Diplomat: Iran-Iraq Trade Ties to Surpass $12bln

The value of the trade ties between Iran and Iraq will exceed $12bln this year thanks to the two countries’ growing cooperation, a senior Iranian diplomat announced on Thursday.

Iran’s exports to Iraq worth some $11 billion last year and the figure is expected to exceed $12 billion this year, Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Danayeefar said in a meeting with a group of Iranian and Iraqi entrepreneurs in Tehran.

He also said that Iraq’s free economy has created a suitable room for the country’s exporters to play key roles in the world markets and the opportunity should be seized by Iranian companies to present their products to that country.

Iran and Iraq have enjoyed growing ties ever since the overthrow of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in 2003.

Both sides are working on a series of plans to take wide strides in expanding their ties, in economic fields in particular.

Iranian energy officials said in September that the country will start supplying natural gas to neighboring Iraq by the summer of 2013.

Head of the National Iranian Gas Company Javad Oji said Iran has completed more than 25 percent of a pipeline to Iraq that could carry up to 25 million cubic meters per day of its natural gas to Iraq.