Louis Raphael Sako, head of Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq
Louis Raphael Sako, head of Chaldean Catholic Church in IraqReuters

Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, on Sunday called for the US not to arm Christians in the country as they try to survive the onslaught of Islamic State (ISIS) - and went on to blame the US for the appearance of the jihadist group.

In an interview with The New Arab, Sako rejected a US proposal to arm Christians in Iraq while calling for unity in the state with no distinction in American support.

Leaders of the Assyrian Christian community were furious at the Chaldean Church head for opposing the US defense spending bill that called to arm Iraqi Christians.

"Would the US accept similar militias being made within its territory?," said Sako, in a surprising comparison of the US and war-torn Iraq, which has been plagued by ISIS brutality. He went further and said the US was interested in arming Iraqi Christians because around 300,000 Americans have Iraqi Christian ancestry.

Millions of Christians lived in Iraq before the 2003 Iraq War led by the US, but with the recent rise of Islamist terror organizations such as ISIS that number has reduced significantly, reports The New Arab.

"There is a hemorrhage of Christians from Iraq...every Christian in Iraq has friends or relatives abroad," said Sako. "Every Christian in Iraq has suffered a lot, pushing them to emigrate."

Even while declaring his loyalty to the state and refusing weapons from the US, he noted on inaction in the face of massive theft by jihadists in the north where "militias, mafias and individuals seized Christian homes and property publicly under threat and intimidation while the government watched."

"Daesh is a cancer...a sin against God and religion, and a crime against human rights and civilization," he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

But according to the Patriarch, the US is responsible for Iraq's problems.

"The American role in the region has been negative, not only in Iraq. Washington came with slogans of democracy, freedom and economic prosperity.  Americans dismantled the Iraqi state, demobilized the army, and destroyed the country’s infrastructure."

"They created...sectarianism and chaos in Iraq, and are responsible for what is happening how...Daesh and Al Qaeda are natural products of what they did in Iraq," he claimed.