Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met Saudi general intelligence chief Khalid al-Humaidan on Friday to discuss coordination over regional security developments, the prime minister's office said.
Iraqi Prime Minister and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi. Reuters
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met Saudi general intelligence chief Khalid al-Humaidan on Friday to discuss coordination over regional security developments, the prime minister's office said.
Zaidi said Iraq would not allow its territory to be used to launch attacks or activities targeting any other country. He reiterated Baghdad's commitment to protecting its sovereignty and preventing regional escalation.
The meeting came amid heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran-aligned Iraqi armed groups after Riyadh last month carried out strikes in Iraq with U.S. Central Command that it said targeted groups responsible for attacks on Saudi oil facilities, and warned this week of imminent attacks by Iraqi militias and Yemen's Houthis.
Iran-aligned Iraqi armed groups had vowed to respond to the Saudi strikes, but the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella term for those factions, said on Friday it had postponed a response planned for the day following an appeal by Hadi al-Amiri, one of Iraq's most powerful pro-Iranian figures, and positions taken by unnamed political leaders.
The group did not specify the nature of the planned response or identify its intended target.
Reporting by Enas Alashray, Ahmed Tolba and Muayad Hameed
Saudi Arabia's Civil Defense lifted an alert it had announced in the southern city of Khamis Mushait on Wednesday, a day after Houthi attacks there and in three other nearby cities wounded 73 people and set oil installations ablaze.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan used by the U.S. military and attacked 10 ships on Wednesday, after the U.S. said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers, in a sharp escalation of the six-month-old war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to consolidate Israel's fractious right-wing parties ahead of a Tuesday deadline in order to avoid an election loss forecast by opinion polls.
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