Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says an upcoming visit by President Hassan Rouhani to Iraq — the president’s first — will be the beginning of a new chapter in Tehran-Baghdad relations.
“Mr. Rouhani is traveling to Iraq for the first time in his presidency, and we consider the trip a new start in our relations with Iraq,” Zarif told the Iraqi al-Forat satellite TV network in an interview aired on Saturday.
Zarif referred to the measures of cooperation that are scheduled to be bilaterally approved during the Iranian president’s visit to Iraq and called them “historic.” New cooperation, he said, will be in the areas of transit, oil, joint industrial work, and the dredging of Arvand River (Shatt al-Arab).
The Iranian president will be starting his three-day visit to Iraq on Monday.