Ahmadinejad to Visit Iraq Beginning of March
The website of the mass-circulation Czech daily Mladá fronta dnes reports today that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to pay a two-day visit to Iraq starting on 2 March. It will be the very first visit ever to Iraq by the president of the Islamic Republic (which, however, has only existed since 1979). Ahmadinejad was invited there by the Iraqi president, the Kurd Jalal Talabani. The Mladá fronta dnes article – without a byline; it seems it derives to a large degree from reports from the Czech news agency CTK – claims that the US supports the vist as a means to improve Iranian-Iraqi relations. At the same time, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe called on Iran to cease its alleged support for “extremists in Iraq.”
