Iraq’s National Wisdom Movement Seeks Calm with Washington after Nujaba’s Threat 

Head of Iraq’s National Wisdom Movement Ammar al-Hakim meets with US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski on Monday. (National Wisdom Movement)
Head of Iraq’s National Wisdom Movement Ammar al-Hakim meets with US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski on Monday. (National Wisdom Movement)
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Iraq’s National Wisdom Movement Seeks Calm with Washington after Nujaba’s Threat 

Head of Iraq’s National Wisdom Movement Ammar al-Hakim meets with US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski on Monday. (National Wisdom Movement)
Head of Iraq’s National Wisdom Movement Ammar al-Hakim meets with US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski on Monday. (National Wisdom Movement)

Head of Iraq’s National Wisdom Movement and one of the most prominent members of the pro-Iran Coordination Framework, Ammar al-Hakim condemned on Monday “attempts to destabilize the country through resorting to the use of arms.”

He made his remarks during a meeting with US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski a day after Secretary-General of the Iran-aligned Nujaba movement Akram al-Kaabi warned Washington that the suspension of attacks against American troops was the “calm before the storm.”

The Nujaba had recently declared that it was suspending attacks against the US forces deployed in Iraq. In January, a US strike in Baghdad killed Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, a leading member of the Nujaba who was involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel in Iraq and Syria.

In a statement after meeting Romanowski, Hakim underscored his support for the “security agencies that are carrying out their duties in pursuing the sides responsible for these rejected criminal acts.”

He said he welcomed the resumption of the second round of bilateral negotiations between Baghdad and the US to end the mission of the international coalition fighting the ISIS terrorist group.

He renewed his support to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's government in running the negotiations with the US-Iraq Higher Military Commission.

Hakim also condemned before the ambassador Israel's war on Gaza, urging the need to stop it as soon as possible and delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.

Kaabi had made light of the negotiations between Baghdad and Washington, saying that while the “Islamic Resistance” does not reject them, “we assert that the American occupier is a liar, treacherous and arrogant.”

He added that it would be “delusional” to believe that the US would “yield and withdraw from Iraq through negotiations.”

He stressed that the current calm “was only a temporary tactic aimed at redeployment and mobilization.”

Furthermore, he alleged that certain sides, which he did not name, “have provided the American forces with information about the resistance and their positions.”



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.