Iraq’s New Premier Visits Iran, His First Visit Abroad

By Staff, Agencies

Iraq’s new prime minister was in Iran on Tuesday, his first official visit abroad since taking office more than two months ago, Iranian media reported.

State television showed footage of Mustafa al-Kadhimi landing at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport. The TV said al-Khadhimi would meet top Iranian leaders, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.

The official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency later released a photo of Rouhani and al-Kadhimi at a welcome ceremony in Tehran, showing both wearing protective face masks to help prevent spread of the coronavirus.

“We hope to have constructive talks for deepening relations” between the two nations, said Iran’s government spokesman Ali Rabiei.

The visit came after Iranian foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Baghdad over the weekend, Zarif’s first visit to Iraq since a US airstrike in January killed a top Iranian general, Qassim Soleimani, outside Baghdad’s international airport. The strike catapulted Iraq to the brink of a US-Iran proxy war that could have destabilized the Middle East.

Al-Kadhimi took office in May after he had played a significant part for years in the war against the Wahhabi terrorist group Daesh [Arabic acronym for “ISIS” / “ISIL”], which was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017.