Iraqi Parliamentary Speaker In Tehran To Call For Regional Talks

Visiting Tehran, Iraq's parliament speaker has stressed Baghdad’s commitment to helping ease regional tensions through diplomacy.

Mohammed al-Halbousi, who arrived in Tehran at the head of a parliamentary delegation Wednesday, said the country’s Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi had attended the latest round of talks between Tehran and Riyadh, which was held in the in Baghdad last week. Al-Halbousi made the remarks in a joint press conference after meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.

“We see negotiation and understanding as the solution to problems between neighbors,” al-Halbousi said. “Many problems require dialogue and consultation”. Diplomatic relations between Sunni Muslim-ruled Saudi Arabia and predominantly Shiite Iran were broken off in 2016, with the two supporting opposing sides in conflicts in both Syria and Yemen.

During his one-day visit, al-Halbousi was also scheduled to meet with President Ebrahim Raisi, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Halbousi's visit to Iran − his second since 2018 when he assumed office − took place as factional discussions continue over forming a new Iraqi government several months after parliamentary elections. Halbousi’s Sunni alliance is part of a parliamentary bloc in which it is allied with Muqtada Sadr’s Shiite party and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, but the process of forming a government is hindered by the complexities of sectarian arrangements and opposition from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Shia parties close to Tehran.