BAGHDAD – Iraq has condemned Israel’s use of its airspace to attack neighbouring Iran in a protest letter sent to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, Baghdad said yesterday.

A statement from government spokesman Bassim Alawadi said the letter condemns “the Zionist entity’s blatant violation of Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to carry out an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on 26 October”.

Alawadi said the Iraqi foreign ministry would also bring up “this violation” in talks with the United States, Israel’s close ally and top arms provider.

Israel on Saturday launched air strikes on military sites in Iran, risking further regional escalation, more than a year into the Gaza war and a month into the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.

The Israeli raid was in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on 1 October, itself retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander. The Iranian military said some Israeli aircraft had fired a “small number of long-range missiles… from a distance”, inside the US-patrolled airspace of Iraq.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was “sure that no neighbouring country has given this permission to the Zionist regime” to use its airspace.

“We certainly hope that our friends in Iraq will announce the necessary reactions, including by registering their protest with the United Nations, and will not allow such incidents to happen again,” Baghaei added.

Baghdad has close ties with Tehran, but also a strategic partnership with Washington, which has troops in Iraq as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

While the Iraqi government has sought to avoid being dragged into the escalating regional conflict, some pro-Iran factions have launched attacks on US forces in the region, and claimed responsibility for drones sent to Israel. One Tehran-aligned group, the influential Kataeb Hezbollah, condemned on Sunday the Israeli use of Iraqi airspace to attack Iran as a “dangerous precedent”.  – Nampa/AFP