Iran will help mend Erbil-Baghdad relations, top Tehran aide tells Masum

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A high ranking Iranian official expressed Tehran’s readiness in a meeting with the president of Iraq to do its best to mend Erbil-Baghdad relations which hit their lowest ebb in the wake of the independence referendum.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will do whatever in its power to remove grudges between Iraq’s central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and to improve their ties,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide to the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, said in a meeting with Iraqi President Fuad Masum on Sunday, according to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).

According to IRIB, Velayati hailed the role of the late Kurdish leader and former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani for his “key role in the Iraqi nation’s war for independence.”

Velayeti described the Kurdistan Region’s political and cultural relations with Iran as “deep-rooted.”

He also said Iran-Iraq relations are built on a “strategic” foundation and that both nations share an inseparable fate. Tehran has always sided with the Iraqi nation and governments at all stages, he added.

For his part, President Masum called on Iran to play its role in normalizing Erbil-Baghdad ties.

He described Baghdad’s relations with Tehran as not “tactical.”

The top aide to the supreme leader was in Baghdad to take part in the opening ceremony of the Iraqi Assembly for Islamic Unity which took place on Saturday, according to state run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Iran was one of the countries that strongly opposed the Kurdish independence vote in September 2017. Tehran temporarily closed its major border crossings with the Kurdistan Region.

Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the KRG, met in late January in Tehran with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and other Iranian officials as part of a diplomatic tour following the independence vote.

Iran will help mend Erbil-Baghdad relations, top Tehran aide tells Masum

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