European Union supports conference on US-Iran tensions

To ease out the tensions between Washington and Tehran on nuclear issue, the European Union has welcomed Iraq's proposal to hold a regional conference.

Baghdad:The European Union supported an Iraqi proposal to hold a regional conference amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, the group's foreign policy chief said on Saturday.

Iraq is an ally of the two rival nations, which are on a collision course as the Iran nuclear deal threatens to unravel.

Iraq has offered to mediate between Tehran and Washington, while Iran has pressed European parties to the nuclear agreement to offset the effects of US sanctions.

Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, on her first visit to Iraq since 2014, said that the EU shared with Iraq the approach to dealing with the difficult situation, adding that the priority is to avoid escalation and any miscalculations that could lead to "dangerous consequences" for Iraq and beyond.

She said that the EU is ready to support the regional conference idea in all ways that could be useful.

She also added that there is a need to de-escalate and find avenues for dialogue.

Iraq is under pressure to prevent its territories from becoming a battleground for the spiralling tension between Iran and the US, both power brokers here.

The US maintains military bases and more than 5,000 troops in Iraq.

Iran backs powerful Iraqi militia groups, who played a key role in fighting Islamic State militants, and some of them are openly against US presence in Iraq.

A series of unclaimed attacks on US interests in recent weeks caused jitters and sparked Iraqi government decrees clearly designed to prevent a confrontation in its territories.