Ahmadinejad to become first Iranian President to visit Iraq

BAGHDAD—Iraq’s government said on Thursday that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due in Baghdad on March 2 for the first visit ever by an Iranian president to the neighbouring country. “The Iranian president will be visiting for two days from March 2. He will be meeting with President Jalal Talabani and with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told.
“He will be accompanied by a number of ministers.” Ahmadinejad’s visit would be the first by an Iranian president to Iraq since the creation of the Islamic republic in 1979 when the shah was ousted in a revolution. Iran and Iraq fought a devastating war between 1980 and 1988 in which around one million people died. But the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime in 2003 led to a marked improvement in relations with the new Shiite-dominated government in Iraq. President Jalal Talabani has been a frequent visitor to Tehran, his last trip coming in June.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki made his first official trip to Iran in September 2006 and followed it up with another visit last August. The announcement comes as Iraqi and US officials said on Thursday that Tehran had requested a a postponement of talks which had been expected this week in Baghdad between the United States and Iran on the future of Iraq.
“The talks have been postponed. They are not cancelled. No reason was given,” an Iraqi foreign ministry official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity and without elaborating. The US embassy in Baghdad confirmed that there had been a request for a delay in the talks.
“We have been informed by the government of Iraq that Iran has again asked to postpone trilateral talks regarding security in Iraq,” an embassy official told AFP. “We have been saying for weeks that we are ready to sit down for talks. It is increasingly clear that Iran is not. We are interested in improving security in Iraq, which is why we have said we are ready to sit down.”
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said this week the talks were expected “in the next few days.” “We are trying to organise the fourth round of US-Iranian talks in Baghdad. The round is expected to start in the next few days,” Zebari said at a press conference in Moscow.
“We have an interest in the success of these negotiations because it would lower tensions between Iraq and other countries and will help improve the situation in and around Iraq,” Zebari said. The meeting was initially scheduled for December 18 but was postponed, again at the request of Iran.
The meeting, which aimed to explore ways of reducing violence in Iraq, was due to bring together diplomats, security experts and the military. Last January, Iranian officials said they had “some concerns” about the next round of discussions but did not elaborate.
Washington, which broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran after the Islamic revolution, accuses Iran of sending weapons to Iraq and funding Iraqi Shiite extremist groups. Iran denies any involvement in violence in Iraq and believes the withdrawal of US troops is the first step toward a restoration of security in the country.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will make a landmark visit to Baghdad on March 2 for talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other officials, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Thursday.
Ahmadinejad’s visit will be the first to Iraq by the president of the Islamic Republic, which is at loggerheads with the United States over the causes of violence in Iraq. Washington accuses Iran of giving weapons and training to Shi’ite militias in Iraq, including armor-piercing bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) that have killed hundreds of U.S. troops. Tehran denies the charges.—Agencies