BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sought to reassure Saudi Arabia Sunday that Iraq is not a “gateway for Iran” and will not take part in regional conflicts between the two countries.

“Iraq is not a gateway for Iran,” Abadi said in an interview with Iraqiya state TV.

“We do not want to enter into regional conflicts, and if there are regional conflicts between Saudi Arabia and Iran,” Baghdad will not be involved, the premier said.

Iran – which like Iraq is mostly Shiite – and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia are involved in political and military battles for influence in countries around the Middle East.

Ties between Baghdad and Riyadh have steadily improved since Abadi took office last year after reaching a low ebb under his predecessor Nouri al-Maliki, who accused Saudi Arabia of backing militants in Iraq while it criticized him as sectarian.

Saudi Arabia has named an ambassador to Iraq and announced in January that it would reopen an embassy in the country for the first time in 25 years.

But Baghdad has much closer and longer-standing ties with neighboring Iran, which is playing a major role in Iraq’s battle to regain swaths of territory from ISIS.

Tehran has provided weapons to Iraq, and Shiite militias that are among Baghdad’s most effective forces have close operational and ideological ties to Iran.

Qasem Soleimani, Tehran’s top officer responsible for foreign operations, has along with other Iranians advised Iraqi forces on the ground during multiple operations.

Hadi al-Ameri, the commander of the powerful Badr militia, said earlier this year that Soleimani “is here whenever we need him.” 

Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when ISIS overran the northern city of Mosul, Abadi also said.

“In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons,” Abadi said. “We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone.”

While the exact price of the vehicles varies depending on how they are armored and equipped, it is clearly a hugely expensive loss that has boosted ISIS’ capabilities.

Last year, the State Department approved a possible sale to Iraq of 1,000 Humvees with increased armor, machine guns, grenade launchers, other gear and support estimated to cost $579 million.

Clashes began in Mosul, Iraq’s second city, late on June 9, 2014, and Iraqi forces lost it the following day to ISIS, which spearheaded an offensive that overran much of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

The militants gained ample arms, ammunition and other equipment when multiple Iraqi divisions fell apart in the country’s north, abandoning gear and shedding uniforms in their haste to flee.

ISIS has used captured Humvees, which were provided to Iraq by the United States, in subsequent fighting, rigging some with explosives for suicide bombings.

Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite militias have regained significant ground from ISIS in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces north of Baghdad. But that momentum was slashed in mid-May when ISIS overran Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, west of Baghdad, where Iraqi forces had held out against militants for more than a year.

Iraqi forces retook an area west of Ramadi Saturday, commanders said.

“The Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization units liberated the Anbar traffic police building in the 5K area west of Ramadi after a fierce fight,” an army officer said.

Popular Mobilization units are an umbrella for mostly Shiite militia and volunteers that has played a key role in Iraq’s fight against ISIS.

“The battle forced ISIS to withdraw from the building, which they had used as a base, and pull back into Ramadi city,” the officer said.