Iraq has not asked Iran for arms: Iranian official

TEHRAN,June 28(MNA) -- An Iranian Foreign Ministry official said that Iraq has not requested Iran to supply the Arab country with military equipment. “Iraq has not made any request to Iran to receive military equipment,” Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in an interview with the Al-Alam network on Thursday. “If Iraq makes a request, we will send military equipment to Iraq within the framework of international law and transparent and standard contracts.” “No request has been made so far. Iraq enjoys the required capabilities,” he said. “We will stand by Iraq in its campaign against terrorism,” he added. U.S. officials have claimed that Iran is directing surveillance drones over Iraq from an airfield in Baghdad and is supplying Iraqi forces with tons of military equipment and other supplies, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Iraqi government forces are fighting with militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who have captured several areas in northern and western Iraq over the past two weeks. The onslaught by ISIL militants, which is purportedly aimed at establishing a caliphate in an area straddling some parts of Iraq and Syria, is threatening to dismember Iraq and unleash all-out sectarian warfare with no regard for national borders.