Iran's new President Masoud Pezeshkian travels to neighbouring Iraq on his first trip abroad

Iran's President Pezeshkian visits Iraq to strengthen ties amid regional tensions and US troop presence concerns.

Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian travelled to Iraq on Wednesday (September 11, 2024) on his first trip abroad, hoping to cement Tehran's ties to Baghdad as regional tensions increasingly pull both countries into the widening Middle East fray.

For Iran, its relationship with Iraq remains crucial for economic, political, and religious reasons — something that has especially been true since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, who launched a bloody, yearslong war against Iran in the 1980s.

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Baghdad, meanwhile, has been trying to balance its relationship with Tehran, which backs powerful Shiite militias in the country, as well as with the United States, which maintains a force of 2,500 troops in Iraq that remain in battle with remnants of the once-dominant extremist Islamic State group.

The American troops remain both a literal and rhetoric target for Iran, particularly as Israel's nearly year-old war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds on. Just before Pezeshkian's arrival, an explosion struck a site near Baghdad International Airport used by the US military Tuesday night. The circumstances of the explosion were not clear and there was no immediate information on damages or casualties.

Mr. Pezeshkian, who was sworn in as Iran's new president in July, is also scheduled to visit Shiite shrines in the cities of Karbala and Najaf, a railroad project to link the southern city of Basra to Iran and Irbil, the capital of Iraq's semiautonomous northern Kurdish region.

Ahead of the trip, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told an Iraqi television channel that Mr. Pezeshkian hoped to tighten security relations with Baghdad, as well as economic ties.