Iraq, Iran seek to boost trade ties despite sanctions

Iraq and Iran are seeking to bolster the volume of their trade exchange, Iraqi President Barham Salih said Saturday.

“We have close relations with Iran and we are keen on developing them,” Salih told a press conference following his talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the capital Tehran.

“It’s time to establish a regional system that serves peoples of the region,” he said.

“We want Iraq to be an area for conciliation between the region’s countries, not an area for conflict,” he said, in reference to the current tension between the U.S. and Iran.

Salih’s visit to Iran is the first by the Iraqi president since he assumed office last month.

Rouhani, for his part, said his talks with the Iraqi leader tackled energy cooperation between the two countries.

“We also discussed the extension of a rail line between the Iranian city of Shalamjah and Basra in southern Iraq,” he said.

“We seek to increase the volume of the trade exchange with Iraq to $20 billion annually,” Rouhani said.

The remarks by the Iraqi and Iranian leaders come against recent sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Iran.

The U.S. has issued Iraq a 45-day waiver from U.S. sanctions on Iran for natural gas and electricity imports, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad announced last week.

Iraq, which is struggling with electricity outages and insufficient power generation, is reliant on its neighbor for natural gas imports for its power stations.

The second wave of renewed U.S. sanctions on OPEC's third largest exporter officially started Nov. 5, targeting Iran's energy, shipbuilding, shipping and financial sectors.

The Donald Trump administration also granted China, Greece, India, Turkey, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan a 180-day waiver for Iranian oil imports.