Iranian President Hassan Rohani condemned US military intervention in the Middle East on Monday as he began a first official visit to Iraq, meant to bolster Tehran's influence and expand trade ties to help offset renewed US sanctions. His visit also signaled that despite the US sanctions Tehran still plays a dominant role in Iraqi politics. Prior to his departure, Rohani said Shiite Iran was determined to strengthen ties with its Shiite-led Arab neighbor, Iranian state television reported on Monday. Those ties "cannot be compared to Iraq's relations with an occupying country like America, which is hated in the region," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Rohani as saying before he flew to Baghdad. "One cannot forget the bombs that Americans dropped on Iraq, Syria and other regional countries." During Rohani's three-day visit a series of agreements will be signed in energy, transport, agriculture, industry and health, the Iranian state news agency IRNA said. "We have the right conditions for cooperation in all areas, including trade and investment..., energy, electricity and gas, banking ties and cooperation on roads and railways," Rohani told journalists after meeting Iraqi President Barham Salih. "Iraq is an important state in the region and it can play a bigger role in providing security," he said without elaborating. A senior Iranian official accompanying Rohani told Reuters that Iraq was "another channel for Iran to bypass America's unjust sanctions ... this trip will provide opportunities for Iran's economy". Iraq relies on Iranian gas imports to feed its power grid and has asked for extensions to a US waiver to continue importing Iranian gas since US President Donald Trump restored sanctions on Iran's vital energy sector in November. The slump in Iran's economy since Trump's decision last May to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers has pushed the republic to try to expand commercial ties with neighbors. The 2015 agreement lifted sanctions that had been imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations in return for Iran curbing aspects of its nuclear program. The Trump administration said the accord was too generous and failed to rein in Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and its involvement in regional conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Other signatories to the deal have been trying to salvage the pact, but US sanctions have largely scared off European companies from doing business with Iran. The Europeans have promised to help firms do business with Iran as long as it abides by the deal. Iran has itself threatened to pull out of the agreement unless EU powers demonstrably protect its economic benefits. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who traveled to Iraq ahead of Rohani, on Sunday thanked Baghdad for having "refused the injust and illegal (US) sanctions imposed on the Iranian people". Trade between Iran and Iraq now stands at around $12 billion a year — tilted toward Iran with gas and energy exports — and Rohani has said he would like to see it rise to $20 billion. — Agencies
