Reports say Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has begun his first official visit to Iraq since taking office five years ago.
After meeting his Iraqi counterpart, Mr Rouhani said he wanted deeper political and economic ties between their states, which fought a bloody war in the 1980s.
He noted that Iran had come to Iraq’s aid in recent years when it was threatened by the Islamic State group.
Iranian officials see Iraq as a way to mitigate the US sanctions reinstated by President Donald Trump last year.
Mr Trump’s decision, made after he abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal, has led to a sharp downturn in Iran’s economy, pushing the value of its currency to record lows, quadrupling its annual inflation rate, and driving away foreign investors.
He pointed out that Iran had stood by Iraq in difficult times a reference to its training and arming of thousands of Iraqi Shia paramilitary fighters who have helped drive Islamic State, IS, militants out of the large parts of Iraq they seized in 2014.
Iraqi President, Mr Barham Salih in his response, said he agreed with the necessity of enhancing trade and setting up related economic infrastructure between the two countries and peoples.
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