“We know that the US President [Barack Obama] has fallen into a trap set for him by others and we hope that he can get out of this trap with wisdom,” Zarif said in a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, in Baghdad on Sunday.

“Military action will become a major threat to its instigators,” the Iranian minister stated, adding, “Beating the drum of war will lead to circumstances that will consume the entire [Middle East] region.”

The top Iranian diplomat said Tehran wants to prevent war in the region “because we know those who begin wars cannot finish them.”

The Iranian Foreign Minister expressed hope that with the help of Iraqi officials, war could be prevented as “war in the Middle East is war against all regional countries which will drag the Mideast into insecurity.”

The Iraqi Foreign Minister, for his part, said only Syrians can resolve their problems and attacking Syria will only postpone a political solution to the crisis.

Zebari urged all countries to prepare the ground for diplomatically solving the Syria crisis.

The call for military action against Syria intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

The Syrian government has strongly denied the accusation, saying the deadly attack was a false-flag operation carried out by the militants in a bid to draw in foreign military intervention.

On August 31, Obama said he had decided that Washington must take military action against the Syrian government, which would mean a unilateral military strike without a UN mandate.

HH/HH