Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari yesterday defended his country’s abstention from a vote on suspending Syria from the Arab League, emphasising that events in Syria have a direct impact on Iraq. “Iraq’s stance was not easy,” Zebari told a news conference yesterday. “Syria is a brother country. It is an important country in the area, and we have special relations with it, as it hosted hundred of thousands of Iraqis in difficult circumstances,” he said, referring to Iraqi refugees who fled to Syria to escape violence at home. “Iraq’s situation is not like the situation of a country in North Africa or the Gulf. This is a direct neighbour, and what is happening there will affect us,” Zebari said. Zebari said measures against Syria must be taken gradually, rather than all at once. “We must take them gradually, because the goal is to make the Syrian government understand that national dialogue will serve its interest and the interest of its people,” he said. The vote does not “mean that we support a faction and we support the killing of innocent civilians. We are not against the freedom and the free will of the Syrian people to choose the type of the regime they want,” he said.