Iraqi PM: Iraq Will Not Be Ground for Settling Accounts

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi receives US Ambassador Matthew H. Tueller, Iraqi government agencies
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi receives US Ambassador Matthew H. Tueller, Iraqi government agencies
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Iraqi PM: Iraq Will Not Be Ground for Settling Accounts

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi receives US Ambassador Matthew H. Tueller, Iraqi government agencies
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi receives US Ambassador Matthew H. Tueller, Iraqi government agencies

Iraq’s newly appointed prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi met with US Ambassador Matthew H. Tueller and Iranian Ambassador Iraj Masjedi.

Kadhimi discussed bilateral relations, including cooperation and coordination, with Tueller.

He also ruled out Iraq as the ground for "settling accounts" by the US and its rival Iran.

During his meeting with Tueller, Kadhimi underscored the need for bilateral cooperation in the economic and security fields, as well as for preparing for the strategic dialogue between the two countries, the prime minister's media office said in a statement.

Kadhimi’s meeting with Tuller comes at a time Baghdad and Washington are preparing for a strategic dialogue, slotted for mid-June, about the future of US presence in Iraq. Iraqi parties close to Iran have been demanding the US withdraws its forces from Iraq.

Kadhimi also asserted the need to maintain security and stability in the region, while reiterating that Iraq will not be a ground for settling accounts and launching attacks on any neighboring or friendly country, the statement said.

Tueller congratulated Kadhimi for taking office after gaining the confidence of the Iraqi parliament, confirming the US readiness to support Iraq in all aspects, particularly in the economic field and in containing the COVID-19 spread, the statement added.

During his meeting with Masjedi, Kadhimi confirmed Iraq's keenness to maintain the best relations with all neighboring countries to serve regional security and stability, Kadhimi's media office said in a separate statement.

“Kadhimi stressed that Iraq will not be a passage or hotbed for terrorism against any country or a ground for settling accounts,” the statement said.

Kadhimi's comments came amid the rising tensions between Iran and the U.S. on the Iraqi soil, since the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces, in a drone attack near Iraqi capital Baghdad in January.

The Iranian-backed militias have frequently attacked Iraqi military bases housing US troops across Iraq as well as the US embassy inside the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.



Barrack ‘Satisfied' with Lebanon Reply to US Roadmap to Disarm Hezbollah

A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on July 7, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with US envoy Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on July 7, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with US envoy Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
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Barrack ‘Satisfied' with Lebanon Reply to US Roadmap to Disarm Hezbollah

A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on July 7, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with US envoy Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on July 7, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with US envoy Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)

US envoy Thomas Barrack said on Monday that he was "unbelievably satisfied" with the Lebanese government's reply to an American proposal on how to disarm Hezbollah.

"What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time. I'm unbelievably satisfied with the response," Barrack told reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at Baabda Palace, without giving details of the response.

Aoun's team gave Barrack a seven-page reply to his June 19 proposal.

Hezbollah emerged badly damaged from a war with Israel last year that eliminated much of the group's leadership, killed thousands of its fighters and left tens of thousands of its supporters displaced from their destroyed homes.

The group has been under pressure in recent months both within Lebanon and from Washington to completely relinquish its weapons.

Barrack's proposal would see Hezbollah fully disarmed within four months in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli troops occupying several posts in south Lebanon and a halt to Israeli airstrikes.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem reiterated Sunday the group’s refusal to lay down its weapons before Israel withdraws from all of southern Lebanon and stops its airstrikes.

Hezbollah has already relinquished a number of weapons depots in southern Lebanon to the Lebanese army in line with a US-brokered truce that ended last year's war.

The truce also stipulates that Israeli troops withdraw. Hezbollah has pointed to the troops' continued occupation of at least five posts in southern Lebanon as a main violation.

“How can you expect us not to stand firm while the Israeli enemy continues its aggression, continues to occupy the five points, and continues to enter our territories and kill?” Qassem said in a video address on Sunday. “We will not be part of legitimizing the occupation in Lebanon and the region. We will not accept normalization (with Israel).”