Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was due in neighbouring Iraq on Wednesday as he strikes to deepen already shut ties on his first overseas go to since taking workplace.
Pezeshkian has vowed to make relations with neighbouring international locations a precedence as he seeks to ease Iran’s worldwide isolation and mitigate the impression of US-led sanctions on its financial system.
His go to comes after Western powers on Tuesday introduced recent sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with short-range missiles to be used towards Ukraine.
It additionally comes amid turmoil within the Center East sparked by the struggle in Gaza, which has drawn in Iran-backed armed teams across the area and complex Baghdad’s ties with Washington.
On Tuesday night time, an explosion was heard at a US-led anti-jihadist coalition’s base on the Baghdad worldwide airport, in accordance with Iraqi safety officers.
A spokesperson for the Iranian-backed Ketaeb Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) in Iraq mentioned the Tuesday night time “assault” aimed to “disrupt the Iranian president’s go to to Baghdad”.
Ties between Iran and Iraq, each Shiite-majority international locations, have grown nearer for the reason that US-led invasion of 2003 toppled the Sunni-dominated regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
“This journey will likely be a chance to advertise and deepen the pleasant and brotherly relations between the 2 international locations in numerous fields,” Iran’s overseas ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani mentioned this week.
Pezeshkian has instantly linked shoring up ties to sanctions stress.
“Relations with neighbouring international locations… can neutralise a major quantity of stress of the sanctions,” he mentioned final month.
Iran has suffered years of crippling Western sanctions, particularly after its arch-foe the USA, beneath then-president Donald Trump, unilaterally deserted a landmark nuclear deal between the Islamic republic and main powers in 2018.
Pezeshkian, who assumed the presidency in late July, has made the highest diplomat who negotiated the 2015 deal, Mohammad Javad Zarif, his vp for strategic affairs as a part of his bid for a extra open Iran.
– Key commerce companions –
Iran has turn out to be certainly one of Iraq’s main commerce companions, and wields appreciable political affect in Baghdad, the place its Iraqi allies dominate parliament and the present authorities.
Yearly, hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims go to Iraq’s Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, and Pezeshkian may even go to the holy shrines there throughout his journey.
Non-oil commerce between Iran and Iraq stood at almost $5 billion over the 5 months from March 2024, Iranian media reported.
Iran additionally exports hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of fuel a day to Iraq to gas its energy vegetation, beneath a commonly renewed waiver from US sanctions.
Iraq is billions of {dollars} in arrears on its funds for the imports, which cowl 30 p.c of its electrical energy wants.
In September final yr, the 2 international locations began development of their first rail hyperlink — a 32-kilometre (20-mile) line between Iraq’s southern port metropolis of Basra and the Shalamcheh border crossing, the place it can be a part of up with the Iranian rail community.
– US troop drawdown –
Washington nonetheless has round 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in neighbouring Syria as a part of a world coalition towards the Islamic State jihadist group.
Final winter, US-led coalition forces in each Iraq and Syria had been focused dozens of occasions with drones and rocket hearth as violence associated to the Israel-Hamas struggle in Gaza has drawn in Iran-backed armed teams throughout the Center East.
The barrage of assaults triggered retaliatory US air strikes in each international locations.
On Sunday, Iraqi Defence Minister Thabet al-Abbassi informed pan-Arab tv channel Al-Hadath that the US-led coalition would pull out of most of Iraq by September 2025 and the Kurdish autonomous area by September 2026.
Regardless of months of talks, the goal dates have but to be agreed between Baghdad and Washington.
Pezeshkian may even journey to the Kurdish regional capital Arbil for talks with Kurdish officers, Iran’s official IRNA information company mentioned.
In March final yr, Tehran signed a safety settlement with the federal authorities in Baghdad after launching air strikes towards bases of Iranian Kurdish insurgent teams within the autonomous area.
They’ve since agreed to disarm the rebels and take away them from border areas.
Tehran accuses the rebels of smuggling in weapons from Iraq and of fomenting nationwide protests that erupted in 2022 following the dying in custody of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, detained for an alleged breach of Iran’s strict costume code for ladies.
