Al Maliki in Iran for talks with leaders

Tehran (AFP) Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki arrived in Tehran yesterday for two days of meetings with Iranian leaders and senior officials on various bilateral issues, Iran's Irna state news agency reported.

The visit notably comes ahead of an important May 23 meeting to be hosted in Baghdad between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.

Al Maliki's schedule of meetings including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad underlined the current good relations between their Shiite-dominated administrations — a far cry from the hostility and war that reigned between the two countries in the 1980s when Baghdad was run by Saddam Hussain and his Sunni-led government.

Al Maliki, who was at the head of a delegation of ranking Iraqi political and economic officials, was also to see parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and to attend a meeting of the Iran-Iraq joint economic commission.

The focus of talks was on bilateral, regional and international issues, and to "develop and strengthen bilateral ties," IRNA reported.

It was Al Maliki's first visit to Tehran since October 2010, when he was trying to secure regional backing for a second term as premier following inconclusive March parliamentary polls.

Contentious issues

Iraq and Iran have similar positions on the crisis in Syria, where the regime of Iranian ally President Bashar Al Assad has been carrying out a bloody crackdown on an uprising against his rule, in which thousands have died.

But there are some contentious issues between the two countries, including the diversion by Iran of rivers that flow into Iraq, as well as borders and oil.

erdogan

War of words

Turkish Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan has rejected charges he sought to inflame sectarian divisions in Iraq with recent criticism of its government and accused his Iraqi counterpart of trying to gain "prestige" in an escalating war of words between the neighbours.

The row heated up on Thursday when Erdogan accused Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki of acting "self-centred" and inciting tensions between the country's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds amid a constitutional crisis in Baghdad.

Al Maliki in turn branded Turkey a "hostile state" and said Erdogan's remarks "represent another return to flagrant interference in Iraqi internal affairs," according to a statement on his website on Friday.

"We don't differentiate between Sunnis or Shiites. Arab, Kurd or Turkmen, they are all our brothers," Erdogan told reporters in comments reported by the NTV news channel.

"If we respond to Mr Maliki, we give him the opportunity to show off there. There is no need to allow him to gain prestige."

— Reuters