Iranian Speaker Urges Unity among All Iraqi Groups

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in a meeting with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zabari called on all Iraqi political groups to become united to restore peace in the country.
All Iraqi political factions should be united against terrorism and sectarian violence in order to restore sustainable peace there, Larijani said in the meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.

He also said that Tehran is ready for development of ties with Iraq in all fields particularly in fields of industry, economy and technology.

The Iranian Parliament speaker called the two countries relations as historic and based on cultural commonalties.

The Iraqi foreign minister, for his part, welcomed expansion of ties between Tehran and Baghdad.

Iran and Iraq have enjoyed growing ties ever since the overthrow of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, during the 2003 US invasion of the Muslim country.

Early December, senior Iranian and Iraqi officials, in a joint news conference in Tehran, stressed the need for the further expansion of mutual cooperation in economic fields.

During the news conference, the Iranian first vice president and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki reiterated the necessity for increasing exchange of visits between the two countries’ businessmen and trade officials in a bid to further consolidate Iran-Iraq economic ties.

The Iranian first vice-president reiterated that enhancement of bilateral ties tops the agenda of both Tehran and Baghdad, and said “the agreements between Tehran and Baghdad have provided proper opportunities for Iranian businessmen to play a bigger role in the gas and housing industries and other sectors in Iraq”.

The Iraqi prime minister, pointed to his meeting with the Iranian first vice-president, and said, “We agreed to have extensive activities and we also agreed on establishing different ways for conducting (joint) economic activities.”