BAGHDAD — At an extraordinary session in the absence of all Kurdish and most Sunni parliament members, the Iraqi parliament passed Jan. 5 a decision urging the government to cancel the request for assistance submitted by it to the international coalition to fight the Islamic State (IS). Parliament called to end the presence of any foreign forces on Iraqi territory and prevent them from using Iraqi land, water and air for any reason whatsoever.

The decision came in the aftermath of the killing of Qasem Soleimani, chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units, by US forces Jan. 3.

The Iraqi parliament called on the government to urgently submit to the United Nations and the Security Council a complaint against the United States for its “serious violations and breach of Iraqi sovereignty and security.” It further pressed, the Iraqi government must conduct investigations at the highest levels into the circumstances of the US bombing and report back to parliament within seven days.

The fresh decision, however, failed to meet the calls by the political parties loyal to Iran and the armed Shiite factions to terminate the security agreement signed between Baghdad and Washington in 2008, shut down the US Embassy in Baghdad and sever diplomatic ties between the two countries.