BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Iraq cannot close its border with Iran, warning that complying with a U.S. demand to do so would amount to “imposing sanctions on the Iraqi people,” in an interview with Agence France-Presse published on Saturday.
Hussein’s remarks mark a direct public rejection of a pressure campaign by Washington, which has pressed Baghdad to seal its 1,458-kilometer frontier with Iran as part of efforts to curb the flow of goods, currency and personnel tied to Tehran amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. 
The foreign minister confirmed that Baghdad has not yet implemented the requirement, signaling a widening gap between the two strategic partners at a moment of acute regional tension.
“Closing the border with Iran means imposing sanctions on the Iraqi people,” Hussein said. 
He said that the frontier is not merely a security line but an economic lifeline for millions of Iraqis who depend on cross-border trade for fuel, foodstuffs and consumer goods. 
Iraq’s economy is deeply intertwined with its eastern neighbor: Iran supplies a substantial share of Iraq’s natural gas and electricity imports, and bilateral trade is estimated in the billions of dollars annually. 
Shutting the crossings, Hussein suggested, would inflict hardship on ordinary citizens rather than on the actors Washington seeks to target.
The foreign minister also pushed back on claims that Iran maintains a military presence on Iraqi soil. “Iran has no military presence in Iraq,” Hussein said, dismissing assertions by U.S. officials that Tehran uses Iraqi territory to move weapons and advisers. 
Hussein went further, describing the current regional environment as untenable. He said the situation of “neither war nor peace” cannot persist and that the region must move decisively toward either peace or war.
The remarks underscore Baghdad’s alarm at being caught between its security partnership with the United States and its deep political, religious and economic ties to Iran. 
The foreign minister has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that Iraq risks being dragged into a war not of its choosing, and that diplomatic channels must be revived before miscalculation spirals into open confrontation.