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Regional efforts underway to ease Tehran-Washington tensions
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said on Tuesday that Baghdad was working to arrange a meeting between Iran and the US.
In a meeting with the ambassadors of EU countries, Sudani said Baghdad was “in contact with ... Iran and the US administration in order to establish a dialogue platform in Baghdad.” However, he provided no details.
The efforts come as tensions between Iran and the United States have heightened in recent weeks following Washington’s threat of military aggression against Iran on the pretext of supporting Iranian demonstrators who took to the streets over the past weeks to protest the country’s economic situation which later turned bloody.
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, who visited Tehran on Sunday, also discussed Baghdad’s diplomatic initiatives with Iranian officials “to prevent the region from sliding into a new conflict,” an Iraqi government official told The National on the same day.
The unnamed official added that Baghdad “seeks to bring viewpoints closer through hosting direct negotiations between the US and Iran”, according to The National news website.
On his two-day visit to Tehran, the Iraqi foreign minister met his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Secretary General of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari also said on Tuesday that Doha supports a diplomatic solution to the tensions between Tehran and Washington and is continuously consulting at the international level to prevent an escalation of tensions between the two sides.
Ansari warned that that any escalation in the region will have widespread consequences and affect all countries in the region.
Peaceful protests over economic woes erupted across Iran on December 28 but turned violent after the US President Donald Trump and other American officials said that Washington would resort to military action against Iran in the event of what they called Tehran’s “suppression” of the protesters.
In response, Iranian officials warned the United States against any adventurism.
During the unrest, foreign-backed armed rioters damaged public property and caused casualties among civilians and security forces. Hundreds of people have been arrested for their involvement in the riots.
On Saturday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Iran considers the US president the main culprit for the killings and destruction carried out by foreign-linked elements in recent riots.
“The US president is responsible for casualties, damage, and false accusations directed against the Iranian nation,” the Leader said, calling Trump a criminal.