Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has on Monday condemned the United States military intervention in the Middle East as he began his first official tour to Iraq to hold discussions aimed at expanding trade ties with Iraq and bolstering Tehran’s influence.
According to Reuters news reports, the report regarding Rouhani’s visit has sent a stern message to the US and its allies, in fact, Iran still, in the face of the US sanctions, plays a dominant role in Iraqi politics.
Rouhani said Iran was determined to bolster brotherly relations with Iraq, according to Iranian state television reported on Monday.
Rouhani was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying that those ties “cannot be compared to Iraq’s relations with an occupying country like America, which is being hated in the region”.
He added, “One cannot forget the bombs that Americans dropped over Iraq, Syria and other regional countries.”
During a three-day official tour to Iraq, a series of the agreement will be inked in key areas such as health, industry, agriculture, energy and transport, according to Iran state-run IRNA news agency.
At Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, Rouhani said, “We are very much interested to expand our ties … particularly our transport cooperation.”
Rouhani is scheduled to visit a Shi’ite Muslim shrine in Baghdad’s province of Khadhimiya district to a welcome ceremony, Iraqi prime minister and president said.
Rouhani, accompanied by a senior government official, told Reuters Iraq was “another channel for Iran to bypass America’s unjust sanctions … This trip will provide opportunities for Iran’s economy.”