Iran signs deals with Iraq as US sanctions hit home
Iraq and Iran have agreed to ease visa restrictions in an effort to boost investment and tourism, despite US sanctions aimed at debilitating Tehran’s financial alliances in the region.
Tehran has increasingly cosied up to Baghdad in search of its neighbour’s support as it faces the Trump administration’s embargo, after the US’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
President Hassan Rouhani, accompanied by a high ranking political and economic delegation, arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first visit.
The two sides announced this week the signing of several agreements – including deals in oil, trade and health and a railway linking the southern oil-rich city of Basra and the Iranian border town of Shalamcheh.
They also agreed to ease the visa process for businessmen, investors and tourist.
“Visas will be issued by both sides and will be free of charge to Iranian an Iraqi pilgrims and tourists as of April,” Mr Rouhani’s office announced on Tuesday.
Millions of Iranian pilgrims travel to Iraq every year to visit the southern city of Karbala for the annual pilgrimage of Arbaeen, which marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the third Shiite imam, Hussein. More than 80 per cent of foreign visitors to Najaf are from Iran.
But since the imposition of US sanctions the number of people travelling from Iran fell by 30 per cent in the first nine months of last year, to 5.9 million, according to Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organisation.
Iran needs Iraq today more than ever.
With the US tightening the screws on Tehran, Iraq becomes an ever more valuable economic lifeline, Fanar Haddad, senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute, told The National.
“The visit fits in with Iraq’s broader foreign policy of strengthening relations with all regional powers.
“From Iraq’s point of view strengthening relations with Iran on the one hand and Iraq’s relations with the US on the other are not mutually exclusive – rather, it is a compulsory balancing act,” Mr Haddad said.
Far from the bloody eightyear Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the two countries are mutually reliant in more ways than one.
Mr Rouhani said he wanted deeper political economic ties with Baghdad, while Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Mahdi said Iraq was aware of the difficulties Iran had been facing.
“We are co-operating and thoroughly understanding how we can help each other,” Mr Abdul Mahdi said.
However, the Iranian president is not necessarily Tehran’s top foreign policy maker in Iraq. The fact that this is Mr Rouhani’s first official visit since coming to power in 2013 suggests that Iranian policy is not led by the president, Renad Mansour, senior research fellow at London’s Chatham House, told The National.
There are many Iranian interests in Iraq, especially as the new government faces troubles in the south, Mr Mansour said. “A lot of the protests and grievances were not just directed against Iraq’s political parties that are close to Iran, but are directed against Iran itself,” he said.
So, what Mr Rouhani is aiming to do is to maintain its level of legitimacy and popularity inside Iraq, Mr Mansour said.
Iraq is walking a fine line for good relations with allies Iran and US, as the two struggle to mend an ailing relationship. Washington warned Iraqis that the Iranian president’s visit hides ulterior motives.
“When President Rouhani comes into Iraq, you have to question the motive,” Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran said on Tuesday.
“I think what Iran would ultimately like to see happen is Iraq turn into a province of Iran so that they can create a military highway across the northern Middle East that the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps can use to ferry missiles and weapons.”
Strengthening relations with Iran, and Iraq’s relations with the US, are not mutually exclusive – it is a balancing act FANAR HADDAD Middle East Institute