“We have had close and brotherly ties with our Kurdish brothers and will continue to have such ties. The security of Iraqi Kurdistan is of high significance for us,” Iranian state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Larijani as saying in his meeting with Barzani on Sunday.
Barzani also met earlier on Sunday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council who is also a chancellor to the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader.
Barzani is on a two-day visit to Iran, and is accompanied by his Deputy Qubad Talabani, Fuad Hussein, the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Office of the Kurdistan Region, and KRG Spokesperson Safin Dizayee.
Larijani hoped to see Erbil-Baghdad ties are mended and a “massive turnout” in the looming Iraqi general elections.
Iran has “a strategic relationship with you and are interested in maintaining it, as it is valuable and should not be damaged by strategic mistake,” Larijani told the leader of the KRG.
Larijani desires the resolution of the Erbil-Baghdad deadlock by the support of the central government and through the constitution, IRNA reported.
He went on to say that the KRG’s political policies and economic activities have to be run in coordination with Baghdad.
A day before the meetings in Tehran, Barzani had visited Baghdad, the KRG PM’s first meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi since the Kurdistan Region held the Iraq-opposed independence referendum.
The KRG premier had praised his first visit to the Iraqi capital as paving the way for the start of dialogue between the regional and federal governments.
“Our issues with the central government should be solved within the framework of constitution, as we favor integrity and territorial integrity of Iraq,” Barzani said in Tehran, according to IRNA.
“We want to be part of the unified Iraq so that the enemies will not be able to take advantage of such a distance,” he added.
In response to the KRG independence referendum and after a call by the Iraqi government, Iran had temporarily closed down its three official border crossings with the Kurdistan Region before reopening the final two in early January.
Barzani thanked Tehran for the move, saying it made the people of the Kurdistan Region happy.
“We visited Tehran to send this message to our people that we will not allow our close bonds with Iranian brothers to be damaged,” he said.
Barzani looked forward for the development of relations with Tehran.
“We are ready to open a new page in our relations and will make use of past events as experiences for building future,” he added.
