TEHRAN – An Iraqi source has said that Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has candidly told U.S. President Donald Trump that his country will not let the United States to take any actions against Iran or any other neighboring country from the Iraqi soil.

“The Iraqi prime minister was brave and candid in a meeting with Trump and told him that we will not let Iraq be turned into a platform to target Iran, Turkey or any other neighboring countries,” ISNA quoted the Iraqi source, who accompanied Kadhimi in his visit to Washington, as saying in an interview with an Iraqi media outlet.

In a visit to Tehran in July, Kadhimi said at a joint press conference with President Hassan Rouhani that Iraq would not allow any aggression against Iran coming from Iraqi territory.

Kadhimi alluded to Iraq’s concern not to become a battlefield between Iran and the United States, Aljazeera reported.

Iraqi President Barham Salih said in June 2019 that his country under no circumstances will allow the U.S. to use its bases in Iraq to launch an attack on neighboring Iran.

“We do not want our territory to be a staging post for any hostile action against any of our neighbors, including Iran,” Salih said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour in London.

“This is definitely not part of the agreement between the Iraqi government and the United States.”

NA/PA