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Iranian president begins visit to neighboring Iraq


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Iranian president begins visit to neighboring Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran's outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad landed in Iraq on Thursday in his second official visit to the country, highlighting the growing ties between the two Shiite-led neighbors.

The Iranian leader is expected to meet with top Iraqi officials and visit Shiite holy sites during his two-day visit to Iraq, which is grappling with its worst outbreak of violence in half a decade.

Ahmadinejad previously flew to Iraq in 2008, the first ever trip by an Iranian president since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the two countries' bloody war in the 1980s. He used that earlier visit to emphasize a new chapter in "brotherly" relations between the one-time foes and take swipes at the United States over the legacy of its 2003 military invasion.

Iran's president-elect, Hasan Rouhani, is expected to be sworn in and take over from Ahmadinejad in early August.

Ahmadinejad was greeted with traditional kisses on the cheek by Iraqi Vice President Khudier al-Khuzaie, who met him on a red carpet laid out on the airport tarmac in Baghdad.

The vice president is standing in for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who suffered a stroke in December and has been absent from Iraq's political scene while he receives treatment in a German hospital.

Iranian state television reported that Ahmadinejad hopes the visit will boost economic cooperation between the two neighbors, which it says now amounts to $13 billion in annual trade.

Among topics on the agenda is the finalization of a gas import deal to ship 25 million cubic meters of Iranian gas daily to fuel Iraqi power plants, which are still incapable of provide a steady supply of electricity, according to Iranian state TV. A new gas pipeline from Iran is expected to open later this summer.

Iraq is a major market for Iranian goods, including cars, construction materials and food products such as tomato paste and ice cream. Those exports provide an important source of hard currency for Iran, which has been increasingly cut off from the world's financial system following multiple rounds of sanctions over its disputed nuclear program.

The U.S.-led invasion ten years ago that toppled Saddam Hussein's Sunni-heavy regime set in motion a rapid turnaround in relations between Iran and Iraq, which fought a ruinous eight-year war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Saddam's ouster put Iraq's majority Shiites in control, and many Shiites who had fled persecution by Saddam and took refuge in Iran returned home. Millions of Iranians now visit Shiite holy sites in Iraq annually, and top Iraqi leaders including al-Maliki have paid visits to Iran.

Still, many Iraqis remain suspicious of Iranian influence in their country. Sunni Arabs in particular resent the government's warm ties with Tehran and some criticize al-Maliki of being too close to the Islamic Republic.

Washington wants Baghdad to do more to stop what it suspects are Iranian arms shipments being flown through Iraqi airspace to Syria's Iranian-backed regime. Shiite militant groups inside Iraq, some of which have been sending militants to fight alongside Syrian regime troops, are believed to receive backing and training from Tehran.

___

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/iranian-president-begins-visit-neighboring-iraq-125021030.html

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Kinda surpsrised VP Khuzaie greeted him and not Maliki...I'm sure he is headed to meet him but kinda found that interesting.

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Members of the delegation accompanying Ahmadinejad in his visit to Baghdad, including senior aides and ministers in his government
Thursday, July 18, 2013 15:57


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[Follow-up - where]
 
Accompanying the delegation included former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad Thursday afternoon his top aides and ministers in his government.
 
Ahmadinejad arrived in Baghdad afternoon at the head of an official delegation in response to an official invitation.
 
The Iranian news agency Fars had said earlier today that "President Ahmadinejad, left this afternoon, the capital, Tehran, on his way to the Iraqi capital Baghdad, where he bid him farewell at the airport, his first deputy, Mohammad Reza Rahimi."
 
"The accompanying Ahmadinejad in his visit to Iraq, all of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei head of the Secretariat of the Non-Aligned Movement, Ali Akbar Salehi, Foreign Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, Minister of the Interior, and Rostam Ghasemi oil minister, and glorious نامجو and Energy MinisterHassan Mousavi, director of the Office of the President, and Mir Taj Religious Assistant President of the Republic in the implementation of the Constitution, Behrouz Moradi, Assistant President of the Republic in the affairs of the strategic planning and supervision. "
 
She continued, "The delegation includes both غضنفري Minister of Industry and Mines, and Mojtaba fruit Hashmi, senior adviser to the president, Massoud Zrebavan President Martyr Foundation, and Ali نيكزاد Minister of Roads and build cities, Gholam-Hossein Elham, spokesman for the government, as well as Hamid staying Executive Assistant to the President of the Republic."
 
