Talabani holds closed meeting with Larijani

TEHRAN / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani held a closed session of talks on Sunday with Iranian Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani, an Iraqi presidency media source said. “Talabani and his accompanying delegation met today (March 1) in Tehran with Majlis Speaker Larijani in a closed meeting, the last one for Talabani during his current visit to Iran,” the source, who is accompanying Talabani on his visit, told IraqiNews.com news agency over the phone. “The Iraqi delegation will return home today,” the source added, not revealing more details. 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. Iraq’s ambassador to in Tehran Mohammed Majeed al-Sheikh had said that the Iraqi president and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw eye to eye on Saturday on the need to turn over a new leaf and usher in an a new stage of relations serving both neighbors’ peoples. Sheikh said the Iraqi-Iranian talks were capped by the signing of several Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) in the fields of industry, electricity, trade, housing, and diplomacy. “President Talabani’s visit to Tehran with a high-level delegation resulted as expected in signing several memorandums of understanding between Iraqi ministers and their Iranian counterparts,” Sheikh told IraqiNews.com. “The MoU signed by Iraqi Industry Minister Fawzy Hariri envisaged an agreement on exchange of expertise and activation of industrial cooperation,” he said. Sheikh added that the Iraqi and Iranian foreign ministries signed a deal to further diplomatic relations, noting the Iranians agreed to provide training courses to Iraqi diplomats at their institutes. “As for electricity, Iraqi Minister Kareem Waheed signed an MoU on increasing the volume of energy Iran is providing Iraq with in the coming stage, while Minister of Trade Abdelfalah al-Sudani signed a deal to expand trade exchange via joint borders between the two countries, including those adjacent to the Iraqi Kurdistan region,” he said. The Iraqi minister of housing also signed an agreement with her Iranian counterpart on exchange of expertise and development of plans to benefit from the two countries’ urban programs, Sheikh said. AmR (S)/SR 6