Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian flew to Iraq aiming to deepen already close ties with the neighboring country.
The new President’s three-day trip came amid all the turmoil in the Middle East sparked by the ongoing war in Gaza and after Western powers announced fresh sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with short-range missiles for use against Ukraine.
Iraqi premiere’s office in a brief statement said, “Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani welcomes the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian.”
Pezeshkian is desperate to make relations better with neighbouring countries as he seeks to make Iran’s international isolation easier and mitigate the impact of US-led sanctions on its economy.
It is worth mentioning that just hours prior Pezeshkian’s arrival, an explosion rocked a base at the airport sued by the US-led anti-jihadist coalition.
According to a footage aired on the Iranian state television, Pezeshkian said a few worlds before departing Iran, "Iraq is one of our friends, brothers and Muslim countries.”
"And for this reason, we will go to this country as the first trip," he added.
For the unversed, Iran has become Iraq’s leading trade partners and wields considerable influence in Baghdad.
