Senior MP: Enemies Seeking to Create Rift between Iran, Iraq

TEHRAN, May 4 (FNA)- Head of Iran-Iraq Parliamentary Friendship Group Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh warned about the plots hatched by enemies to sow discord between the Iranian and Iraqi nations.
"Enemies are seeking to divert the relations between Iran and Iraq," Falahatpisheh said on Wednesday.

"And we should be sensitive to any foreign interference in the region," he added.

"Anywhere in the region that foreigners are present, they have prevented regional cooperation and activation of potentials," he added, addressing a meeting here in Tehran on the cultural relations between Iran and Iraq.

Falahatpisheh also called on the Iranian and Iraqi officials to use all the existing potentials to further develop and consolidate their bilateral relations in political, economic and cultural fields.

Also, Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani yesterday called for the further development of all-out relations and mutual cooperation between Tehran and Baghdad, specially in cultural fields.

"Exchange of cultural relations between Tehran and Baghdad is an important historical issue," Larijani said on Tuesday.

Iran and Iraq have enjoyed growing ties ever since the overthrow of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, during the 2003 US invasion of the Muslim country.

Both sides are working on a series of plans to take wide strides in the expansion of their ties, in economic fields in particular.