Resistance groups in Iraq have vowed to defend their country despite the US sanctions stressing that the restrictions show the counter-terrorism campaign as a threat to Americans.

Major Iraqi resistance groups the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and Kata’ib Hezbollah, both part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha’abi announced their resistance will not be affected by the US sanctions.
The US State Department had announced, a day earlier, its new sanctions on the two resistance groups under the so-called Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA), which prohibits arms transfer to those targeted.
Asa’ib politburo spokesman Mahmoud al-Rubaie noted in an interview with the Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website called the US restrictive measures against resistance groups as “a battle between right and wrong,”  and added,” They represent the extent of the failure that successive US administrations have suffered in the Middle East.”
The US sanctions did not catch Asa’ib by surprise since the group “expects anything from them (the Americans),” he added. “Whatever they do will not affect us because we are strong.”
Rubaie also said that the United States “is concerned about the political presence of the resistance and is therefore seeking a way to escape ... Of course, the [Iraqi] government is also weak and cannot counter US pressure.”
He noted that Washington is in pursuit of a “poor Iraq,” where the youths are jobless.
Asa’ib politburo member Ahmad al-Mousavi said that Washington was trying to drive the resistance out of the Iraqi political equation because it had brought about the failure of US schemes in the Arab country.
Mousavi called on the Iraqi government to take a clear stance on the new US bans, complaining, however, about Baghdad’s silence in the face of the US restrictions against resistance groups over the past year.