https://arab.news/4yff4
RIYADH: Iraq has filed a complaint against Iran at the United Nations Security Council over the Iranian “aggression,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein has confirmed.
The complaint was part of a multi-pronged action Baghdad has taken in a sharp rebuke to Iran’s deadly missile strikes on Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdish region on January 15.
“We have filed a complaint to the United Nations Security Council,” Hussein said in a wide-ranging interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, sister publication of Arab News, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum 2024 in Davos, Switzerland.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had said they attacked the “headquarters” of Israel’s Mossad spy agency in Irbil, adding that their target in Syria were Daesh positions.
Four people were killed and six wounded in the missile strike that demolished the home of a well-known Kurdish-Iraqi businessman in Irbil city, the region’s security council and Iraq national security officials said.
According to the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the region’s leading political grouping, the four fatalities included prominent real estate magnate Peshraw Dizayee, his daughter, an Iraqi guest from Mosul, and a Filipino maid. The businessman’s wife and another daughter were wounded, along with three other Filipino workers, officials said.
Foreign Minister Hussein said the complaint before the UN is in addition to other measures undertaken by the Iraqi government.
Iraq on Tuesday summoned Iran’s envoy in Baghdad to hand over a protest note against the attacks. It also recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations.
Iraq challenged Iran’s claim that the strikes targeted Israel’s intelligence services in response to recent Israeli assassinations of Iranian and pro-Iranian commanders.
“(The Iranians) claimed that the house was a Mossad headquarters, but they were fully aware that their claim was false. They were promoting this false media campaign internally (to address) an internal campaign that started due to a terrorist attack that took place near Kermanshah,” Hussein said in the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat.
“Why do they attack Irbil? Irbil is part of Iraq and Iraq is a neighboring and friendly country to Iran. They share significant historical, geographical, religious, cultural and economic relations,” Hussein added.
The Arab League and Arab Parliament also condemned the missile strikes as "a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty."