Their warm meeting comes just days after a delegation from Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia visited Baghdad with pledges of loans and support totaling $1.5 billion and as the Iraqi government is under pressure from Washington to sever ties with Iran.
“The situation we are experiencing today is an excellent one” with respect to relations between their nations, Rouhani said in a joint press conference with Abdul-Mahdi after their meeting on Saturday.
Iraq is keen to enhance ties with Iran, just as it is with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt in order to create a stable, peaceful Middle Eastern region, said Abdul-Mahdi.
Baghdad’s foreign policy is one of friendly relations with everyone, using Iraq’s geographical position to make the country a bridge between regional rivals. After decades of conflict and hostility, the government wants Iraq to leave behind the historic disputes and focus on what it has in common with its neighbours. US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and has pledged to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero this year. Washington has put pressure on regional countries, including Iraq, to join them in economically isolating Iran.
Abdul-Mahdi is expected to visit Saudi Arabia in the near future.
For his trip to Iran, Iraq’s oil, finance, foreign, planning, trade, electricity, and water resources ministers are among the delegation accompanying him, as are his national security advisor and chief of staff of the army.
Their discussions are a continuation of negotiations done when Rouhani visited Baghdad last month, focusing on implementing agreements signed during the earlier meetings. The first agreement has been implemented – waiving visa fees – Rouhani said.
The two sides have now prioritized building cooperation between their banking sectors, and constructing joint industrial cities on their shared border. Planning to lay down a railway between Iraq’s Basra port and the Shalamja border crossing will begin after Ramadan, which begins in early May, the Iranian president confirmed.
Iran will also continue its natural gas and electricity exports to Iraq and hopes to also sell oil to its neighbour, said Rouhani. Iraq was granted a waiver by the US to continue importing Iranian gas and electricity last November. That exemption was extended in mid-March for a second time, granting Iraq another three months before it has to comply with US sanctions on Iran’s oil sector.
Iraq and Iran hope to increase their trade volume to $20 billion, up from its current $12 billion.
Over the past Iranian calendar year which ended on March 20, relations between Iraq and Iran have seen “unprecedented” growth in every way, Iraj Masjedi, Iranian ambassador to Iraq stated in comments published by the official IRNA news agency on Saturday.
This growth is not against any other country and will contribute to stability and economic growth in the region, he explained, giving the example of the Shalamja-Basra railway line that will eventually connect Iran to Syria and to the Mediterranean Sea.
“Today is a bitter day for the enemies of the Iranian and Iraqi nations. While the wicked state of America and its regional allies, since last year, have focused all their efforts to economically blockade the people of Iran and to cut the relations of all the important regional countries with Iran, the cooperation and the increasing growth of Iran-Iraq relations and the reciprocating visits of the senior officials of the two countries, is a clear demonstration of lack of success of these destructive policies,” Masjedi said.
It is this kind of regional influence that the United States, which considers Iran the largest state sponsor of terror, is trying to curb, introducing yet more sanctions to up the pressure on Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Washington is considering designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization.
US President Donald Trump’s administration could make the announcement on Monday. If he does, repercussions will be felt in Iraq where the elite Revolutionary Guards are backing groups within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as the Hashd al-Shaabi.
Abdul-Mahdi and Rouhani also discussed security along their border – highlighting concerns emanating from the Kurdistan Region where armed Iranian Kurdish parties opposed to the Iranian regime operate.
“Our constitution categorically prohibits the exploitation of Iraqi land against any neighboring country,” Abdul-Mahdi told Rouhani during their press conference. “We are informed of the complexities in the region, but in fact we work seriously as do you in order to establish peace and have peaceful and healthy relations. Issues shall always be resolved in diplomatic and peaceful means, not through violence and weapons."
Looking at regional concerns – particularly recent controversial decisions from the United States to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Israel’s claim over the Golan Heights – both leaders said they share the same view and oppose the US decisions.
Updated at 2:14 pm
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