Iraq calls for pressure on Israel to halt possible strikes

Iraq has called for support from the international community to urge Israel to stop issuing threats against Iraq that are risking wider regional violence and potential breaches of international law.

The Iraqi foreign ministry said on Saturday that it sent letters to the UN Security Council, the secretary-general of the UN, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to request for assistance in pressuring Israel to cease its attacks which has placed the region at the cusp of its largest conflagration in decades.

Iraq has found itself in the middle of attacks launched by the Iran-aligned Islamic Resistance groups against Israel and US military assets in Iraq throughout the past 13 months of the Gaza war. The US has in turn responded with strikes on locations in Iraq.

The intervention by the Iraqi foreign ministry on Saturday follows a series of measures previously announced by the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani.

In a statement shared on Saturday the foreign ministry said that “Iraq is a pillar for stability in its regional and international surroundings and is among the countries most committed to the principles of the United Nations Charter.”

“The Iraqi letters indicated that the Israeli entity letter to the Security Council is part of a systematic policy to create allegations and pretexts to expand the scope of conflict in the region,” the statement went on.

Israel has also been accused of violating Iraqi airspace to launch air strikes against Iran as it is believed to have done so in April, after Iran launched an unprecedented missile attack on Israel in response to the killing of several senior Iranian commanders in Damascus.

More recently, Iraq lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council over an alleged infiltration of its airspace by Israeli jets to launch an attack on Iran in late October in a long-awaited response for an Iranian missile attack on 1 October.

Earlier this week, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar urged the UN Security Council to take action against what he described as attacks on Israel by Iran-backed paramilitary groups operating on Iraqi territory as reported by The New Arab’s Iraq correspondent Dana Taib Menmy.

“In a letter sent this evening to the president of the UN Security Council, I called for immediate intervention regarding the activities of pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, whose territory is being used to launch attacks against Israel,” Sa’ar said in a post on X.

The comments were rejected by Baghdad who accused Israel of laying the foundation for launching attacks against Iraq.

Amer Al-Fayez, a member of the foreign relations committee in Iraqi parliament, told The New Arab’s Arabic language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Saturday that Iraq is trying to prevent the expansion of war in the Middle East.

“However, at the same time, Iraq will not remain idle if it is subjected to any aggression by the Zionist entity [Israel], which has sought from the beginning to expand the circle of war and drag Iraq, Syria and Iran into a direct war with it,” Al-Fayez said.

Hamas’ 7 October attacks on Israel and the Gaza war have seen several regional countries dragged into the fighting, most notably Lebanon’s Hezbollah group but also other factions of the Iran-aligned ‘Axis of Resistance’ in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, who have all been engaged in attacks against Israeli or US military assets.