The visit also sends a strong message to Washington and its regional allies that, in the face of US sanctions, Iran still plays a dominant role in Iraqi politics. Prior to his departure, Rouhani said Shi’ite Iran was determined to strengthen brotherly ties with its neighbour, Iranian state television reported on Monday.
“CANNOT FORGET THE BOMBS THAT AMERICANS DROPPED OVER”
Those ties “cannot be compared to Iraq’s relations with an occupying country like America, which is being hated in the region,” the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying before he left. “One cannot forget the bombs that Americans dropped over Iraq, Syria and other regional countries.”
During the three-day visit a series of agreements will be signed in energy, transport, agriculture, industry and health, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said. “We are very much interested to expand our ties … particularly our transport cooperation,” Rouhani said at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport.
He will visit a Shi’ite Muslim shrine in Baghdad’s Khadhimiya district prior to a welcome ceremony, the offices of Iraq’s president and the prime minister said.
A senior Iranian official accompanying Rouhani told Reuters that Iraq was “another channel for Iran to bypass America’s unjust sanctions … This trip will provide opportunities for Iran’s economy.”