Iran-Iraq relations continue to improve with trade and religious visits
Iraq-Iran, Politics, 6/19/1998

Official Iraqi sources said that an Iranian trade delegation headed by the undersecretary of Iran's Trade Ministry will visit Iraq in the coming week.

The sources added that the Iranian delegation will hold discussions with a number of Iraqi officials tackling bilateral relations between the two countries, especially in the field of trade.

The sources also pointed out that relations between Baghdad and Tehran have undergone a great improvement recently, as a number of Iraqi officials have paid visits to the Iranian capital, most recently the Iraqi Foreign Ministry's undersecretary.

Previously, a number of problems between Iraq and Iran had stood in the way of normalization of relations between the two countries.The issue of Iraqis being held captive in Iran as a result of the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980's and the issue of the yet to be returned civil and military planes sent by Iraq to Iran during the Gulf War to avoid their destruction by Gulf-War anti-Iraq coalition.

Recently, General Mer Faisel Baker Zadah, the head of the Iranian committee authorized to search for the missing-in-action and the remains of soldiers who were killed in the war with Iraq, confirmed that Iranian and Iraqi soldiers' remains were exchanged in Shlmage area on the borders with Iraq. He said that the exchange process included the corpses of 53 Iranian soldiers and 134 Iraqi soldiers.

Last week, Iraqi sources told ArabicNews.com that exchanges of public and religious visits between Iran and Iraq will begin next month, and that Iranian groups wishing to visit religious sites in Iraq will head to Karbela, El-Nagaf and El-Kazemia in Baghdad soon.

The source said that Iraqis can visit the religious sites in Iran too, especially the two cities Kom and Meshad.

Previous Stories:
  Iran for expanding cooperation with Iraq   (6/1/1998)
  Iraq delegation heads to Tehran   (5/28/1998)
  New road opened between Iran and Iraq   (5/19/1998)

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