Baghdad rejects unilateral US action against Iran: Iraq FM

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Washington’s “unilateral” sanctions targeting Iran’s economy serve no purpose other than to hurt the Iranian people, Iraq’s foreign minister Mohammad al-Hakim told a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday, alongside his Iranian counterpart. 

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is in Baghdad for talks with senior Iraqi officials.

Hakim acknowledged the US has some justified concerns about recent developments in the region, but argued unilateral actions against Iran are not the solution.

“[The Iraqi government] said in clear and direct terms that we are against the unilateral actions by the United States, we are not happy with these measures … against our neighbor Iran,” he said.

“We have great hopes that the region should not be dragged into a war that has no benefit. We believe that the economic sanctions have no benefit and hurt Iranian people in a big way,” he added.

Baghdad officials are concerned their country has the most to lose if war breaks out between Iran and the US, at a time when Iraq is recovering from three devastating years of war with the Islamic State (ISIS). 

Both Iran and the US assisted the Iraqis and the Kurds in the fight against ISIS and continue to wield considerable influence and assets in the country.

Baghdad has offered to mediate in the dispute. 

The US has upped the ante on Iran in recent weeks, deploying an aircraft carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf with and a further 1,500 troops and fighter jets to come in the near future. The show of military might came in response to an unspecified threat posed by Iran and its Iraqi proxies. 

In May 2018, the US withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as Iran nuclear deal, heralding in a new era of animosity and sanctions on Iran.

In Sunday’s press conference alongside Hakim, Iranian FM Zarif said European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal have a responsibility to help Iran weather the storm of US sanctions. 

“We firmly resist … any attempts to wage war, whether it is a military or economic war, against the people of Iran,” Zarif said 

“The best way to maintain the JCPOA is not through verbal promises but with practical steps in shouldering their responsibilities and normalizing their economic relations with Iran.” 

The Iranian FM said Tehran’s recent decision to suspend two articles of the JCPOA, relating to the enrichment of low-level uranium and heavy water, does not mean Iran has withdrawn from the nuclear deal.

Despite US pressure on Iraq to cut ties with Iran, the foreign ministers discussed developing relations in the health sector, railway infrastructure, and the clearing of the Shatt al-Arab waterway. 

The economies of Iran and Iraq are deeply entwined, with the performance of one impacting the other. 

On Saturday, Iraqi oil minister Thamer Ghadhban warned the threatened closure of the Strait of Hormuz would have a “big impact on Iraq and other countries that export oil using Hormuz to the world market.” 

Around a fifth of global oil supplies pass through the waterway, with crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Iraq transiting through the Strait. 

Back in Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani told media outlets on Saturday the country is going through extraordinary times and admitted economic sanctions are causing serious hardship. He insisted however Iran would resist the US.

“For an Iranian cargo ship being unable to offload its cargo for ten days in a port … is unprecedented in the history of Iran,” Rouhani told journalists.

“The fact that an Iranian oil tanker is monitored by satellites and under surveillance is unprecedented in the past 40 years,” he added.