(Reuters) -Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, stressed the need to return to the negotiating table over the future of the U.S.-led international military coalition in Iraq, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Talks between the two countries began in January, but less than 24 hours later three U.S. service members were killed in an attack in Jordan that the United States said was carried out by Iran-backed militant groups in Syria and Iraq. The talks have since paused then.
The U.S. military launched airstrikes on Friday in both Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the militias it backs, in retaliation for the attack in Jordan.
Hussein stressed to Blinken the Iraqi government’s rejection of such attacks saying that “Iraq is not an arena for settling scores between rival countries.”
The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, advising and assisting local forces to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large parts of Iraq and Syria before being defeated. Hundreds of troops from mostly European countries are also part of the coalition.
Iraq’s government says Islamic State is defeated and the coalition’s job is over, however, a U.S. withdrawal would likely increase concern in Washington about the influence of arch foe Iran over Iraq’s ruling elite.
Iraq is keen to explore establishing bilateral relations with coalition members, including military cooperation in training and equipment.
Hussein formally demanded the U.S. Treasury Department reconsider the sanctions it had imposed on several Iraqi banks, asking whether those sanctions were put in place over compliance issues or “other political reasons.”
In July, Washington barred 14 Iraqi banks from conducting dollar transactions as part of a wider crackdown on the illicit use of dollars.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari and Enas Alashray; Editing by Leslie Adler and Michael Perry)
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