“We have very good trade relations with Iraq and a large amount of our goods are exported to this country”, Khavazi stated.

“We are happy that relations with Iraq are expanding day by day and we are ready to sign a long-term contract with our neighbor in the agricultural sector”, the official added.

“To cooperate in different sectors, we must have a timetable that fits the agricultural calendars of the two countries”, Khavazi said, adding, “There is a good ground for importing goods that we import from other countries that we can supply from Iraq to help our trade balance.”

In mid-January, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, who is the head of the Iran-Iraq Joint Economic Committee, said that the two countries’ annual trade is going to be increased to $20 billion.

Ardakanian made the remarks in the opening ceremony of the two countries’ fourth Joint Economic Committee meeting in Tehran, which he co-chaired with the Iraqi Trade Minister Alla Ahmed Al-Jubouri.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to support the export of Iranian engineering and technical services to Iraq by establishing a joint investment fund,” he said, adding that new agreements are going to be signed between the two countries in the fields of water and energy.

He also underlined the development of transportation lines between the two countries as an important factor in the development of trade relations between the two countries and added: “We are ready to implement the previous agreements in the fields of electricity, gas, and water, and to formulate new agreements in this field in order to develop cooperation between the two countries.”

The official further called for signing agreements for cooperation in other fields including double taxation, investment, preferential tariffs, and customs.

Ardakanian also mentioned the positive political relations between the two countries as a base for boosting economic relations.

He expressed hope that with the efforts of the two countries’ governments and businessmen, the development of trade and economic relations between the two sides will become smoother and the talks in the Joint Economic Committee meeting will lead to the signing of documents to develop bilateral cooperation.

Further in the meeting, Al-Jubouri said the presence of a high-ranking Iraqi delegation at the two countries’ Joint Economic Committee meeting is an indication of Iraq’s determination for boosting cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to identify and eliminate existing obstacles in the way of the two sides’ trade development and to take the necessary measures.

“Given the important relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq, both countries can help each other by sharing their experiences and technical knowledge to have good cooperation on important economic issues,” he stressed.

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First of all, there was a lengthy report by Yahoo News claiming to disclose new details about the U.S. assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Citing interviews with 15 current and former U.S. officials, the turgid report took a deep dive into U.S. preparations to assassinate the Iranian general. However, it failed to provide previously unknown jaw-dropping details about the assassination except for a bunch of claims of Kurdish involvement in the strike. These claims were quickly rejected by Kurdish authorities in Iraq.

The Counter Terrorism Group (CTG), a counter-terrorism unit affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) that was accused in the report of playing a key role in facilitating the strike against General Soleimani, has denied any involvement in the assassination. “We deny any involvement or awareness of our forces in such act,” reads a statement from the CTG sent to Rudaw English. “General Qassem Soleimani was a close friend of the late Mam Jalal [Talabani], and counter-terrorism units once fought on the frontlines against terrorism where Qassem Soleimani was also fighting.”

Iran has stopped short of directly pointing the finger at the CTG but said anyone linked to the assassination of General Soleimani must be held accountable.

Pundits believe that the report may have been intended to undermine Iran’s relations with the Iraqi Kurdish region and deflect attention away from those really behind the assassination.

Reza al-Ghurabi, an Iraqi expert on Iran, said on Twitter that the Yahoo News report fostered suspicion among Iranian media outlets against Iraqi Kurdistan and deflected attention away from elements who facilitated the assassination.

In the midst of the controversy over the report, a prominent Iraqi protest leader in the holy city Karbala was shot dead in the latest of assassinations targeting activists who played a key role in organizing anti-government protests.

The protest leader, Ihab al-Wazni, was murdered in broad daylight outside his home. As usual, some Iraqi and regional parties sought to blame his murder on Iran while portraying al-Wazni as an anti-corruption activist who had opposed Iran’s influence in his country.

While the Iraqi government was still investigating the assassination, The Arab Weekly, a publication close to the United Arab Emirates, pointed the finger at Iran.

Citing an activist close to al-Wazni, the publication said, “They are Iranian militias. They assassinated Ihab and they will kill us all. They threaten us and the government is silent.”

This incitement of hate against Iran has provoked a mob of protesters setting fire to the Iranian consulate in Karbala. Iran sent a letter of protest to the Iraqi embassy in Tehran and summoned the Iraqi ambassador. Iran also called on Iraq to provide protection for its diplomatic missions in accordance with international law.

