Iran president deepens Iraq ties on first foreign trip

Iran and Iraq on Wednesday signed more than a dozen agreements to deepen already strong ties as Masoud Pezeshkian visited Baghdad on his first foreign trip as president of the Islamic republic.
The three-day trip comes amid turmoil in the Middle East sparked by the war in Gaza, which has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups and complicated Iraq’s relations with the United States.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Pezeshkian, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said both governments opposed any expansion of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“In light of the escalation that the region has been going through, we have spoken a lot about the importance of stability,” Sudani said, blaming Israel for the regional spillover of the war.
Pezeshkian announced that “14 cooperation memorandums were signed between Iran and Iraq, which is the starting point of the expansion of cooperation”.