BAGHDAD (AP) --
Iran's new foreign minister on Sunday criticized possible U.S.-led
strikes on Syria as outside the bounds of United Nations charter, saying
the use of force is illegal.
Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif made the comments while visiting the Iraqi capital
Baghdad. The visit, his first official trip since taking office last
month, underscored the growing links between the two Shiite-led
neighbors and their shared opposition to military strikes in Syria.
Responding
to a reporter's question about a possible attack on Syria, Zarif broke
away from his native Farsi and spoke in English for effect.
"I
do not know why those who say all options are on the table do not
understand the fact that civilized countries 65 years ago ... rejected
in the charter of the United Nations (the) resort to force as an illegal
practice," he said in comments clearly directed at the United States
and its allies.
Iran is the main regional
backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose regime also maintains
strong ties to Russia. Assad's troops are battling largely Sunni rebels
who receive support from Sunni countries such as Turkey and the Gulf
states.
Iraq is officially neutral in the
conflict, though its Shiite leadership is worried about the threat posed
by Sunni extremists, including Iraq's al-Qaida branch, fighting among
the rebels. It repeatedly has called for a negotiated political solution
to the crisis.
The United States has been
pressuring Iraq for months to do more to stop Iranian flights suspected
of carrying weapons to Syria from transiting its airspace. Iraqi
officials have carried out some spot checks of Iranian planes and say
they've found nothing.
Zarif was met on
arrival in Baghdad by his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari. He also met
with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the parliament speaker,
Osama al-Nujaifi.
The official Iranian news
agency IRNA quoted Zarif as saying before his departure that Iran has
"joint concerns with our Iraqi brothers on war-waging in the region."
Iraq's
prime minister last week reiterated Baghdad's opposition to foreign
involvement in the Syrian conflict, warning that a military strike could
have unforeseen consequences.
Zarif echoed
those fears in his comments in Baghdad, saying those "who want to start a
war cannot control the course of the war or end it."
"The
U.S. president has entered a trap set by others ... against his
personal wishes. We hope that he would get out of this trap," Zarif
said, according to a translation of his comments into Arabic.
Iran
and Iraq fought a ruinous war from 1980 to 1988. The two countries have
bolstered ties considerably since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that
ousted Saddam Hussein.
Hundreds of thousands
of Iranian pilgrims annually now visit Shiite holy sites in Iraq despite
ongoing security risks, and Iraq is a major market for Iranian
products. Iran has been increasingly cut off from the world's financial
system following multiple rounds of sanctions over its disputed nuclear
program. The Iraqi market offers it an important source of hard
currency.
The Western-educated Zarif is the
highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Iraq since President Hasan
Rouhani came to office last month.
Rouhani is
seen as more moderate than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who
paid a farewell visit to Baghdad and the Iraqi Shiite holy cities of
Najaf and Karbala in July. An earlier visit by Ahmadinejad in 2008 was
the first by an Iranian president since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
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Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at www.twitter.com/adamschreck .
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