Zarif on Iraq Visit With Large Economic Delegation

Date: 12 January 2019 - 21:47

News ID: ۶۱۹۵۰

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif will travel to Iraq at the head of a high-ranking politico-economic delegation on Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.
"Senior executives from dozens of state-run and private entrepreneurial companies will accompany the foreign minister in this trip,” Qasemi said Saturday.
During the important regional trip, Zarif will meet with high-ranking Iraqi officials and participate in joint trade conferences in several cities including Karbala and Sulaymaniyah, the spokesman said.
The top diplomat’s visit to the neighboring country is of particular significance since it will be made shortly after the trip of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Baghdad, which was aimed at convincing Iraqi officials to restrict their ties with Tehran.
Iran is Iraq’s largest trading partner, with annual trade between the two reaching up to $12 billion.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said late November Iran and Iraq could raise bilateral trade to $20 billion.
Zarif’s trip also comes right on the heels Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh visiting Baghdad on Thursday.
Zangeneh met with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, whose office said he "confirmed the deep relations between the two countries, the two neighboring peoples and the importance of strengthening them in areas that serve the interests of the two peoples, foremost of which is cooperation in the fields of oil and gas."
The Iraqi premier's office also said the Iranian oil minister "expressed his country's pride in the level of relations with Iraq and the aspiration to develop them, and hoped to achieve more cooperation and to meet the needs of Iraq's gas."
PM Abdul-Mahdi had earlier declared his country "will not be part of the sanctions regime, as it will not be part of aggression against any country."
The Iranian minister also held talks with Iraqi President Barham Salih, who said promotion of ties between Tehran and Baghdad would serve the stability and security of the entire Middle East.
The talks were held after Pompeo's meeting with Abdul-Mahdi on Wednesday following an an unannounced visit to Baghdad was part of his tour of the Middle East meant to promote the White House's hardline position on Iran.
Pompeo's trip to Iraq, which followed a controversial visit by U.S. President Donald Trump late last month, was notable in that Iran was not mentioned in any official readout.
Iraq relies heavily on Iranian gas to feed its power stations, importing roughly 1.5 billion standard cubic feet per day via pipelines in the south and east.
Last month, the U.S. extended for 90 days a waiver granted to Iraq from sanctions against Iran but pledged to work with the country to end its dependence on Iranian natural gas.