Iraq PM Maliki urges Iran not to interfere

Tehran, Sep 12: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki today began his first official visit to Iran and was expected to bring a message that Tehran should not interfere in Iraqi affairs.

Maliki, whose two-day visit was postponed yesterday, is expected to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Maliki's spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said ahead of his arrival in Tehran.

Amid mounting tension between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme, some analysts believe Iran sees its ability to foster violence against the 145,000 US troops in Iraq as part of its leverage in negotiations.

''He wants to pass the message that Iraq needs stability, non-interference. If any country cannot play a positive role in Iraq they should not bring a negative,'' Dabbagh said.

Iran's officials news agency IRNA said Maliki would discuss ''ways to reinforce the mutual relationship, as well as Iraqi, regional and world issues''.

Maliki's visit five months after taking office follows earlier trips to other neighbouring countries, Arab states run by Sunni Muslims, who view with suspicion Iraq's newly empowered Shi'ite majority and its ties to non-Arab, Shi'ite Iran.

Maliki had been due to visit Iran yesterday but the trip was postponed at the last minute. Some officials said it had been delayed for ''technical'' reasons but did not give details.

Under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated secular rule, Iraq fought a bloody eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s. The rise of the Shi'ite majority in elections sponsored by US occupation forces, has brought to power in Iraq many leaders who spent long years in exile in Iran, opposing Saddam.

Reuters