Tehran-IRAF- Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Fuad Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, held a telephone conversation with Paulo Rangel, Portugal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the dangerous regional developments and ways to reduce tensions and restore calm.
The Portuguese foreign minister expressed full solidarity with the government and people of Iraq in the face of attacks against the country and emphasized that the current war, if it spreads to other countries in the region, would represent a threat with multiple dimensions.
He added that Lisbon, within the framework of the European Union and possibly in coordination with NATO, will try to engage with the United States in order to achieve a ceasefire and return to the path of negotiations.
Fuad Hussein, for his part, thanked Portugal for its supportive stance and warned that the ongoing war has created numerous problems that could evolve into complex crises.
He added that the inability to export oil or a reduction in its production could lead to major crises in the energy market, the negative consequences of which would affect not only the European economy but also the United States.
The Iraqi foreign minister stressed that the dangers of this war for Iraq are not limited to security issues. The possibility of disruption to oil exports due to military risks in the Strait of Hormuz makes the need to reach a real way out of the crisis—through a ceasefire and a return to the diplomatic track—more urgent than ever.
At the end of the conversation, the Portuguese foreign minister emphasized his country’s willingness to expand bilateral relations with Iraq and officially announced that Portugal has decided to reopen its embassy in Baghdad after the end of the war in the region.
