Al-Zameli: Iran and Turkey exploit Iraq's weakness

Shafaq News/ The first deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Hakem al-Zameli, on Sunday said that Turkey and Iran exploit "Iraq's weakness" to wage attacks and military operations in the Iraqi territory.

Al-Zameli's remarks came during an expanded meeting held in the parliament earlier today to discuss the repeated Turkish and Iranian incursions on the Iraqi territory. The meeting was attended by Iraq's minister of foreign affairs, Fuad Hussein, and the senior undersecretary of the ministry, Nizar al-Khairallah.

In his inauguration speech, al-Zameli said that the head of the Sadrist bloc and member of the parliamentary foreign relations committee, MP Hasan al-Azzari, submitted a correspondence signed by more than 50 lawmakers requesting to inquire about the repeated attacks waged by neighboring countries, particularly Iran and Turkey, on the Iraqi territory.

"Such attacks have become very frequent recently, exploiting Iraq's weakness," he said.

Earlier last week, Turkey launched a new ground and air campaign in northern Iraq, targeting the militants of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PKK).

Dubbed Operation Claw-Lock, Ankara says the offensive is a measure to prevent the PKK from using Iraq as a base to carry out attacks in Turkey.

On March 13, Iran attacked sites in the city of Erbil with a dozen ballistic missiles in an unprecedented assault on the capital of the Kurdistan region.