Iranian delegation discusses cooperation with governing council in Iraq

A delegation representing the Iranian foreign ministry met in Baghdad yesterday with chairman and members of the transitional governing council in Iraq.

Iraq’s chairman of the transitional Governing Council, Ibrahim al-Jafaari said upon meeting with the delegation that "Saddam Hussein's regime was not only hurting Iran and the Iranian people in the Iraqi- Iranian war but also hurting Iraq and its people."

Al-Jafaari explained in a meeting with the al-Jazeera TV yesterday that the Iraqi council is looking forward to a new phase of relations with Tehran after the crisis between the two countries throughout the past decades.

The Iraqi side proposed to the talks several issues including returning back of the Iraqi prisoners so far left in Iran, halting smuggling and sneaking operations through the borders between the two countries, while the Iranian side chaired by the official in charge for the Middle East and the Gulf department at the foreign ministry Hussein Sadiqi to facilitate the visit of the Iranians to the holy sites in Najaf al-Kerbalaa in Iraq.

The chairman of the Iranian delegation expressed his country's readiness to contribute to rebuilding Iraq and showed a desire to serious cooperation with the transitional governing council and to open a new page in the relations between the two countries.

Talks also dealt with political conditions in Iraq and issues of mutual concern as well as bilateral relations and the question of formulating the new Iraqi constitution and missions of the transitional governing council in Iraq.

A source at the higher council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq said that the deputy chairman of the council, said that member of the governing council Abdul Aziz al-Hakim received yesterday the Iranian delegation and discussed with him conditions in Iraq and the future of relations between Baghdad and Tehran.