President calls for self-restraint and not to be drawn into war

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INA – BAGHDAD

President Barham Salih called on Wednesday for the region to spare any military clash or push the Iraqis into a new war.

"The President is following up with great concern the dangerous developments taking place in the region, and denounces the Iranian missile bombardment of military sites on Iraq, as he renewed his rejection to the repeated breaches caused to the national sovereignty and turning Iraq into a battlefield for the conflicts, included a statement by the presidential media office to Iraqi News Agency INA.

The statement also included that Iraq has previously declared its refusal to be a starting point for attacking any country, as it refuses to be a source of threat to any of its neighbours, but rather a pillar of stability and space for convergence of interests between the regions, and that its security and sovereignty must be protected according to international covenants, relations and bilateral agreements.

The presence of US-Led troops in Iraq was based on the agreements concluded between the Iraqi government and the countries from which the coalition formed for the necessities of combating terrorism, and that the context and the fact of these troops is an internal Iraqi matter concerned with the Iraqi government and parliament according to legal, constitutional frameworks and diplomatic framework, and on the basis of national consensus and Iraqi national security priorities.