The high-profile trip is Rouhani’s first to the neighboring nation since he was elected president in 2013.
By Mustafa Salim , Erin Cunningham and Erin Cunningham Middle East reporter covering Iran, Turkey, Syria and the wider region Email Bio Follow Tamer El-Ghobashy Tamer El-Ghobashy Baghdad bureau chief focusing on Iraq's politics, security and the fight against the Islamic State Email Bio Follow March 11 at 9:33 AM BAGHDAD — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was in Baghdad on Monday on his first state visit to Iraq since his election six years ago, shoring up political and trade relations as...
In Baghdad, at a news conference with Iraqi President Barham Salih, Rouhani said Iran and Iraq’s shared cultural and religious ties could “not be easily undermined.” The two countries fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded Iran. But since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which ousted Hussein, Iran has bolstered its influence in the neighboring country, much to the chagrin of the United States.In recent months, U.S. officials have urged Iraqi leaders to abandon or at least downgrade relations with Iran.
Trump himself has twice angered Iraqi politicians by suggesting that U.S. troops stay in Iraq either to respond to Islamic State activity in Syria or to “watch Iran.”
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