Rafsanjani to visit Iraq soon – amb.

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iranian Expediency Council Chairman Hashemi Rafsanjani is scheduled to visit Iraq within the next couple of days as the head of a high-level delegation, Iraq’s ambassador in Tehran said on Sunday. “The visit comes in response to an invitation extended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani who is currently on a visit to Iran,” Mohammed Majeed al-Sheikh told IraqiNews.com news agency. Talabani had arrived in Tehran on Thursday night coming from the South Korean capital Seoul where he spent a four-day visit for talks with South Korean officials. He met on Friday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On Saturday, Sheikh had said that the Iraqi president and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw eye to eye on the need to turn over a new leaf and usher in an a new stage of relations serving both neighbors’ peoples. During his visit, Rafsanjani and his delegation will “have talks with Iraqi officials on a host of issues of mutual concern and close viewpoints on the mechanisms of expanding cooperation between the two countries in the political and economic fields,” said Sheikh. He added that Rafsanjani will also visit the Iraqi Kurdistan region to have talks with Kurdish officials. AmR (P)/SR 1