Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, sworn in last July, has made his first official visit abroad to Iraq, seeking to bolster ties amid growing regional tensions.
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00:00Iran's reformist President Massoud Pazeshkian kicked off his first trip abroad as president
00:07with a visit to Iraq, hoping to tighten ties between Baghdad and Tehran as regional tensions
00:14escalate.
00:16Tehran's relationship with Iraq is crucial for economic, political and religious reasons,
00:22with Iran's foreign minister telling local media Pazeshkian hoped to tighten security
00:27relations between the nations during his trip.
00:31Baghdad has been trying to balance its relationship with both Iran and the US.
00:37Tehran backs powerful Shia militias in Iraq, while the US maintains a force of 2,500 troops
00:43that remain in battle with remnants of the Islamic State group in the country.
00:48The American troops are both a literal and rhetoric target for Iran, particularly as
00:53Israel's nearly year-old war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds on.
00:59Pazeshkian is also due to visit shrines, a railroad project in southern Iraq and the
01:04capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region.