Ahmadinejad to visit Baghdad
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will make the first ever trip by and Iranian leader to Iraq next month.
Ahmadinejad will meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani during his two-day visit, a government spokesman said.
“The two countries will discuss bilateral relations and joint projects,” the spokesman said.
The neighbouring countries fought a ruinous eight-year war in the 1980s that left an estimated million people killed or wounded. But relations have improved since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Iran is overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim, and Iraq has a roughly 60% Shiite majority that emerged from decades of marginalization to become the country’s dominant force.
The announcement of the visit on March 2 comes as Iran has postponed the next session of expert-level talks on security with US diplomats, which had been due tomorrow.
The talks would have been the fourth in a series that is designed to deal with Iraqi security. Iraqi officials serve as the go-between in arranging the talks and sit in on the discussions.
The United States has accused Iran of training and supplying Shiite militia fighters with weapons and explosives in Iraq.
Underscoring the persistent violence facing Iraqi civilians despite security gains in recent months, a parked car bomb tore through a market in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City killing at least four people and wounding 28.
The explosion came just before 1 pm as the Mraidi market was packed with shoppers preparing for the Islamic day of rest in Sadr City, a Shiite militia stronghold.
