Iraq filed a complaint with the United Nations over Israel’s use of its airspace to attack Iran

A statement by government spokesman Basim Alawadi said the letter condemned “the Zionist establishment’s flagrant violation of Iraqi airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to launch an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on October 26.”

Alawadi said the Iraqi foreign ministry would also raise “this violation” in talks with the United States, Israel’s closest ally and main arms supplier.

Israel carried out airstrikes on military sites in Iran on Saturday, risking further regional escalation more than a year after the war in Gaza and a month after the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli airstrike was in retaliation for a missile attack on Iran on October 1, which itself was retaliation for the killing of Iranian-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guard commander.

Iran’s military said some Israeli jets had fired “a small number of long-range missiles … from a distance” inside US-patrolled Iraqi airspace.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bahaei said on Monday that Tehran was “sure that no neighboring country has given the Zionist regime such permission” to use its airspace.

“We certainly hope that our friends in Iraq will announce the necessary response, including by registering their protest at the UN, and will not allow such incidents to happen again,” Baghai added.

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Baghdad has close ties to Tehran, but also a strategic partnership with Washington, which has troops in Iraq as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

As the Iraqi government sought to avoid being drawn into an escalating regional conflict, some pro-Iranian groups launched attacks on US forces in the region and claimed responsibility for drones sent to Israel.

One of the groups linked to Tehran, the influential Kataib Hezbollah, on Sunday condemned Israel’s use of Iraqi airspace to attack Iran as a “dangerous precedent”.

He accused the United States of complicity in the Israeli attack, warning both of them to respond to this “aggression”.