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Iraq
UN envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (left) meets Iranian official Ali Akbar Velayati in Tehran on January 31, 2020. Photo: ISNA
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The United Nations’ envoy to Baghdad made a two-day trip to Tehran to discuss stability in Iraq, the office she represents said on Monday.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq, met officials in the Iranian capital on Sunday and Monday to discuss “regional issues as part of the efforts made to support stability in Iraq”, read the United Nation Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) statement.
Ali Akbar Velayati, senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met with Plasschaert on Sunday to stress that foreign powers should not interfere with Iraq’s internal affairs, Iran's state-run IRNA reported.
Velayati also told Plasschaert of Iran’s will to cooperate with Iraq on its early elections, set to take place in October of this year.
"The upcoming elections will be decisive for Iraq, and the government, along with the people, will have a very bright future in Iraq," he said.
Plasschaert emphasized the need to preserve Iraqi unity and hold free elections, IRNA reported.
"The situation in Iraq is better then it was in the past," Plasschaert was quoted as saying.
Velayati also hailed his country’s “every important role in fighting Islamic State (ISIS), describing the assassination of Iran general Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as a "fatal mistake, and a terrorist act committed by the United States".
Iran’s presence in Iraq has come under increased scrutiny since an increase in rocket attacks by Iran-backed groups on US military and diplomatic targets in Iraq in 2019. In retaliation, Washington assassinated Muhandis, a senior leader of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and Soleimani in a drone strike on Baghdad in January 2020.
In the aftermath of the assassination, Iraqi Shiite parliamentarians passed a non-binding resolution for the expulsion of foreign troops from the country.
Iran-backed militias announced in October that they would suspend attacks on American targets in Iraq, on the condition that US troops withdraw from the country. The ceasefire was broken a month later when rockets hit Baghdad's Green Zone. Washington accused Iran and its affiliated groups in Iraq of being behind the rocket attacks.
Iraqi and Kurdistan Region officials have appealed to foreign powers to not use Iraq as a battleground.
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