BAGHDAD — Iraq has evidence that external parties have been using its territory to launch attacks on neighbouring countries, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview on Saturday, November 7. Baghdad is investigating attacks launched from Iraqi territory against Gulf states and is seeking to resolve its disagreements with Saudi Arabia through dialogue, he said. The full interview is due to air at 18:00 GMT on Sunday on Al Jazeera.

Source: Al Jazeera (Nov 7)

Hussein did not name every party involved in his published remarks. Saudi Arabia has accused Iran-aligned groups operating from Iraq of attacking its oil infrastructure, and in September Baghdad itself confirmed that drone attacks on the kingdom's East-West pipeline — a key route carrying crude across Saudi Arabia — originated from Iraqi territory, Al Jazeera reported. Iraq's own statement, as reported, stopped short of directly blaming Tehran.

Source: Al Jazeera via Kuwait Up To Date (Nov 7)

Weapons, Tehran and the US border request

Hussein told Al Jazeera that Baghdad was negotiating with Iran-aligned armed factions to bring their weapons under state control, and that the process must be pursued through dialogue rather than force. He said Iraq was also in contact with Tehran regarding the weapons held by Iraqi factions, and that while Iraq welcomed friendship and an alliance with Tehran, it rejected interference in its internal affairs.

Hussein also said Washington had formally requested the closure of all but two of Iraq's border crossings with Iran. He gave no indication in the published remarks that Baghdad had agreed to the request.

Hussein's remarks follow a week of direct US pressure on Baghdad over the same issue: Iraq's prime minister previously told President Donald Trump that Iraqi territory would not be used as a launchpad in a new Iran war. Read the earlier report: Iraq's PM tells Trump Iraqi territory will not be used for attacks

A $60 billion Hormuz bill — and a new anti-ISIL committee

Hussein said Iraq had lost about $60 billion — yaani about 6,000 crore dollars — from the suspension of oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, but that shipments have resumed following understandings with Washington and Tehran. Iraq is one of the Gulf producers most exposed to the strait: when Hormuz traffic stops, its southern oil exports, and the state revenue that depends on them, stop with it.

On combating ISIL (ISIS), Hussein said Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Turkiye have formed a committee to fight the group's presence in Syria — a piece of regional security cooperation announced in the same interview.

The border-crossing request Hussein described sits inside a wider US effort announced the same day to restrict Iran's movement of weapons and sanctioned material across its land borders. Read: US CENTCOM launches Task Force Iron Gate on Iran's land borders

What happens next

Watch whether Baghdad publishes findings from its investigation into the Gulf attacks, whether the weapons-under-state-control talks with the factions produce a timetable, and how Iraq answers Washington's border-crossing request — three tests of the same question Hussein put on the record on Saturday: whether Iraq can keep its own territory out of other people's wars. For the Gulf's Punjabi and Indian workers, the stakes are direct — every attack launched from Iraqi soil at Gulf oil infrastructure puts their workplaces, flights and remittances at risk.