July 6, 2011Iraq inks 6 agreements of cooperation with Iran
Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday signed six agreements of cooperation with its neighbor Iran during an official visit of Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Rahimi, who heads a delegation of senior Iranian officials, was officially received by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the Baghdad airport.
Later, the two leaders and their delegations held a meeting in Baghdad Green Zone that houses some of the Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies, including the U.S. one.
The two sides discussed cooperation in various fields that resulted in the signing of six Memorandums of Understanding in the fields of avoiding double taxation, cultural cooperation, science and technology, communications and two memorandums in medical treatment and pharmacological cooperation.
"The visit of the Iranian delegation is a new starting point in various fields that were discussed between the two delegations which are electricity, transportation, construction, oil and gas, culture, science, technology and communications," Maliki said at a joint press conference with Rahimi after their meeting.
For his part Rahimi said his country "is ready to help rebuilding Iraq and to achieve security and stability on its lands. "
"Relations between Iraq and Iran have reached high levels and we came here today to get the peak of such relations," Rahimi said, adding that "from here (Baghdad) Iran is offering the hand of friendship and brotherhood to all the peoples of Islamic countries. "
Since 2000, the Iran-Iraq relations had been visibly improved. After the U.S.-led war on Iraq started in 2003, Teheran strongly opposed the move, calling for a key role of the UN in Iraq's reconstruction.
Afterwards, Iran offered assistance to Iraq's post-war reconstruction and the bilateral relations began to improve, and top officials in the two countries exchanged official visits during the past few years.
Sunni Arab-led countries in the region are increasingly worried about the close ties between Iran and Iraq, the only two Shi'ite-led governments in the Middle East, particularly if the U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-07/06/c_13969687.htm
