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TEHRAN — Iraq’s interim deputy
prime minister Barham Saleh arrived here yesterday
on a mission from his US-backed government to press
Iran to stop interfering in its neighbour’s affairs.
“We have to start building clear and frank relations
based on not interfering in the two countries’
internal affairs,” Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said
in an interview broadcast by Iraqi public television
late on Saturday.
Saleh will “present the facts to our brothers in the
Iranian leadership and clarify some
misunderstandings so that relations are based on
love and brotherhood,” Allawi said. “There are
negative elements and tensions which run contrary to
the interests of both countries.”
On arrival at the Foreign Ministry here a day later
than planned, Saleh explained the delay by saying
his direct flight to Tehran from Baghdad was the
first for more than 25 years.
Saleh, a Kurd from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,
also politely evaded the topic of Iranian
interference in Iraq, and was quoted by the state
Irna news agency as saying he was “carrying a
message of friendship from the Iraqi government and
nation for the Iranian government and people.”
The visit comes amid an effort to ease a recent war
of words between the two neighbours, after several
Iraqi officials joined the Americans in charging
that Iran had been involved in a three-week-long
uprising in the south and centre and even armed the
fighters.
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