Rouhani due in Iraq today for first visit

tehran — Iran’s president is making his first official visit to Iraq this week as he faces mounting pressure from hard-liners at home in the wake of the Trump administration’s unravelling of the nuclear deal.

Hassan Rouhani’s trip — billed as “historic and noble” by his foreign minister — is meant to solidify ties between Iran and Iraq’s government, a strong Tehran ally. It is also Iran’s response to President Donald Trump’s snap December trip to Iraq and the American president’s comments that US forces should stay in Iraq to keep an eye on neighbouring Iran, with which Iraq shares a 1,400km-long border.

Rouhani’s visit to Iraq will provide an opportunity for reaching “serious understandings” between the two neighbors, Iran’s top diplomat, Mohammed Javad Zarif told the official Irna news agency from Baghdad, where he was preparing for Rouhani’s three-day visit that starts on Monday.

Rouhani, who had visited Iraq privately before becoming president, had planned an official visit in 2016 but that one was cancelled over unspecified “executive” problems.

This time, Rouhani, who is on a second four-year-term, is particularly vulnerable because of the economic crisis assailing the Iranian rial, which has hurt ordinary Iranians and emboldened critics to openly call for the president’s ouster.