Iranian President Mohammad Khatami ended his landmark two-day visit to Bahrain saying they were working with other countries in the region to “rehabilitate” Iraq through an “effective UN role” to ensure the establishment of an Iraqi national government. The signing of a security treaty between the two countries was the highlight of the visit, the first for an Iranian leader in 25 years.
The treaty, which follows similar pacts that Iran signed with Saudi Arabia and Yemen, is aimed at combatting organised crime, smuggling, drug and weapons trafficking, and allowing the extradition of criminals, according to Iranian interior minister Abdul Wahid Mousawi Lari.
“It is an important treaty which will consolidate our efforts to build the bridges of trust not only between Bahrain and Iran but also amongst all countries of the region,” said Bahraini Foreign Minister Shaikh Mohammad Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi.
Other important events:
1792 Twenty-four merchants form the New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street.
1814 Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden.
1877 The first telephone switchboard burglar alarm is installed by Edward T. Holmes of Boston, Massachusetts.
1884 Alaska becomes a US territory.
1927 US Army aviation pioneer Major Harold Geiger, dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane at Olmstead Field, Pennsylvania.
1938 Europe’s first successful satellite, ESRO-2B, is launched.
1940 Nazi Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium, in the Second World War.
1946 Ion Antonescu, the fascist wartime prime minister of Romania, is sentenced to death.
1949 The British government recognises the Republic of Ireland.
1957 Egypt bars Israeli ships from the Suez Canal.
1973 US Senate begins hearings into the Watergate scandal.
1983 Israel and Lebanon sign a peace treaty.
1987 37 American sailors are killed in an Iraqi attack on USS Stark in the Arabian Gulf.
1994 Malawi voters stream from impoverished villages to take part in first multiparty elections in three decades.
1995 Conservative Jacques Chirac becomes French President.
1996 Romano Prodi becomes Prime Minister of Italy.
1997 Zaire’s new leader Laurent Kabila renames the nation the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
1999 Sonia Gandhi resigns as head of the Congress party in India.
2003 Sri Lanka’s heaviest rains in 50 years cause flash flooding that kills 250 people.
2004 The head of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council Izzadine Saleem is killed in a car bomb suicide attack.
2007 Trains cross the border dividing the two Koreas for the first time in more than 50 years.
2009 Dalia Grybauskaite is elected the first female President of Lithuania.
2010 Justice Renato Corona is sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Philippines.
2012 Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan sign a deal estimated at $1 billion to construct a dedicated cross-border electricity transmission line.
2013 Two bombs outside a mosque and another one targeting a funeral procession kill at least 51 people in Iraq.
2014 Manmohan Singh resigns as prime minister of India and his successor Narendra Modi celebrates his landslide win.
2016 A series of bombings strikes outdoor markets in neighbourhoods of Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 69 people.
