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High-level Iraqi delegation to head for
Tehran
4.9.2006
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Baghdad,
Iraq, September 4, -- Senior Iraqi ministers will go
to Iran on Tuesday, officials said, possibly paving
the way for a first official visit as prime minister
by Nuri al-Maliki to Iraq's powerful Shi'ite
neighbor.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, who oversees
Iraq's economy, will travel with the finance and
trade ministers, government aides said.
But the Iraqi government spokesman denied a report
on Iranian state television that suggested Maliki
might travel next week to visit his fellow Shi'ite
Islamist leaders.
"There is no arrangement right now for any visit by
the Prime Minister to ... Iran," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh
said, adding: "The government of Iraq would like to
maintain the best relations with all neighboring
countries."
An Iranian government spokesman said President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has angered Washington with
his defiant defense of Iran's nuclear program and a
series of anti- Israel comments, would visit Iraq
"very soon."
Iraq and Shi'ite Iran fought a bloody war in the
1980s when Saddam Hussein's secular Sunni Muslim
administration was in power in Baghdad. But the two
countries have enjoyed improving political and
economic relations since the U.S. invasion gave
Iraq's long-oppressed Shi'ite majority the upper
hand.
U.S. officials and Sunni Arabs who dominate other
Arab states view Iran's role in Iraq with suspicion,
accusing it of aiding Shi'ite armed groups. Tehran
denies the accusations. |
Iraqi Prime minister Jawad al-Maliki
Photo:AP
Dr.Barham Salih, Iraq's deputy prime minister |
Maliki's fellow Shi'ite predecessor caused
discomfort among Iraq's restive Sunni minority by
conspicuously making Tehran his first port of call
after becoming prime minister.
Maliki, in charge since May of a unity coalition
trying to stave off sectarian civil war, just as
conspicuously made his first foreign trip to
Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
A common interest in Iraq did bring the United
States and Iran, who have no diplomat ties, into
discussion this year about direct talks but these
have yet to take place.
The first visit by an Iraqi prime minister since the
fall of Saddam Hussein was made by Maliki's
predecessor Ibrahim al-Jaafari in July 2005.
The two countries waged a war between 1980 and 1988
in which around one million people died but ties
have warmed considerably since the fall of Saddam,
with the Islamic republic becoming a close ally of
the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
Reuters | AFP
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