Sudani signs cooperation agreements with Spain

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Building a rail link between southern Iraq and Iran was one of the agreements Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani signed while on a trip to Spain.

The prime minister arrived in Madrid on Wednesday, accompanied by ministers and senior officials. On Thursday, he met with Spain’s King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, signing “several significant memoranda of understanding” to enhance security, economic, industrial, trade, and legal cooperation between the two countries, according to an announcement from Sudani’s office.

“We are working diligently to ensure that Spain has a presence among the major global companies working for Iraq,” Sudani said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

The prime minister secured “a $250 million rail project connecting Basra to Iran with a Spanish company,” his office stated, adding that there are also “ongoing negotiations involving Spanish firms for the Karbala-Najaf railway project.”

The plan is to link Mehran in Iran’s Ilam province, near Iraq’s eastern border, to Kut in Iraq’s Wasit province, approximately 80 kilometers away, Iraqi state media reported. The line will also connect to Karbala, nearly 170 kilometers from Mehran.

Iraq and Spain have shared diplomatic ties since 1946. Madrid established its embassy in Baghdad in 1955. The European country has been a member of the United States-led global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) since 2015, providing support to Iraq’s armed forces, at the request of the Iraqi government.

ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called caliphate.

“We are indebted to Spain for its active role in our fight against terrorism in Iraq and its participation in the international coalition against the terrorist organisation,” Sudani told El Mundo.

“We have all of Iraq under control against the activities of [ISIS],” Sudani said, noting that “the only threat that terrorism can pose is the border with Syria. The instability of the border can affect the instability of Iraq.”

His statement comes amid escalating conflict in Syria.

On Wednesday, rebel forces in Syria spearheaded by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists launched a major attack and came within 10 kilometers of Aleppo city, taking government positions and Syrian army bases along the way. The clashes continue on Friday with hundreds of casualties. A British-based war monitor on Friday reported that four students were killed and two others were injured as a result of a rocket fired by rebel forces on a dormitory in Aleppo.