Iraq on Thursday denied approving the recent US-Saudi strikes on its territory, rejecting claims that the attacks against Iran-backed militants were carried out in coordination with Baghdad.
The government
spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said the Iraqi government had no prior knowledge of the operation and had not authorised any attacks inside the country.
“The government did not have any knowledge” of the strikes and “did not approve any attacks on specific sites or groups in Iraq,” al-Aboudi said on state television.
The statement came after US President Donald Trump told Fox News on Wednesday that the US-Saudi strikes had been carried out in “coordination with the Iraqi government”.
Baghdad Pushes Back Against US Claims
The US and Saudi Arabia carried out strikes on Wednesday targeting Iran-backed Shi’ite armed groups in Iraq, accusing them of launching drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities.
According to the Hashed al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), at least 20 militants, including five Iranians, were killed in the strikes. The PMF was formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group before being integrated into Iraq’s security forces, although several of its brigades maintain close ties with Iran-backed factions.
Iraq had earlier condemned the strikes, saying it rejected “all acts of aggression, regardless of the party responsible or the justifications presented”.
Al-Aboudi also said Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi had suspended his planned visit to Saudi Arabia following the attacks.
The strikes come amid growing pressure from Washington on Baghdad to disarm Iran-backed armed groups that supported Tehran during the ongoing war and carried out attacks on US military facilities in Iraq and elsewhere in the region.
The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq denied carrying out the drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and warned that its response to the strikes was “inevitable”.
Caught between its close ties with both Washington and Tehran, Iraq has long struggled to balance relations with the two rivals as their regional rivalry continues to play out on Iraqi soil.
(With inputs from AFP)
