After Pezeshkian's visit... Will Iraq help isolated Iran lead a new regional alliance?

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[size=52]After Pezeshkian's visit... Will Iraq help isolated Iran lead a new regional alliance?[/size]

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2024-09-12 -
Baghdad
On his first official foreign visit, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian landed in Baghdad, during which he signed 14 memoranda of understanding. While observers found that most of these memoranda are in Iran's favor, a person close to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani indicated that the goal of the visit is to form a major economic alliance with Egypt and Jordan with Iraqi mediation and participation.[/size]
[size=45]A politician close to the Prime Minister, Aid Al-Hilali, said during a conversation, “The visit discussed the future of the region, including regional relations and the role that Iraq can play in bringing the views of Iran and the countries of the region closer together, as Iraq is now working to bring the views of Iran closer together on the one hand and Egypt and Jordan on the other.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Hilali expects that “everyone will engage in a very large economic alliance, and this may provide a climate for development in the region, as this alliance may turn into a force in the global economy and in shaping the region’s policies.”[/size]
[size=45]In addition, he believes that “there are many issues between the two countries, and that Iran considers Iraq a gateway to relations with the Arab region, which also relies heavily on it to bring viewpoints closer with the Iranian side.”[/size]
[size=45]Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Iraq yesterday, Wednesday, on his first official foreign visit, after being elected President of the Islamic Republic, succeeding the late Ebrahim Raisi. Pezeshkian was received at Baghdad International Airport by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Hilali believes that “the visit is very important, because it was supposed to take place during the time of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, had it not been for the incident of his passing that prevented that,” noting that “Pezeshkian’s visit included a number of agreements in several files, security, education, culture and tourism, as these memoranda will establish an unprecedented relationship with Iran.”[/size]
[size=45]The plane crash in which Ebrahim Raisi died in northern Iran cancelled a visit that the Iranian president was scheduled to make to the capital, Baghdad, at the end of last May, to discuss “joint cooperation between the two countries.”[/size]
[size=45]"Clean shaved"![/size]
[size=45]Al-Hilali touches on what he called an “important message” that Al-Sudani wanted to convey in receiving his counterpart through his appearance, as he “received the Iranian president with a clean-shaven beard and a tie, and this is a message that Al-Sudani wanted to convey to Iran that we are two equal countries, meaning that Iraq is not part of Iran, as Al-Sudani did not appear as he usually does sometimes without a tie and an unshaven beard.”[/size]
[size=45]On the sidelines of the visit, Al-Sudani and Pezeshkian announced from Baghdad the signing of 14 memoranda of understanding between the two countries as a prelude to “enhancing bilateral cooperation.” While Al-Sudani reiterated his government’s rejection of the exploitation of Iraqi territory to carry out actions that threaten Iran’s security, the Iranian president stressed that Tehran wants “a strong, stable, secure, and independent Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]Escape from sanctions![/size]
[size=45]But for his part, political analyst Muhammad Na’na’, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, believes that “this visit is a continuation of Iranian efforts to exploit Iraq, to ​​escape international sanctions, and to further use it as a vital area with a security and national dimension.”[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the agreements, Na’na’ points out that “these agreements are vague and their details are unknown, and I believe that like their previous counterparts, Iraq does not benefit from them, but Iran in the first place,” noting that “the agreements are repeated even in the titles and sectors they include, so they are nothing but a renewal of Iran’s benefit from the Iraqi situation.”[/size]
[size=45]The signed memoranda include the fields of education, media, communications, agriculture, and the Iraqi-Iranian free zones. Al-Sudani pointed out that these memoranda, along with the previously signed memoranda of understanding, will represent a promising roadmap for further enhancing joint cooperation between the two countries, stressing that the more these partnerships expand, the more they will positively reflect on the level of regional stability. Pezeshkian also confirmed that he and Al-Sudani discussed long-term strategic projects that will lead to greater cooperation between the two countries.[/size]
[size=45]Divergence of interests[/size]
[size=45]In turn, economic expert Ziad Al-Hashemi stated, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, that “despite the strategic relationship that reaches the level of an alliance on the political and security levels between Iraq and Iran, the economic relationship is an ambiguous relationship that is marred in many of its aspects by divergent interests.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Hashemi added, “In the field of energy, we find that the Iranian side sees that there is Iraqi hesitation in paying the dues for gas and electricity sales, which exceeded $11 billion accumulated since 2017, while Iraq believes that it has exhausted all means to pay what it owes.”[/size]
[size=45]In the railway linkage file, Al-Hashemi points out that “Iran aspires for Iraqi geography to be a corridor for linking with Syrian ports, and this is what made Iraq hesitate to respond by facilitating the linkage process, due to the potential risks to its future transportation projects.”[/size]
[size=45]For these reasons, the economic expert believes that “this visit is much more important for the Iranian side than for the Iraqi side, but in any case it is an opportunity to explore the orientations of the new Iranian president who is facing internal pressures in Iran to deal with economic problems, the most important of which are inflation, mismanagement and the spread of corruption.”[/size]
[size=45]Pezeshkian's visit will last for three days, during which, in addition to official meetings, he will hold meetings with Iranians and businessmen in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region.[/size]
[size=45]In addition, the director of the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies, Ghazi Faisal, said in an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed” that “developing relations between Iraq and Iran must include organizing agreements and memoranda of understanding, but the real problem lies in the fact that Iran is subject to economic sanctions.”[/size]
[size=45]Faisal added, “However, the sanctions do not include all food, medicine, or humanitarian needs. The ban is imposed on oil and gas, and Iraq receives a special exception from the US administration every three months in order to provide electricity.”[/size]
[size=45]It is likely that “the sanctions can be bypassed by exchanging goods for national currencies, as happened with China. Whatever this exchange is, it is better than the dollar going to Iran, because this would constitute an economic disaster for Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the implementation of these agreements, he points out that “this is due to the seriousness of the two governments and the mutual interests, and if it is in Iraq’s interest to implement them, the Iraqi government will follow up by forming committees for the purpose of coordination and follow-up of their implementation.”[/size]
[size=45]On March 19, 2023, Iraq and Iran signed a security agreement, which includes coordination in the field of protecting the common borders between the two countries, in addition to strengthening joint cooperation in several security fields, including disarming the armed separatist groups present in the Kurdistan region, evacuating military barracks (opposed to Tehran) and transferring their elements to camps.[/size]
[size=45]Prior to Pezeshkian's visit to Iraq, the Asayish Internal Security Forces in Sulaymaniyah handed over an Iranian Kurdish opposition activist to the Iranian authorities, which sparked a major internal controversy and debate.[/size]
[size=45]Pezeshkian's visit comes amid turmoil in the Middle East sparked by the war that broke out in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, which prompted armed factions in Iraq and across the region to support the Palestinians.[/size]
[size=45]The late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was expected to visit Iraq on May 28 to sign a series of security, political and economic agreements and memoranda of understanding between the two sides, including a decision to lift visas, cancel double taxation, and coordinate in the field of joint oil fields between the two countries that are still not exploited until now. However, his death in a helicopter crash on May 19 prevented this.[/size]
[size=45]Security and economic memoranda of understanding were also supposed to be signed between Baghdad and Tehran, but they were postponed following the assassination of Raisi, before they were reviewed by the acting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who visited Baghdad on June 13, in preparation for signing them in the coming period.[/size]
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