Iraq's Foreign Minister to Visit Tehran Next Month

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 26, 2001

Iraq's Foreign Minister to Visit Tehran Next Month

Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said on Tuesday he would visit Iran early next year to discuss issues blocking the normalisation of relations between the two Muslim neighbours since their runinous war in the 1980s.

Sabri said he had discussed the visit -- the first such exchange in several years -- with Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi at the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Doha on December 10.

"I will visit Iran next month, God willing, to hold detailed talks on pending issues," Iraq's satellite channel quoted Sabri as saying.

"There are files still pending since the 1980s between the two countries and we are endeavouring to close them and currently there is an Iranian delegation in Baghdad to solve the problem of displaced people," he said.

Ties have improved between the two countries which fought a an eight-year-long war in the 1980s. Baghdad has reopened its borders for Iranian pilgrims to visit Shi'ite shrines in Iraq.

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