VP stresses Iran's preparedness to train Iraqi experts

Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi announced in a meeting with Iraqi Minister of Communications Muhammad Tawfiq al-Allawi here in Tehran on Monday that Iran is ready to hold training courses for Iraq's workforce in all the various fields of activity. "Iran can provide service for the Iraqi nation in areas of training specialized personnel and experts in all fields," Rahmi stated during the meeting here in Tehran today. He stressed the necessity for accelerating cooperation between the two countries, and asked for the establishment of broader ties between Iranian and Iraqi companies and expansion of the two countries' joint cooperation and activities. The Iraqi minister, for his part, pointed to his visit to an exhibition of Iran's achievements in the spheres of communications and space technology and equipment, and added, "The speed of Iran's progress in development is very admirable and we want the Iranian companies to be present and active in Iraq." Iran and Iraq have enjoyed growing ties ever since the overthrow of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in 2003. Both sides are working on a series of plans to take wide strides in expanding their ties. On Saturday, Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Reza Taqipour and his Iraqi counterpart underlined the necessity for the expansion of telecommunication and IT cooperation and relations between the two countries. In a relevant development on Friday, Iran announced that plans to play an active presence in Iraqi power sector after constructing new power transmission lines to increase electricity exports to its Western neighboring country. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with Iraqi Electricity Minister Abdul Kareem Aftan, Iran's Minister of Energy Majid Namjou stated that Iran is ready to increase electricity exports to Iraq. "We are also ready to build new power plants in order to increase the capacity of power exports to Iraq," he said. Referring to the newly commissioned Karkheh-al-Emara power transmission line, the Iranian minister said, "The power line has increased the capacity of Iran's (daily) electricity exports to Iraq to 1,200 MW."