Iraq's president visits Iran to boost ties

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid arrived in Iran on Saturday, his first visit to Tehran since taking office. Issues of sharing water resources and climate change are top of the agenda.

Rashid heads a high-level delegation that includes the foreign, water resources, and electricity ministers and the national security advisor, to discuss boosting trade relations between Baghdad and Tehran as well as water and climate change. The neighbours share several rivers, many of which Iran has dammed as it struggles with problems of water shortages, but drying out riverbeds in downstream Iraq.

"The visit comes in response to an official invitation from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi," Rashid's office said in a statement.

On Monday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein briefed his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Rashid's visit in a phone call.

Iraq and Iran share strong ties. Tehran recently thanked Baghdad for hosting five rounds of talks and being a key mediator in the restoration of formal ties with Saudi Arabia seven years after they were severed.

The two countries are also closely linked economically. Iraq imports Iranian agricultural products, engineering services, construction materials, and energy, such as electricity and natural gas, for which Baghdad has received sanctions waivers from Washington.

Tehran also has had heavy influence in Baghdad's politics and security since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, with dozens of armed groups in Iraq receiving military and financial support from Iran.