By Elwely Elwelly and Timour Azhari
DUBAI/BAGDAD (Reuters) – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Iraq on Wednesday on his first foreign trip, signaling the clerical establishment’s intention to strengthen ties with a strategic ally of both Tehran and Washington as regional tensions rise .
Pezeshkian, a relative moderate who was elected in July, met Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani at the start of a three-day visit that Tehran and Baghdad said would include the signing of a number of agreements and discussion on the Gaza war include. the situation in the Middle East.
“The expansion of bilateral ties and regional and international issues such as the continued crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) against the oppressed people of Palestine and the need to stop the war and genocide in Gaza will be discussed,” the office of Pezeshkian. said in a statement.
Iraq is home to several Iranian-linked parties and armed groups, while Tehran has steadily increased its influence over the top oil producer since a US-led invasion toppled its enemy Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Iraq, a rare partner of both the United States and Iran, hosts 2,500 U.S. troops and has Iranian-backed armed factions linked to its security forces. Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October, the country has seen escalating tit-for-tat attacks.
The Iraqi Prime Minister’s Media Office said the two countries have signed fourteen Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) in various areas, including trade, sports, agriculture, cultural cooperation, education, media, communications and tourism.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Tehran and Baghdad have several areas of cooperation “including political, regional… and security issues,” Iranian state media reported.
Pezeshkian visited a monument to Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020, Iranian state media reported.
RELATIONSHIPS WITH US
The United States and Iran came close to full-blown conflict in 2020 after the killing of Soleimani in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport and Tehran’s retaliation by attacking US bases in Iraq.
The United States and Iraq have agreed on plans for the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from Iraq, sources familiar with the matter said.
Iran-linked armed groups in Iraq have repeatedly attacked US forces in the Middle East since the start of the Gaza war.
State media have said Pezeshkian also plans to visit Iraqi Kurdistan, a region where Iran has carried out attacks in the past and is used as a staging area for Iranian separatist groups and agents of its arch-enemy Israel.
Baghdad has sought to allay Iranian concerns about regional separatist groups by relocating some members under a 2023 security pact with Tehran.
