US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein at the State Department in Washington on September 30, 2024. Iraq maintains close relations with Tehran but also has a strategic partnership with Washington.
Iraq has formally condemned Israel's use of its airspace to attack neighboring Iran, as stated in a protest letter sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council. According to a statement by government spokesman Bassim Alawadi, the letter denounces "the Zionist entity's flagrant violation of Iraq's airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to execute an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on October 26."
Alawadi further mentioned that the Iraqi Foreign Ministry would address this violation during discussions with the United States, Israel's close ally and leading arms supplier. Israel launched air strikes on military sites in Iran on Saturday, potentially escalating the regional tensions that have persisted since the Gaza war and the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon.
The Israeli raid was in response to an Iranian missile attack on October 1, which was itself a retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander. The Iranian military reported that some Israeli aircraft had fired "a small number of long-range missiles...from a distance" within the US-patrolled airspace of Iraq.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei stated on Monday that Tehran is "confident that no neighboring country has granted permission to the Zionist regime" to use its airspace. He expressed hope that Iraq would take necessary actions, including registering a protest with the United Nations, and prevent such incidents from recurring.
Baghdad maintains close ties with Tehran but also a strategic partnership with Washington, which has troops in Iraq as part of an international anti-terror coalition. Although the Iraqi government aims to avoid involvement in the escalating regional conflict, some pro-Iran factions have attacked US forces in the region and claimed responsibility for drones sent to Israel.
One Tehran-aligned group, Kataeb Hezbollah, condemned the Israeli use of Iraqi airspace to attack Iran as a "dangerous precedent." The group accused the United States of complicity in the Israeli attack and warned of a response to this "aggression."
Source link: https://www.khaleejtimes.com
