Iran's president visits Iraq amid Middle East tensions

By Elwely Elwelly and Timour Azhari

DUBAI/BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Iraq on Wednesday on his first foreign trip, signalling the clerical establishment's intention to strengthen ties with a strategic ally of both Tehran and Washington as regional tensions rise.

Pezeshkian, a relative moderate who was elected in July, met Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani at the start of a three-day visit that Tehran and Baghdad said would include the signing of a number of agreements and discussion of the Gaza war and the situation in the Middle East.

"The expansion of bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues such as the ongoing crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) against the oppressed people of Palestine and the need to stop the war and genocide in Gaza, will be discussed," Pezeshkian's office said in a statement.

Iraq hosts several Iran-aligned parties and armed groups, as Tehran has steadily increased its sway in the major oil producer since a U.S.-led invasion toppled its enemy Saddam Hussein in 2003.

A rare partner of both the United States and Iran, Iraq hosts 2,500 U.S. troops and has Iran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces. It has suffered escalating tit-for-tat attacks since the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza in October.

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 U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, Iranian state media reported.

RELATIONS WITH U.S.

The United States and Iran came close to a full-blown conflict in 2020 after Soleimani's killing in a U.S. drone attack at Baghdad airport and Tehran's retaliation by attacking U.S. bases in Iraq.

The United States and Iraq have reached an understanding on plans for the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces from Iraq, say sources familiar with the matter.

Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq have repeatedly attacked US troops in the Middle East since the Gaza war began.

State media have said Pezeshkian also plans to visit Iraqi Kurdistan, a region where Iran has carried out strikes in the past, saying it is used as a staging ground for Iranian separatist groups as well as agents of its arch-foe Israel.

Baghdad has tried to tackle Iranian concerns over regional separatist groups, moving to relocate some members in a 2023 security pact with Tehran.

(Additional reporting by Ahmad Elimam, Editing by parisa Hafezi, Michael Georgy, Clarence Fernandez and Timothy Heritage)