Shiite powerhouse Iran has pledged enduring support for the Shiite-led government of Iraq in its battle against an ascendant Sunni insurgency spearheaded by the Islamic State group.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi on Tuesday that Iran has supported Baghdad “from the first day and will remain on that path until the last day,” according to a report by the official IRNA news agency.
It was Abadi’s first foreign visit since taking office in September.
“Choosing Iran as my first destination after taking office indicates the depth of ties,” he said, according to IRNA. “Terrorism is a threat to all regional countries and we are sure Iran will stand by us.”
The Iran-Iraq alliance highlights some of the complex political dynamics spawned by the emergence of the Islamic State group as a major threat earlier this year. The radical Sunni militia has captured and held large swaths of territory in eastern Syria and northwestern Iraq, including the major northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and threatens to expand southward toward Baghdad.
Now both Iran and the United States are essentially on the same side in backing Baghdad and opposing the Islamic State group — although neither country acknowledges any sort of direct coordination. Meanwhile Iran continues to support embattled Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad, who Washington opposes.
Rouhani, in his Tuesday comments, said greater regional cooperation among affected countries was the only solution to confronting the Islamic State group.
Inside Iraq, insurgents continued their recent wave of attacks on Tuesday as a string of bombings in and near Baghdad killed 30 people. Police officials said the deadliest attack took place Tuesday afternoon when a double car bomb attack hit Habaybina restaurant in the Shiite-majority district of Talibiya in eastern Baghdad, killing 19 people and wounding 32 others.
