Baghdad regrets Nouakchott's severing of relations

The secretary general of the Arab people's forces conference and member of the Iraqi National Council (parliament), Saad Qasem Hamoudi, said, "Mauritania's decision to boycott diplomatic relations with Iraq is regrettable and unjustified."

Hamoudi, however, is the first Iraqi official to respond to the severing of relations between the two states at the initiative of Mauritania.

The Iraqi official added that the decision taken by Mauritania "tries to please the US and the enemies of the Arab nation, despite the fact the Iraq adopted a noble national stand towards Mauritania during the 1980s, tried to prevent the launching of a foreign aggression against it and rendered aid to the government and people of Mauritania on the ground of Iraq's belief in maintaining Arab solidarity."