Iraq’s Zaidi tells Trump Iraq won’t be a launchpad for attacks on neighbors

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi told President Donald Trump in a phone call on Thursday that Iraq would not allow its territory to be used to launch attacks on neighboring countries, the prime minister’s media office said.

Zaidi placed the call, in which the two discussed regional developments, the security situation and the outlook for the coming period, the office said. They also discussed coordination between the two countries on current challenges, support for regional stability and putting dialogue and diplomacy first to contain tensions and keep the conflict from spreading.

Zaidi restated Iraq’s call for respect for countries’ sovereignty and for peaceful solutions and constructive dialogue, according to the statement. Both leaders stressed the need to stay in contact and coordinate positions on issues of shared interest.

The statement did not say what Trump told Zaidi, and the White House had not published its own account of the call.

The call came two days after the U.S. midterm elections, as Qatari mediators pursued indirect talks between Washington and Tehran. Trump told Fox News on Tuesday that U.S. forces had hit an anti-aircraft facility on Iran’s Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz, and described it as a minor attack.

Iraq has received official warnings of sanctions, mainly from the United States, if it is drawn into a renewed U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Hussam al-Hasani, spokesperson for the Hikma Movement, part of the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework, said Monday.

Zaidi gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the same pledge in Riyadh on Oct. 14. Iraqi authorities had said that drones which struck Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline on Sept. 11 were launched from Maysan governorate. Government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi told the state-run Iraqi News Agency on Oct. 27 that the constitution bars Iraqi territory from being used as a base or route for attacks on neighboring countries.

On Wednesday, a day before the call, Zaidi met Bahrain’s king in Manama, his office said.

Trump congratulated him by phone on April 30, three days after the Coordination Framework nominated him for prime minister. The two met at the White House in July and again in New York in September.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Iraq’s main export route, has been disrupted since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, and the conflict has continued at varying intensity despite a ceasefire announced in April.