Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq’s firebrand Shia cleric has denounced U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to relocate the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, saying the move would amount to a “declaration of war on Islam”.
Trump had pledged during his electoral campaign to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem despite reluctance to do so by past administrations -- Republican and Democrat alike. “If the embassy is relocated, this will be a declaration of war on Islam,” al-Sadr said in a statement on Tuesday.
If so, “this will necessitate the formation of a force to liberate Jerusalem,” he said without elaborating. The Iraqi leader went on to call on Islamic countries to shut the U.S. and Israeli embassies on their land if Washington acted to move its diplomatic headquarters to Jerusalem. “It also means that the U.S. embassy in Iraq must be closed immediately,” he said.