Iraqi PM arrives in Tehran for first official visit

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki received a red-carpet welcome at Iran’s presidential palace today at the start of his first official visit to the Shiite Muslim country since taking office in May.

Maliki’s talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were expected to cover regional issues and joint projects in energy, trade and economy.

Iranian state-run television did not immediately provide details about Maliki’s welcome or his talks with Ahmadinejad. Iraqi state TV reported that the two discussed “bilateral arrangements,” but did not disclose further details.

Iraq’s new Shiite leaders have close ties to Iran, and Maliki spent years in Iran and Syria in exile.

In July 2005, former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari made a landmark visit to Iran, the first by an Iraqi premier since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam.

US officials have accused Iran of not doing enough to stop militants from infiltrating across the shared, 1,000 mile-long porous border, but Iraqi officials have said there was no evidence to prove such charges.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq has sought closer ties with Iran and to heal scars left by the 1980-88 war that killed more than one million people on both sides.