Ariana News Agency-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Reuters-<\/em> Speaking at a news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim during a visit to Baghdad, Mogherini said the bloc appreciated and supported Iraq\u2019s policy of pursuing good relations with all its neighbors and warned against \u201cdangerous adventures\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThe minister and I talked at length about the increasing tensions around Iraq and the need first and foremost to avoid escalation, avoid any miscalculation, that could lead to very dangerous consequences; first and foremost for Iraq but also beyond that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Mogherini\u2019s trip comes at a time of heightened Iranian-U.S. tensions. The U.S. blames Iran for several recent attacks on oil tankers and the two foes came close to direct military conflict last month when Iran shot down a U.S. drone and President Donald Trump ordered retaliatory air strikes, only to call them off minutes before impact.<\/p>\n Trump withdrew the United States last year from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers to curb its nuclear program. Washington has sharply tightened sanctions on Iran, which has responded by stepping up uranium enrichment beyond limits set by the deal.<\/p>\n European countries do not directly support the U.S. sanctions, but have been unable to come up with ways to allow Iran to avert them.<\/p>\n The tensions have placed Baghdad, whose two biggest allies are Washington and neighbor Tehran, in an uncomfortable position and directly threaten its security.<\/p>\n Iraq relies on the U.S. for security assistance and imports energy and vital goods from Iran, with whom its Shi\u2019ite majority shares religious ties. Both helped it defeat Islamic State militants that overran a third of its territory at one point.<\/p>\n A military conflict between them would almost certainly spill over into Iraq which houses both U.S. troops and influential Iran-allied Shi\u2019ite militias.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also affirmed to Ms. Mogherini that Iraq should not become a battleground for this conflict, but rather it should play a role in helping solve this crisis alongside other Arab countries especially Kuwait and Oman,\u201d Hakim said, adding that a conflict would also complicate counter-terrorism efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe unilateral cancellation of the nuclear agreement caused a crisis that could have been avoided through negotiations,\u201d he said referring to Trump\u2019s withdrawal from the deal, but added the EU could play an important role in de-escalating tensions.<\/p>\n The EU supports Iraq\u2019s proposal to hold a regional conference between Iran and U.S.-allied Sunni Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, said Mogherini, who also met Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and President Barham Salih during her trip.<\/p>\n \u201cThe European experience is that even in the most difficult times it is always better to sit and talk rather than to explore avenues of the unknown that can be dangerous for everybody,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The European Union fully backs Iraq\u2019s efforts to de-escalate growing tensions between the United States and Iran because conflict will have dire consequences for all sides, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_mat_hreflang_tags":[],"addvideo":"","video_duration":"","farsit":"","target":"0","top_stories":"0","top":"1"},"categories":[305],"tags":[593,87,114,47],"class_list":["post-3630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-federica-mogherini","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-us"],"acf":{"myctype":"change","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":true,"farsit":""},"yoast_head":"\n