By Xinhua
Beijing : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Iraq Sunday, becoming the first Iranian president to visit Iraq since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
The following are some basic facts about their bilateral relations.
The two southwestern Asian neighbors share a land border of up to 1,200 km. Both countries are Shiite-dominated.
Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s. However, bilateral relations have been improved since the fall of Iraq’s former President Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The war broke out in September 1980. Eight years of fighting left more than 1 million people dead and caused huge disasters for both sides.
The United Nations issued Resolution 598 in July 1987, demanding an unconditional ceasefire between the two nations. Iraq and Iran later accepted the resolution and the war ended in August1988.
On Aug. 17, 1990, days after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Saddam told Iran he would withdraw from occupied Iranian territory and formally settled the 1980-88 war. The two countries then restored diplomatic relations in October 1990.
Since 2000, the Iran-Iraq relations have been visibly improved. After the U.S.-led war on Iraq started in 2003, Teheran strongly opposed the invasion, calling for a key role of the UN in Iraq’s reconstruction.
After the Iraq war, Iran offered assistance to Iraq’s post-war reconstruction and the bilateral relations began to improve.
In May 2005, a transitional government led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the pro-Iran Islamist Dawa Party was established inIraq. In mid-May, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi visited Iraq, and Jaafari paid a visit to Iran in July. In November, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani visited Iran, becoming the first Iraqi head of state to visit Iran in almost four decades.
The Iran-Iraq relations have been heating up since 2006 by the exchange of high level visits. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Malikivisited Iran twice in September 2006 and last August. Iraqi President Talabani visited Iran in November 2006, trying to boost the bilateral cooperation in all fields.