AFP: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is meeting top Iranian leaders on Friday on his second trip to the Islamic republic in almost two years, the offical IRAN news agency reported.
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is meeting top Iranian leaders on Friday on his second trip to the Islamic republic in almost two years, the offical IRAN news agency reported.
Talabani, a Kurd, will hold talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the head of Iran's Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and others.
Other media reports said Talabani is also expected to meet Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iraqi leader arrived in Iran on Thursday on his way home from a trip to South Korea. He is accompanied by a high-level delegation from the ministries of foreign affairs, trade and electricity.
He previously visited Iran in June 2007.
Ahmadinejad travelled to Iraq in March 2008 in the first ever visit by an Iranian president to the former arch-foe, symbolising the flourishing ties between Tehran and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
The two Shiite-majority countries fought a war between 1980 and 1988 in which around one million people died.
Relations have warmed considerably since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime in Iraq by US-led forces.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited Tehran in January to seek Iran's help in rebuilding the country and the two neighbours agreed to establish a high-ranking joint committee to improve cooperation.
