Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visits Baghdad after Washington orders troop deployment
By Asia Times staff 27 May 2019
Iraqi leaders have warned of the growing threat of war during a visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose country is locked in an increasingly tense standoff with the US.
Zarif’s visit to neighbouing Iraq – which is caught between its two allies, the US and Iran – follows a decision by Washington to deploy 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East.
“We are currently repelling all the efforts of war against Iran, whether economic or military,” Zarif said at a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Mohammed Ali al-Hakim.
“We will face them with strength and we will resist,” he added.
For his part, Hakim said, “We stand by our neighbour Iran, and economic sanctions are unnecessary and cause great suffering to the Iranian people.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi warned of the “danger of a war” during a meeting with Zarif on Saturday night, his office said.
Abdel Mahdi pleaded for the “stability of the region and the upholding of the nuclear deal,” it said, referring to a 2015 agreement between Tehran and major powers.
Iraqi President Barham Saleh discussed with Zarif “the need to prevent all war or escalation,” his office said.
On Saturday, Zarif called the deployment of extra US troops to the region “very dangerous and a threat to international peace and security.”
It follows a US decision in early May to send an aircraft carrier strike force and B-52 bombers in a show of force against what Washington’s leaders claimed was an imminent Iranian plan to attack American assets.
Washington says the latest reinforcements are in response to a “campaign” of recent attacks including a rocket launched into the Green Zone in Baghdad, explosive devices that damaged four tankers near the entrance to the Gulf, and drone strikes by Yemeni rebels on a key Saudi oil pipeline.
Iran has denied any involvement.
– with reporting by AFP