Alwaght- Spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command official rejected a Saudi-linked media's claim that fighter linked to Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Baghdad.
Speaking to Arabic-language al-Forat news agency on Sunday, Brigadier General Saad Moen, the spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, said that such reports are conspiracies to undermine his country’s security personnel, Press TV reported.
Moen’s comments came in response to a report published by the London-based Arabic-language Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that claimed mainly-Shiite PMF, among them the Khorasan Battalion and Abu Fadl Al-Abbas forces, sought to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Thamer al-Sabhan Sabhan by targeting his convoy with “rocket-propelled grenades.”
Saudi Ambassador to Baghdad Thamer al-Sabhan
Moen further highlighted that Iraqi government forces are effectively ensuring the security of diplomatic compounds and figures, calling on reporters and journalists to corroborate claims before publishing them.
This is not the first time that Saudi Arabia and pro-Riyadh media outlets have taken measures aimed at slandering the Shiite volunteer forces in Iraq.
The PMF has been successfully assisting regular military forces in Iraq to liberate areas overrun by ISISterrorists. Numerous attempts by Saudi Arabian officials to undermine the Shiite forces have raised suspicions about ties between Riyadh and ISIS.
Earlier, the Saudi foreign minister, who himself has a record of making claims of assassination plots against him, called for the dissolution of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a demand that was rejected outright by Faleh al-Fayyad, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s national security adviser.
Fayyad said Riyadh is not in a position to make comments about the issue.
“Adel al-Jubeir’s remarks in which he called for the dismantling of the Popular Mobilization Forces reflect the scope of his narrow-mindedness,” Fayyad said on June 30.
Sabhan, the Saudi ambassador to Iraq, had been warned by Iraqi officials against interfering in the Iraqi internal affairs before, too. In June, Prime Minister Abadi also strongly advised the Saudi ambassador to Baghdad to remain committed to his diplomatic duties only and avoid meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs.
