ALBAWABA - In a meeting with US President Joe Biden, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani said that he doesn't want his country to be involved in the current escalation between Israel and Iran.
al-Sudani also said that Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. The PM's comments come after Iran used Iraqi airspace to launch its drone and missile attack against Israel.
"Our intention is not to be involved in this escalation that has a great influence on our country and the security and the stability of our country," Al Sudani said, adding that the "root problem" of the current escalation is the unresolved Palestinian issue and Israel's aggression on Gaza.
"Everybody is witnessing the criminality being inflicted against Palestinians, it is a genocide in the true sense", al-Sudani continued, as he believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is intentionally widening the conflict across the Middle East.
A coalition of Western and Arab countries sacked down hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles aimed towards Israel on Saturday, in retaliation for Israel striking the Iranian embassy in Damascus earlier this month, killing a senior general and other officers.
Israel is now expected to retaliate against Iran, leaving the world wondering whether the tit-for-tat strikes could trigger a regional war.
Al-Sudani's arrival in Washington on Saturday came amid rising regional tensions, ignited by Israel's war on Gaza and Iran's Saturday night drone and missile retaliation for an Israeli raid on Iran's diplomatic embassy in Syria earlier this month.
Iraqi government's spokesperson Bassem Al-Awadi told The New Arab that "The main topics being addressed by the entire Iraqi delegation currently in Washington include activating the US-Iraqi relationship through the Strategic Framework Agreement previously signed by both countries" amid other issues.
President Biden also said he wants to prevent the broader war in the Middle East as Israel wages a genocide in Gaza. "The United States is committed to Israel's security. We're committed to a ceasefire that will bring the hostages home and prevent the conflict from spreading beyond what it already has," he said.
Biden stated on Saturday that US forces helped destroy "nearly all" of Iran's drones and missiles fired at Israel.
"Iran — and its proxies operating out of Yemen, Syria, and Iraq — launched an unprecedented air attack against military facilities in Israel. I condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms," Biden said.
