🔻 Iranian media have reported that Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, head of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, who traveled to Baghdad, met with Nassar Amidi, the President of Iraq.

No further details of this meeting have yet been released.

Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday to meet senior Iraqi officials.

Before meeting Iraq’s president, he told reporters at Baghdad airport: “After the Ramadan war (the forty-day war), we have witnessed a shift in the security order of the region. In the new order of the region, the interference of foreigners and trans-regional players in the region’s equations is rapidly decreasing.”

Mr. Qalibaf said his trip to Iraq today is “in line with strengthening the new order in the region and speeding up the strengthening of cooperation among all countries in the region without foreign interference.”

The purpose of the trip was announced as “talks to enhance bilateral relations, border security, combating terrorism, and developing economic cooperation.”

A delegation from Iran’s parliament is also accompanying him on this trip.

The visit by the head of Iran’s parliament to Iraq comes as, in recent weeks, tensions between the Iraqi government and armed groups supported by Iran in the country have increased.

Since the appointment of Ali Zaydi, Iraq’s new prime minister, he has made extensive efforts to persuade Iran-aligned militias to lay down their weapons.