Iran's Ghalibaf hails 'new order' on Iraq visit

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Wednesday in Iraq that his visit was aimed at strengthening a “new order” in the region, as Baghdad faces US pressure to disarm factions close to Tehran.

Speaking near Baghdad airport at the site where Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a 2020 US strike, Ghalibaf said the trip was intended to strengthen regional cooperation “without foreign interference.”

He also said “resistance in Iraq” was one of the country's sources of power and had gone beyond the borders of Iran and Iraq.

Ghalibaf was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi later Wednesday and to hold talks with the Coordination Framework, the largest bloc in Iraq's parliament and made up of Shia parties with varying degrees of proximity to Tehran.

Zaidi, who took office three months ago with US backing, has pledged to restrict weapons to state control. He has given armed factions, some of them part of the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance, until September 30 to hand over their weapons to the state. Some of the most powerful factions closest to Iran have refused to cooperate.

Iraq has been drawn into the wider Middle East war, with pro-Iran factions launching attacks on US interests and Washington responding with deadly strikes. Iran has also shelled positions belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.