Maliki urges Iranian firms to invest in Iraq

AFP



Fri Mar 27, 11:20 am ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday urged Iranian businesses to invest in Iraq and help with the reconstruction of his war-ravaged country.

"We call on Iranian enterprises to come and work and invest in Iraq and to contribute to the construction process in the country, as we have already asked international businesses to do," he said at a meeting with Ali Larijani, speaker of Iran's parliament.

Maliki said his administration "wants to see relations with Iran make progress in all sectors," according to a statement.

Larijani said Iran is "ready to support the Iraqi government and to remain at its side to make the Iraqi economy grow."

Both Iran and Iraq, which was invaded by US-led forces in 2003 to oust the Sunni Muslim regime of the late Saddam Hussein, have Shiite majority populations.

Larijani, who has been visiting Iraq since Tuesday, has dismissed as "fine words" the recent message by US President Barack Obama to Iranian leaders.

On March 20 Obama proposed an end to three decades of animosity in a message marking the Iranian New Year, in a departure from the tough line adopted by his predecessor George W. Bush.

"Our dispute with the US is not an emotional issue and cannot be resolved by congratulatory messages or fine words," Larijani told reporters on Wednesday during a visit to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.

"Our differences have been going on for 30 years," he said.