Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said that Iraq wants to distance itself from the ongoing conflict between US and Iran.
"We have told Iran and America that we do not want Iraq to be a field of conflicts," Abdul Mahdi said.
“Iraq wants to distance itself from any rivalry. We will continue to make use of our good relations with the two sides and everyone,” he added.
“We have good relations with both, with Americans and with Iranians. And we are going to deploy all our efforts to ease and calm down the situation. It is not in the interest of any of the parties engaged.”
Abdul Mahdi said on Tuesday that Washington’s decision to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group “could have negative repercussions on Iraq and the region”.
“Iraq tried to stop the decision,” Abdul Mahdi told reporters during his weekly news conference.
Ahmed al-Sahhaf, the spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “Our region is in dire need of decisions that help reinforce its stability but the US decision on the IRGC does not serve this goal.”
Meanwhile, reliable sources told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the US informed the Iraqi parties, who are close to Iran, not to issue hostile statements against it, otherwise it will chase their financial assets and consider them partners to the IRGC.
Speaking about the US decision and its repercussions, Head of Center for Strategic Studies Wathek al-Hashimi told the newspaper that the Iraqi PM handled the matter responsibly and distanced Iraq from the US-Iranian conflict.
Deputy Commander of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis considered the IRGC blacklisting an idiotic decision that aims to escalate tension in the region.
Muhandis is known for his tight relations with Iran.
