Baghdad confirms secret Tehran trip: Sudani mediated between Iran and US
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has explained the purpose of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani's undisclosed visit to Tehran last Friday. Baghdad, Hussein said, is trying to bring Tehran and Washington back to the table and end the war.
RastinewsIraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani's unannounced November 6 trip to Iran was an attempt to ease tensions between Tehran and Washington.
Speaking to the Iraqi state news agency INA on the sidelines of the Paris Peace Forum, Hussein said: "The prime minister's visit to Tehran was an attempt to bring the Iranian and American sides closer together. There are other efforts underway too."
The Kurdish diplomat summed up Baghdad's position: "We stand for peace and de-escalation, not war."
A visit that lasted hours
Iran's Fars News Agency first disclosed the visit on Monday. According to the agency, Sudani and his accompanying delegation held several hours of talks with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran's parliament and head of its negotiating team.
Fars reported that the talks focused solely on ending the war. Ghalibaf described Tehran's "two-day" proposal, adding that for negotiations to move forward, Washington would need to respect Iran's rights.
Iraq's ambassador to Tehran, Yasser al-Hajjaj, confirmed the visit the same day but did not disclose who Sudani met with.
"At Trump's request"
There is another account of what lay behind the visit. An Iraqi government official told Abu Dhabi-based The National that Sudani traveled to Tehran at the request of US President Donald Trump. Baghdad has not officially confirmed this claim.
Proposal for a joint delegation to regional states
On the same day as the visit, Fuad Hussein spoke by phone with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. In that call, Hussein proposed sending a delegation of regional foreign ministers to both Tehran and Washington.
Sudani made his first official visit to Iran in July. Days after meeting Trump in Washington, he traveled to Tehran on July 23 and signed four cooperation agreements with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. During that visit, the Iraqi prime minister said no threat against Iran would be permitted to originate from Iraqi territory.
Pakistan and Qatar are also mediating in the talks between Tehran and Washington.