Iraq condemned Israel’s use of its airspace to strike Iran in a protest letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, Baghdad announced Monday.
A statement from government spokesperson Bassim Alawadi said the letter condemns "the Zionist entity's blatant violation of Iraq's airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to carry out an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on Oct. 26."
Alawadi said the Iraqi Foreign Ministry would also bring up "this violation" in talks with the United States, Israel's close ally and top arms provider.
Israel on Saturday launched airstrikes on military sites in Iran, risking further regional escalation more than a year into the Gaza war and a month into the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.
The Israeli raid was in retaliation to an Iranian missile attack on Oct. 1, itself a retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
The Iranian military said that some Israeli aircraft had fired a "small number of long-range missiles ... from a distance," inside the U.S.-patrolled airspace of Iraq.
Baghdad has close ties with Tehran but also a strategic partnership with Washington, which has troops in Iraq as part of an international anti-Daesh coalition.
While the Iraqi government has sought to avoid being dragged into the escalating regional conflict, some pro-Iran factions have launched attacks on U.S. forces in the region and claimed responsibility for drones sent to Israel.
One Tehran-aligned group, the influential Kataeb Hezbollah, condemned on Sunday the Israeli use of Iraqi airspace to attack Iran as a "dangerous precedent."
It accused the United States of being complicit in the Israeli attack, warning both of a response to this "aggression."
