BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani slammed on Tuesday a letter sent by Isreal to the UN Security Council as a "pretext to justify aggression against Iraq and an attempt to expand the ongoing war in the region."
According to a statement by his media office, al-Sudani reaffirmed Iraq's rejection of Israeli threats, emphasizing that decisions of war and peace rest solely with the Iraqi state.
Iraq refused to be drawn into war while maintaining its principled stance of ending the conflict and providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, the prime minister noted.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar on Monday sent a letter to the UN Security Council, asking it to pressure Iraq's government to end attacks by Iran-backed militias in Iraq against Israel.
"This evening I sent a letter to the president of the UN Security Council in which I called for immediate action regarding the activity of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, whose territory is being used to attack Israel," Sa'ar said in a post on social media platform X that featured a copy of the letter.
Since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, pro-Iranian militias in Iraq have repeatedly attacked Israeli and U.S. targets in the region to show support for Palestinians in Gaza. ■
