BAGHDAD, 26 December, 2020, (TON): Iraqi prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday warned Iran and the United States not to involve Iraq in their conflict.

"Iraq has become a victim to the U.S.-Iranian conflict and has been greatly affected as if it is an arena for their conflicts," al-Sadr said on his official Twitter account.

"Therefore, I call on Iran to distance Iraq from its conflict, and I warn the (U.S.) occupier against continuing its conflict ... Iraq and the Iraqis are not a party to the conflict," he added.

With tensions between Iran and the U.S. already simmering, the January 3 U.S. airstrike that killed powerful Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani is sure to have ripple effects across the region. Maj. Gen. Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, coordinated Iran’s military operations and proxies across the Middle East.

The Iraq-U.S. relations have been strained since January 3, when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at the Baghdad airport, killing Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

Iraq worries that any sort of action against Iran more broadly could result in an open confrontation between Washington and Tehran on Iraqi soil.

Two days after the US drone attack, Iraqi parliamentarians voted to expel foreign troops from the country but this resolution is nonbinding and it remains to be seen if it will be implemented.