMC when forces under its command fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in 2019, resulting in hundreds of deaths.