Reports: Visit of Iraq’s Abadi to Iran Canceled

Local Editor

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi's visit to Tehran has been canceled amid Baghdad's readiness to adhere to renewed US sanctions against Iran, media reported on Monday, citing Abadi's office.

Abadi said last week that Iraq does not support the recently re-imposed US sanctions against Iran but will abide by them. Baghdad would comply with the US sanctions in the interests of the people of Iraq, Abadi added, noting that still, the restrictions were a "strategic mistake and incorrect."

The Iraqi prime minister, however, will go ahead with his planned visit to Turkey on Tuesday, according to Iran's Mehr news agency.

On August 7, the first package of US sanctions against Iran, previously lifted under the Iran nuclear deal, was reinstated following the United States' withdrawal from the agreement. The sanctions target Iran's acquisition of dollar bank notes, trade in gold and other metals, transactions related to the Iranian rial, as well as the other countries' transactions and trade activities with Iran.

On August 10, the Central Bank of Iraq announced a ban on commercial banks performing transactions with Iran's financial institutions in US dollars.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team