Iran denies involvement in Iraq attacks in letter to UN chief

In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the rotating president of the UN Security Council, Iran’s ambassador to the UN Majid Takht-Ravanchi categorically denied his American counterpart’s efforts to accuse Iran of supporting the so-called “non-governmental militia groups” in Iraq.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has not been directly or indirectly involved in any armed attack against any US individual or body in Iraq,” he noted.

“Therefore, we deny any claim about our implicit or explicit involvement in attacks against American forces in Iraq. Such allegations are totally baseless, invalid, and false,” the Iranian envoy added.

Earlier this month, a US contractor died after at least 10 rockets slammed into Ain al-Asad, a US-occupied air base in western Iraq. The West has blamed what it calls “Iran-backed groups” for the deadly attack. The attack was the first of its kind since the US’ raid against Iraqi forces in late February.https://if-cdn.com/tKkLPEP?v=1&app=1

In his Sunday letter, Takht-Ravanchi also noted that Iran condemns the US’ unlawful attack on 25 February against Iraqi forces along the Syrian border.

“Such dangerous measures, which are wrongly justified based on an arbitrary interpretation of the article 51 of the UN charter, are considered violation of the sovereignty of regional countries, and a symbol of blatant breach of the international law and the UN charter,” he noted.

He warned that such attacks only exacerbate the already tense situation of the region, and in effect only serve the interests of terrorist groups in these countries.

The US airstrikes killed one member of the Iraqi resistance forces.

It was US President Joe Biden’s first illegal military action on the Iraqi-Syrian border to target the facilities of PMU fighters.

Observers compared Biden’s militaristic approach to that of his hawkish predecessor, Donald Trump. The attack killed one and wounded four others.