Aziz hold talks in Moscow with Russian counterpart

Talks between the Russian Foreign minister Igor Ivanov and the Iraqi deputy premier Tareq Aziz, who arrived on Tuesday evening in a short work visit, started on Wednesday in Moscow.

Well-informed diplomatic sources in Moscow said that the talks dealt with discussing the Russian proposals advocated by Ivanov two weeks earlier during his visit to Baghdad, at the directives of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The sources said that the main interest in the talks centered on ensuring security and stability in the Gulf region with a stress laid on that Moscow backs the lifting of international sanctions imposed on Iraq but under the conditions of Iraq's full implementation of UN resolutions concerned, especially sending UN observers team to Iraq.