And Ahmadinejad's visit to Baghdad at the invitation of his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani, and was received by Vice President Khodair al due to indisposition Talabani's health and the lack of presence in Baghdad. Ended


 

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He's the prince of persia!  An evil loser who is in bed with the maliki.  He has to make sure that Maliki keeps that rv from happening, cause if it does, the citizens of Iraq become empowered and they both get the shoe.  JMO, it's not here nor there, but they both have been working toward dictatorship for Iraq with auk ma nut at the helm. 

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Foreign Policy: Washington to delay the F16 deal helps Iraq to evade Iranian aid to Damascus

 

20-07-2013 | (Voice of Iraq) - comment.PNG Add a comment -   

 translation term 

For months the Obama administration tried and failed to persuade Iraq to stop Iran flights passing through its airspace to Syria, which the United States believes that it helps in the corridor than the regular army on the Syrian rebels. 

Although U.S. officials confirmed the existence of an Iranian air bridges provide critical lifeline to the Assad regime, officials in Iraq say they can not stop the Iranian military supplies; Iraqi air force is very weak and can not do so. 

Today in the new Iraqi ambassador to the United States for the treatment plan diplomatic impasse boils down to the principle of "Help me to help you." In an interview last Wednesday, the ambassador said Luqman Feily he is busy trying to convince U.S. officials that in the case of agreeing to support the Iraqi air defenses, it will improve the ability of Iraq to prevent the passage of weapons coming from Iran. 

He says Philly "is not for us complete control over our airspace for not امتلاكنا air defense system integrated, and this is the cause of my conversations with Alcapittal Hill and with the State Department and the Pentagon, where previously asked for the system as well as Apache helicopters worth $ 10 billion, and this is beneficial to the United States." 

Relations have grown between Iran and Iraq in recent years, what is causing concern to American decision-makers. In spite of the billions of dollars the U.S. to the Iraqi government every year, the ethnic and economic relations and regional issues between Iran and Iraq has made the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ally can not be predicted. 

In the case of Syria, even the best efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry has failed in Etienne fruit. Kerry said, speaking about his negotiations with al-Maliki in the month of March, "said the prime minister that overflights coming from Iran is in fact to help keep Assad in power." 

But with the reason behind Iraq's request for the transaction is not surprising, the American military experts acknowledge that legitimate in Feily point, which is that Iraq is not able to stop arms shipments now even if he wanted to. 

The Iraqi air force is composed of some reconnaissance aircraft and light transport aircraft, but to possess what is called the capacity air defense of confrontation and fixed-wing. Currently there is an agreement for the United States to provide Iraq with F-16 fighter jets, but it has not yet received. 

Says Chris Harmer, senior analyst at the Institute of Maritime Studies hostilities "that Iraq's position in terms of not having an integrated air defense system and fixed-wing fighter jets and attack helicopters to abort the aircraft crossing the Iranian airspace, the position is technically true." Hammer adds, "All that is now owned by Iraq is civilian air traffic radars, and the Iraqis can see the Iranian aircraft cross but do not have the military capability to force it to land and undergo inspection." 

And seeks Feily the start to explain his plan for American officials; it is supposed to present on Thursday enthusiastic ambassador presented his credentials to President Barack Obama officially give him permission to meet with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Says Feily "I do not see any benefit for the United States not to proceed in this matter." 

However, it is the U.S. side is still on the table questions about how to use Iraq to the newly established air power in the case of the approval of the United States on this deal. He says Stephen يكين Fellow of the Institute Hummer and research analyst in which "the Iraqi government in a difficult situation; she wanted and needed to maintain good relations with Washington and Tehran at the same time, Iraq could not engage in a confrontation with Iran and even has the ability to monitor its airspace, I expect that the parties reach a practical understanding constantly allow Iran to transfer arms to the Assad without Iraqi cooperation makes visible. " 

It is natural that this is just a hunch, but there is another effect should we put in our calculations outside of the issue of the civil war, namely the Syrian Kurds; Over the years he was President of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, F-16s used as an important theme of the talks, "We have repeatedly Barzani said that the Kurds fear of al-Maliki to use advanced modern air force against them. " 

All of these factors greatly overshadow the decision of the United States in the delivery of F-16s to Iraq, which creates a number of interesting moves. He says He يكين "waiting for F-16s will help the Iraqi government where they can deny their ability to prevent Iranian trips and blames the United States, which maintains a kind of neutrality is stable." 

However that Feily insists that the Iraqi government play correctly and it is cooperating with the Obama administration by all possible means. Says Feily "We have asked the Iranians not to use our corridor, we do not want to be a conduit for the transfer of arms to Syria, but we do not have the ability to stop it." 

More: Foreign Policy

Read more: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http://www.sotaliraq.com/mobile-news.php%3Fid%3D108921&usg=ALkJrhiAHjj8nrLSvNCavrIq-q16N3Vzpg#ixzz2ZYINgyM2

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