Kimmitt: US embassy protest leaders part of govt, Iraqis should pull them back

US Retired Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said on Tuesday that Iraqis should “pull back” the leaders of the protests which attacked the US embassy earlier today and tell them that what happened is unacceptable, adding that those leaders are part of the Iraqi government.

Talking about the Iraqi government in an interview with Al Arabiya, Kimmitt said: “They need to sit down and pull in the leaders of the protests, who are part of the Iraqi government - I’m referring to Hadi al-Amiri, Falih al-Fayyadh, I’m talking about the leaders of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq - they need to sit down and tell them that this kind of behavior inside Iraqi sovereign territory is unacceptable. They need to calm their people down and pull them back.”

“If they can’t do that, then it’s clear that the government of Iraq is too weak and candidly, if it’s too weak to control the people of the government of Iraq, then the Iranians will step in and do it for them,” he added.

Kimmitt, who served as the assistant US secretary of defense, said that what happened to the embassy in Baghdad is a reaction to the American airstrikes against the Popular Mobilization Forces after they had killed an American contractor and wounded a significant number of American soldiers.

He also expressed worry that Iraq is becoming an area of conflict between Iran and the US.