Regional States Urged to Join Hands to Ensure Lasting Security

Iran’s top diplomat underscored the need for establishing sustainable security in the Middle East through collective efforts by regional countries.
“What we need more than ever today is sustainable regional security through participation of regional countries,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Saturday in an address to the Baghdad International Conference “For Cooperation and Participation” aimed at easing tensions in the region, ISNA reported. 
“The Islamic Republic has always stressed the need for promotion of peace through regional dialogue and negotiations, and hopes that regional countries will reach the common understanding that security will be achieved only through mutual trust, reliance on national capabilities, strengthening relations and good neighborliness, and non-interference of foreign powers.”
Amir-Abdollahian praised Iraq’s efforts to enhance regional cooperation, as evidenced by organizing the Baghdad summit, and vowed Tehran’s support for its neighbor’s efforts to this end. 
Iran backs Iraq’s stability, security, independence, territorial integrity and dignity, and is ready to develop mutual ties, he said.
Amir-Abdollahian reiterated Tehran’s readiness to help advance the goal of upgrading regional dialogue and cooperation.
Several regional leaders and French President Emmanuel Macron attended the Baghdad conference, a drive to facilitate talks among Iraq’s neighbors with the aim of helping mend strained relationships within the region, which have negatively affected the security situation in Iraq. 
Organizers of the Baghdad summit said they did not expect any diplomatic breakthroughs. “Getting these countries to sit around the table” is in itself an achievement, an Iraqi official told Reuters. 
Heads of state attending included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, King Abdullah of Jordan, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Macron. Kuwait and the UAE sent their heads of government, and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey their foreign ministers.