Iran’s Security Council Chief Arrives in Baghdad for Talks with Iraqi Officials

Speaking upon his arrival, Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani said that he will exchange views with Iraqi President Barham Salih, caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi and leaders from different political factions, Press TV reported.

Iran, he said, has maintained good brotherly relations with neighboring Iraq since the ouster of former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

In 2014, when Daesh unleashed its campaign of terror in Iraq, Iranian military advisers rushed to the aid of Iraqi armed forces on Baghdad’s request, helping them gradually reverse the Takfiri terrorist group’s gains and ultimately liberate their entire homeland some three years later.

Shamkhani's trip comes in the wake of the US assassination of the Middle East's most prominent anti-terror commander General Qassemi Soleimani and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad in January.  

General Soleimani was in Baghdad at the invitation of the Iraqi government when he was targeted. 

The terrorist act led to a crisis in diplomatic relations between the US and Iraq which demanded that the American troops leave the country. 

The Trump administration has been defiant and instead threatened to seize Iraq's oil money being held in a bank account in New York as compensation for its military presence in the Arab country.

Meanwhile, some individuals in Iraq's intelligence agency have been implicated in the assassination. It is not clear if the issue will feature in the Iranian security official's talks in Baghdad. 

Elsewhere in his remarks, Shamkhani referred to the outbreak of a new coronavirus in the region, saying that both facts and rumors were spreading about the epidemic.

The fact is that the Islamic Republic is in possession of abundant resources and will score a victory over the epidemic, he noted.

The virus, known as COVID-19, first emerged in China late last year and is now spreading in Europe and across the Middle East, sparking fears of a global pandemic.

On Saturday, Iran's Health Ministry reported 145 deaths and 5,823 infections. 1,669 have recovered. 

Since December 2019, over 106,200 people have been infected worldwide, with 3,600 deaths mostly in China.

The illness, whose symptoms are fever, cough and difficulty breathing, may cause lung lesions and pneumonia.