Iran Calls for Reactivation of Security Accord with Iraq

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on Sunday, December 10, called for full implementation of a 1975 security accord between Iran and Iraq to pave the way for normalization of their relations.

"Reactivation of the accord, which was suspended by the war, will guarantee the interests, security and stability of the two countries and pave the way for settlement of remaining problems from the war," Kharrazi told visiting Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister for International Affairs Riadh al-Qeysi.

Kharrazi said their meeting that the two countries should solve "minor issues" first before they can effectively solve other issues related to relations, reported the official IRNA news agency.

The 1975 accord, signed in the Algerian capital of Algiers by Saddam Hussein, then Iraq's vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, and Iran's late shah, obliges the two sides to halt actions undermining each other's security.

It also provides for non-interference in each other's internal affairs and political and cultural exchanges.

Al-Qeysi expressed hope that bilateral relations will have "a bright future" in light of good-neighborliness and removal of existing obstacles.

He added that continued contacts and exchange of visits would be helpful in settling disputes and restoring good-neighborly relations.

The Iraqi official arrived in Iran by land last Tuesday for a six-day visit. Upon arrival, he said that he was to follow up the talks held between Kharrazi and Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahaf.

Kharrazi met al-Sahaf during his landmark visit to Iraq in mid- October. The two sides then agreed to reactivate all joint committees set up more than a year ago to resolve all problems left over from their eight-year bloody war in 1980-88.

The two thorniest problems are the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war the two sides still accuse each other of holding and the support of opposition groups based in each other's territory.






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