Iraq in contact with Iran, US in bid to stay out of regional conflict

FE Team | Published: June 15, 2025 23:09:11

BAGHDAD, June 15 (AFP): Iraq has approached the Iranian and US governments in a bid to prevent being caught up in a regional escalation, officials said Saturday, as Washington's ally Israel and Iran traded blows.
The government in Baghdad is a close ally of Tehran, but also a strategic partner of Iran's arch-foe the United States, which has some 2,500 troops in Iraq as part of an anti-jihadist coalition.
The government in a statement late Saturday said that it "reiterates its firm and unequivocal rejection of any violation of Iraqi airspace or its use in military attacks carried out by the Zionist entity against the Islamic Republic of Iran".
'Nothing left': Israelis grapple
with damage from Iran strike
A shocked Julia Zilbergoltz said she had never experienced anything like the Iranian missile strike that hit her home in central Israel early Sunday.
"I'm stressed and in shock. I've been through hard times in my life, but I've never been in a situation like this," Zilbergoltz told AFP, as she gathered her belongings and left her apartment building in Bat Yam, near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
"I was at home, I was sleeping and I didn't hear the siren" warning of an incoming missile attack, she said.
She was awoken instead by the loud booms that followed.
According to Israeli officials, six people including two children were killed in the strike that destroyed Zilbergoltz's home.
Yivgenya Dudka, whose home was also hit by the missile on the city of Bat Yam, said: "Everything was destroyed. There's nothing left. No house. That's it."
Azerbaijan will not allow
Iran strikes from its soil
Azerbaijan on Saturday reassured neighbouring Iran that it would not allow its territory to be used for attacks against Tehran, following unprecedented Israeli strikes on Iranian targets.
Iran has long expressed concern that Israel-a close ally of Azerbaijan and a key arms supplier-could use Azerbaijani territory to stage attacks.
Jordan shuts airspace in
fresh Israel-Iran attacks
Jordan announced the closure of its airspace late Saturday for a second time since the start of the most intense direct confrontation between arch-foes Israel and Iran.
The civil aviation authority in Jordan, which borders Israel, announced in a statement the closure until further notice of the country's airspace, as well as the suspension of all takeoffs, landings and transit.