People gather for a demonstration in solidarity with Iran and denouncing the US-Israeli war against it, in Iraq's southern city of Basra
Large crowds gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, waving Iraqi flags and chanting slogans against the United States and Israel.
Similar protests were reported in Basra, Kirkuk, and Mosul, where demonstrators filled central squares and public spaces.
Protesters denounced the US-Israeli war on Iran and foreign intervention in the region, and voiced opposition to normalization with Israel.
Many also condemned US-Israeli attacks across the region, including in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and Iraq.
“What America and Israel are doing in their aggression against the countries of the region is not a war of a military nature, but a senseless war,” Dhirgham Samir, a protester in Baghdad, told AFP. “This is a senseless war, targeting civilians.”
"Today's demonstration is an expression of rejection of aggression, arrogance, and injustice throughout the world, not just in Iraq," he said.
Iraqi Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr had earlier called for peaceful demonstrations “to condemn the Zionist-American aggression and to establish peace in the region."
Under Baghdad’s Freedom Monument, protesters accused Washington and its allies of destabilizing the region. “They violate the rights of all the peoples of the region first, and then the world,” cleric Ali al-Fartousi told AFP, calling for global opposition to the war.
"Humanity must speak out against these people and stop them," he said, adding that "the time has come for the entire world to stand united against global Zionist-American arrogance."
The Iraqi demonstrations come as the American-Israeli war on Iran, US and Israeli strikes on Iraqi pro-Iran factions, the Iranian retaliatory attacks on Arab Gulf countries, and the escalated Israeli attacks on Lebanon cause massive death and destruction in the region.
The demonstrations also come as the Iraqi government struggles to keep the country out of the regional conflict, as US and Israeli strikes on Iraqi pro-Iran armed factions, and these factions launch attacks on US military bases in Iraq and Syria.
In Iraq, US and Israeli airstrikes on Hashd Al-Shaabi Brigades, which are part of the Iraqi Armed Forces, and the Iraqi Hezbollah have killed and wounded dozens of soldiers and fighters.
Meanwhile, pro-Iranian Iraqi factions have launched attacks on US military bases in Iraq and Syria, according to various reports.
In a separate development, Khatem Al-Anbiaa, the central command headquarters of the Iranian army, said on Saturday that Tehran would allow Iraqi ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We announce that our brotherly country of Iraq is exempt from any restrictions we have imposed on the Strait of Hormuz, and these restrictions only apply to enemy countries,” military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari said on state television.
Iraq relies on oil revenues for about 90 percent of its budget, and most of its exports pass through the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Gulf.
The move could ease pressure on Iraq’s economy, which depends heavily on oil exports routed through the strait and on imports arriving via southern ports.
Iran has blocked all ships affiliated with countries that support the US-Israeli war on the country from passing through Hormuz.
Separately, Iraqis, a majority of whom are Shia Muslims, have launched a nationwide donation drive to support people in Iran, following a call by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for humanitarian assistance.
Families across the country had contributed money and personal belongings.
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