Iraq will not take sides amid Middle East tension - Iraqi deputy PM

Iraq will not take sides amid tensions in the Middle East, the Iraqi deputy prime minister said on Thursday, as a row between the United States and Iran escalated. "We shall not align ourselves with certain countries or be a party in an alliance against others," Thamer Ghadhban, who is also Iraq's oil minister, said in London.

Recent events in the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf of Oman, "posed a serious threat to peace in the region and the free and uninterrupted passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz," he told the CWC Iraq Petroleum Conference.