Morsi promises to visit Iraq

Being keen to enhance ties with Egypt, Iraq has invited Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to visit the country and he promised to meet the request, the Iraqi foreign minister said. Iraq has no problems with the Egyptian revolution or the new government, Hoshyar Zebari told Arab League reporters on the sidelines of the International Conference of "Solidarity with the Palestinian and Arab Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli Occupation Jails". Zebari noted that the conference tackles proposals on establishing a fund for aiding captives and forming an international legal panel for protecting captives' rights. Concerning Iraq, he said security in the country is improving, but the political situation is complicated, mainly with regard to the dispute with the Kurdistan government. He said efforts are underway to realize reconciliation, ruling out that the dispute will break into an open war because this does not serve anyone's interests. With Iraq chairing the conference, the Arab state is qualified to play a key role in serving Arab issues, he said. Iraq has extended to the Palestinian Authority a 25 million dollar aid and a 30 million dollar assistance to Syria, Sudan and Mauritania - 10 million dollars for each, he said. Meanwhile, Zebari noted that a delegation of Syrian opposition will visit Iraq next week to discuss conditions in Syria, hinting that there are 61,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq. Zebari said the conditions in Syria are exacerbating, expecting a looming foreign intervention to settle the crisis, but this intervention will not necessarily be military, he added.