BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- Iraq will not support any military action against Iran, Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad Ali al-Hakim said at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Muhammad Javad Zarif here on Sunday.
"We stand by our neighbor Iran, and economic sanctions are unnecessary and cause great suffering to the Iranian people," Hakim said, referring to U.S. pressure on the Islamic Republic.
Iranians make up the bulk of millions of Shia from around the world who visit Iraq every year for pilgrimage. Al-Hakim said, "The sanctions against sisterly Iran are ineffective and we stand by its side.”
Speaking about the rising tensions with the U.S., Zarif said Iran would be able to "face the war, whether it is economic or military through steadfastness and its forces".
"We will face them with strength and we will resist," he added.  
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel-Mahdi pleaded for the stability of the region as he warned against another U.S. war in the region. Abdul-Mahdi and Zarif reiterated that both Iran and Iraq have been affected by U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
They also said there was a need for increased security cooperation between Iran and Iraq to defuse the current tensions and increase regional stability.
The Iranian foreign minister also discussed regional developments and bilateral relations during a meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih.
Relations between Iran and Iraq have expanded rapidly over the past few years despite a continuous campaign of pressure on Baghdad by the U.S. government and its allies in the region to shun the Islamic Republic.
Iran has played a major role in restoring stability in Iraq by helping the Arab country in its large-scale battle against terrorism since 2014.
The Iraqi government has mostly sought to avoid U.S. sanctions on Iran, arguing its economy and security is heavily linked to its neighbor.
Zarif's visit to Baghdad came just a day after the U.S. military announced plans to deploy another 1,500 troops to the Middle East.  
The top diplomat said Iran has offered to sign non-aggression agreements with all countries in the Persian Gulf region and those offers are still on the table.
Iran, he said, seeks the best of relations with the Persian Gulf littoral countries and will welcome any proposals for dialogue and de-escalation toward that end.
The US has been escalating tensions with Iran since May 2018, when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran that also involves Europe and Russia and China.
In an attempted campaign of "maximum pressure,” the U.S. has imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic as well as on countries that seek to do business with it.
Zarif said the U.S. was "bullying other countries into compliance with its unilateral measures” against Iran, which he said was an unlawful act.
He also referred to the European signatories to the Iran deal and said those countries were in practical violation of the agreement by failing to normalize relations with Iran, as the agreement stipulated.
The European violations of the deal, he said, have increased over the past year.
Zarif also met with the speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, the Arab country’s parliament, Mohamed al-Halbousi.
Al-Habousi warned against the potential fallout from regional tensions and stressed that the Arab country favored the resolution of the current situation as well as the security and well-being of all its neighbors.