ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani is set to visit Iraq and the Kurdistan Region this weekend, nearly a month since assuming office after the death of Tehran’s former top diplomat in a helicopter crash, a source at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad told Rudaw on Tuesday.
Bagheri’s trip to Baghdad on Thursday will include meetings with senior Iraqi officials including Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, according to the source.
“He will then visit the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil on Friday and meet with senior officials,” the source stated.
A veteran nuclear negotiator and Iran’s former deputy foreign minister, Bagheri took office after former Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian died in a helicopter crash alongside former President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions on May 19, in the Varzaghan region of East Azerbaijan province.
It will be his first visit to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region since taking the helms at the foreign ministry and is a part of his ongoing tour to the Middle East.
Last week, Bagheri visited Lebanon and Syria, where he met with senior leaders such as Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