The assassination of al-Wazni indicated that how far some regional local parties would go to defame Iran and mobilize public opinion against it even though it had played no role in the assassination.

These parties are now seeking to exploit the plight of another Iraqi activist who incurred severe injuries during an assassination attempt in Diwaniya. Ahmed Hassan, an Iraqi journalist, was in intensive care after being shot in the head early Monday. No one claimed responsibility.

Iran and Iraq enjoy deep, historic relations that despite highs and lows continue to be mutually beneficial to both sides. And this has angered some local and regional parties who wish to fish in Iraq’s troubled waters. These parties now seek to exploit the fraught situation in Iraq to drive a wedge between Iran and Iraq by accusing some Iraqi groups of being Iranian surrogates. With the general Iraqi parliamentary election a few months away, the political tussle between Iraqi groups is expected to intensify given the strong desire among some regional states to exacerbate polarization in Iraq.

The Arab Weekly claimed that “the upcoming battle for the protest movement [in Iraq] is likely to be with the Shia parties that are exclusively loyal to Iran.”

This portrayal of certain Iraqi political groups as pro-Iran factions may reflect a desire by the United Arab Emirates and other regional states to defame these groups ahead of the next Iraqi election.

Regardless of the motivations behind the recent assassination, Iran has made it clear that it highly values its relations with Iraq and will never let certain hands undercut these relations. That’s why Iran refused to escalate diplomatic tensions after its consulate was set alight and dealt with the issue calmly.

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Hantoush who visited Tehran on top of a high-ranking delegation also met with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh on Saturday evening.

“In the meetings we had, all the ways and solutions for the resumption of Iran’s energy supply to Iraq were discussed, and certainly the cooperation [between the two sides] will continue,” the Iraqi minister told the press.

The official noted that Iran has not halted gas and electricity supply to Iraq, however there were some issues regarding the supply to power plants which were also discussed during this visit.

“We reached good agreements on this issue and payment methods,” he emphasized.

Upon arrival to Tehran, Hantoush held talks with Zanganeh to work out a solution for the settlement of Baghdad’s gas debts to Tehran.

The visit of Iraqi delegation to Tehran came as the country is pressing for restoration of reduced gas supplies from Iran months after the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) reduced the flow to Iraq over arrears on previous payments.

Speaking in the meeting with Hantoush, Zanganeh mentioned the signing of two major deals between the two countries for the Iranian gas exports to Iraq and said: “So far, some 27 billion cubic meters of gas has been exported to Iraq… but the payment is facing problems and we hope we could reach a solution on the issue.”

Hantoush for his part pointed to the good political and economic relations between Iran and Iraq and noted that his government is doing its best to settle the payments.

Iraq relies heavily on Iranian gas to feed several power plants across the country, while Iranian electricity exports also account for a major part of the country’s power supply.

The Islamic Republic, however, has recently slashed its gas exports to Iraq and threatened further reduction due to the Arab country’s failure to meet its payment obligations.

Iraq is seeking to have the supplies restored as it needs them desperately to increase electricity generation in the run-up to a hot summer in the Arab country where demand for power is expected to soar to record levels.

Baghdad has been claiming that the main reason for the country’s gas and electricity bills piling up has been the banking problems created by the U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic, saying the Iranian money is ready but it is frozen in Iraqi state banks due to the sanctions.

These claims, however, contradict the fact that the U.S. has wavered Iraq to import Iranian gas and electricity, which means the Iraqi government would be able to use legal financial facilities to pay its energy debts to Iran despite the sanctions.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – In his phone talk with his Iraqi counterpart, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran opposes any foreign interference in the internal affairs of the countries in the region.

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In an interview with Tasnim, chairman official of the Iran-Iraq joint chamber of commerce, Yahya Al-e Eshaq, said Iranian trucks are exporting shipments to Iraq via the Tamarchin, Bashmagh, Khosravi, Parvizkhan, Shalamcheh, and Chazzabeh border crossings on a daily basis and without any problem.

He added that there has been ups and downs in the land freight at the Mehran border crossing, but so far at least 800 trucks have entered Iraq from there. “At present, no Iranian export truck is stranded at this border crossing.”

Al-e Eshaq said the “fake and unreal” reports about closure of the Iran-Iraq border following the outbreak of the coronavirus are part of the attempts by the “enemies of Islamic Republic of Iran seeking to wage a psychological war”, the chairman of the chamber of commerce added,

“It is natural for the US to do its utmost to isolate and block Iran’s economy, but it will definitely fail (to do so),” the Iranian official went on to say.

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