Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein arrived in Iran on April 13 for an official visit that saw him meeting Iranian officials. Reports said that the top Iraqi diplomat discussed in Tehran bilateral ties, regional developments, and some other cases of interest including Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine. The visit was paid at the invitation of Iranian counterpart Hussein Amir-Abdollahian.
The trip is the first by an Iraqi official since mid-March when Iran launched missile strikes on Israeli Mossad spying center in Iraqi Kurdistan region's capital Erbil. This means that this visit is way more important than the past official ones. But what are the tangible outcomes of this visit and how would it influence the two neighbors' future relations?
Consolidating security on shared borders
Taking the Iranian missile attack into consideration, the key point about the Iraqi PM's trip to Tehran is naturally the security. During meetings with the Iraqi official, the Iranian President Sayyed Ibrahim Raisi and also FM Amir-Abdollahian emphasized that Iran does not tolerate its security threatened by the US, the Israeli regime, and separatist groups from inside Iraq.
These comments by the Iranian officials clearly show that Iran expects more than ever from the Iraqi government to be more sensitive on security issues with a special focus on the presence of the Israeli regime operatives as well as the American occupying forces and show its good neighborliness to Tehran as an actor that has always stood by the Iraqi people in difficult times, majorly during their fight against the terrorist group ISIS from 2014 to 2017.
Meanwhile, Iraq's FM made a clear effort to tell the Iranian officials that the Iraqi security is tied to that of Iran.
"The security of Iraq is related to the security of Iran. Iran and Iraq are two neighboring countries, and economic, cultural, geographical, and historical relations have strongly exist between them. When there is a security problem, we have to start a dialogue. Doors are open for dialogue, as in Baghdad, and we hope that these doors will be open in Tehran to have intensive talks on security issues," he said.
These comments and stances obviously make a significant achievement for the two countries. After all, they have a belief that there are some security issues that need to be discussed for a solution. Hussein's promise to resolve security issues through diplomacy reflects Baghdad's special desire to respond to Tehran's security concerns, especially regarding the movement of terrorist groups near the Iranian border, Israeli activities in northern Iraq, and the US military occupational presence in the Arab country.
Boosting trade and removing obstacles ahead of freedom of movement of citizens of two countries
Another outcome included the convergence of the two countries and their readiness to increase trade level, settle financial problems between them, and facilitate travel of their citizens to each other.
Over the past few years, facilitating and increasing trade level and economic relations has been at the top of the goals of the two countries. Tehran has set $20 billion in exports to Iraq as an important goal in its economic diplomacy and has always made this vision clear. Amir-Abdullahian, in his meeting with Hussein, cited the strengthening of trade relations with Iraq as one of the important priorities of the two countries and emphasized on issues such as facilitating trade at border crossings, cross-border transportation, and finalization of the Basra-Shalamcheh railway.
Paying Iran's debts, on the other hand, has topped Tehran-Baghdad negotiations in recent years. This issue was discussed again in Hussein's trip to Tehran. Iraq is indebted to Iran for power, gas, and other commodities imports. Part of these debts are paid via bartering but Iran insists Baghdad should pay them in cash. It seems that very serious negotiations are underway to resolve this issue.
Another issue of discussion between the two countries during the recent visit was facilitation of traveling of the two countries' citizens. Amir-Abdollahian asked the Iraqi officials to facilitate travels between the two countries especially for pilgrims visiting holy cities in both countries. The same demand was made by the Iraqi FM. Such demand promises reopening the borders to citizens from the two countries in the future.
Baghdad seeking to reignite Iran-Saudi de-escalation talks
Another goal sought by the Iraqi FM during his Iran visit was the mediation between Tehran and Riyadh. Since April 2021, Iraqi government has been engaged in efforts to arrange talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia meant to defuse tensions between the two regional rivals. So far, Baghdad hosted four rounds of closed-door meetings between Iranian and Saudi negotiators.
Although the talks are on hold amid increased Saudi airstrikes on Yemen and the mass execution of Shiite citizens last month, which were strongly condemned by Tehran, Baghdad is pushing to revive and conclude them. The Iraqi FM hoped that the two countries continue with a shift to open talks, ending over a year of secret dialogue.
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