Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Iran was a neighbour that had "assisted" Iraq
Iraq's foreign minister has criticised the decision not to invite neighbouring Iran to an international summit on the threat from Islamic State militants.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari said the decision was "regrettable".
Thirty countries pledged to join a US-led coalition against IS in Paris.
The US denied a claim by the Iranian supreme leader that it had asked Iran for its military co-operation in the fight against IS, and said it would not co-operate with either Iran or Syria.
Together, Iran and Syria share most of Iraq's borders, but relations between them and the US are fraught.
Francois Hollande told the conference Islamic State represented a global threat
The talks had been called to agree a strategy to combat the group, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The CIA estimates that Islamic State has between 20,000 and 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria.
'Iran our neighbour'
Speaking after the conference ended, Mr Jaafari said that he regretted the absence of Iran.
"We believe that all world countries are concerned about the danger of terrorism" he said.
Thirty countries pledged to increase military assistance to the Iraqi Army
"Iran is our neighbour, it assisted us and it should have been present, but we are not the party responsible for inviting parties," he added.
He went on to say that he does not expect foreign ground troops to become militarily involved in either Iraq or Syria.
Last week US Secretary of State John Kerry ruled out co-operation with Iran, citing its "engagement in Syria and elsewhere".
But Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that the US had requested Iran's co-operation via the US ambassador to Iraq.
"I said no, because they have dirty hands," he said. He added the US was seeking a "pretext to do in Iraq and Syria what it already does in Pakistan - bomb anywhere without authorisation".
Syria also did not take part in the Paris gathering.
Meanwhile, France said it had begun surveillance flights over Iraq. Britain revealed in August that its aircraft had been gathering intelligence over Iraq.
Another layer of conflict is being grafted on to a series of parallel and overlapping wars in Syria and Iraq.
Enemies of the Syrian regime, including Saudi Arabia, will want to calculate how much their actions against Islamic State might strengthen President Bashar al-Assad - who has men tied up fighting IS.
Iran and Saudi Arabia, regional superpowers, back opposing sides in Syria. They will look very closely to see if American actions indirectly help their rival.
Some Islamist fighters in Syria who have been trained and armed by Saudi Arabia or Qatar have already gravitated to IS. Opposition to Western involvement might make more follow.
And the US and its Western allies are becoming direct players in the wars in Syria and Iraq - and in the deepening sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Many argue that the Americans and the British tore open sectarian scars when they invaded Iraq in 2003, and now risk making matters even worse.
Since August, US fighter jets have conducted about 160 air strikes on IS positions in Iraq.
The group's former name was Isis and it has also been known as Isil (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant).
No comments:
Post a Comment