With a flower in hand and a sword in the other, Kata'ib Hezbollah calls for escalating protests against the election results

Shafaq News/ The security commander of the Iraqi Kata'ib Hezbollah movement, Abu Ali al-Askari, lambasted the United Nations Security Council's statement on the Iraqi parliamentary election, deeming it a "multilateral international conspiracy".

Al-Askari said that the "Security Council's notorious statement confirms what we have said that the election is an international conspiracy that local parties contributed to."

"The people, of all stripes and with an obvious majority, has said its word: we will not tolerate this historical crime whatever the sacrifices are," he added.

The paramilitary leader called for "expanding the squares of protests", stressing that the movement is at utmost readiness with "flowers in one hand" and a "sword to cut every hand that attempts to tamper with the country's security and safety" in the other.