BAGHDAD, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said there is a need to return to the negotiation table over the future of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Hussein made his comment during a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday night when the two ministers discussed the recent U.S. airstrikes against Iraqi military and civilian sites in al-Qaim and the nearby Akashat areas in western Iraq, which left 16 paramilitary Hashd Shaabi members killed and 36 others wounded, the statement said.
Hussein stressed that the Iraqi government rejected such attacks, saying "Iraq is not an arena for settling scores between rival countries," the statement added.
Coordination and consultation will continue to pursue joint actions to combat the growing challenges in the region, according to the statement.
Iraq and the United States began the first round of dialogue on Jan. 27 to discuss ending the U.S.-led coalition's mission in Iraq. However, later in the day three U.S. soldiers were killed in an attack on a U.S. base near Jordan's border with Syria, which the United States said was carried out by an Iranian-backed armed group named Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
The attack prompted the United States to conduct airstrikes on Feb. 2 on about 85 targets in Iraq and Syria against what the U.S. Central Command said were Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and affiliated militia groups. ■