BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani, speaking alongside visiting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, said on Wednesday that both governments opposed any widening of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
"In light of the escalation that the region has been going through, we have spoken a lot about the importance of stability; this stability threatened by the Zionist aggression in Gaza," Sudani said.
"We have stated more than once our rejection of any extension of the conflict," he added, underlining the two governments' "common positions" on the war.
Meanwhile, newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is aiming to deepen relations with neighbouring Iraq by signing a series of agreements in Baghdad during his first trip abroad, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on Wednesday.
Government representatives of both countries would sign 15 cooperation agreements during Pezeshkian's three-day visit, IRNA reported.
Pezeshkian is also to be the first president in the history of the Islamic republic to visit Iraq's partially autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country.
The Iraqi prime minister's media office said the two countries had signed 14 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in different fields including trade, sports, agriculture, cultural cooperation, education, media, communications and tourism.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Tehran and Baghdad have various areas of cooperation "including political, regional ... and security issues", Iranian state media reported.
Pezeshkian visited a monument for Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani who was killed, in a US drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, Iranian state media reported.
Tehran sees Iraq as an important partner economically and as a "gateway to the Arab world," and despite sanctions, Iran remains an important supplier of gas and electricity.
While Tehran has constantly expanded its influence in Iraq over recent years, tensions remain, in particular over the presence of US forces in Iraq. Iraq also maintains relations with the West, by contrast with the isolation imposed by the West on the leadership in Tehran. Iran's support for Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has drawn further Western sanction.
According to reports, Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Mohammed al Sudani and his government have negotiated on Tehran's behalf with other Arab countries, including Egypt, which have cool relations with Tehran. - AFP/dpa
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