America can change its mask every moment if required, said Nasr Al-Shammari on Saturday.
The remarks come as US officials say hundreds of their troops will remain in Iraq, noting that missile systems are now operating in the bases hosting the occupation forces.
The officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Patriot missile launchers and two other short-range systems were in place at Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq’s Anbar Province and at the military facility in Kurdistan’s regional capital, Erbil, without elaborating on where those systems had been taken from.
Over the past few months, the US military has been moving the missile systems, piece by piece, into Iraq, assembling them and linking them together.
The latest US military build-up in Iraq comes in defiance of an Iraqi parliament vote on January 5 that called for an end to the presence of all foreign troops, including Americans.
The vote came two days after the US military - acting on US President Donald Trump’s order - launched a fatal drone strike on General Soleimani upon his arrival in the Iraqi capital at the invitation of the Baghdad government.
MNA/PR/4897271
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