IRANIAN President Hassan Rouhani was in Baghdad yesterday, making his first official visit to the nation that Tehran once fought a bloody war against and later backed in the battle with the Islamic State (IS) group.

Since Rouhani’s election in 2013, Iraq has relied on Iranian paramilitary support to fight IS, following the militant group’s capture of the Iraqi city of Mosul and other territory in both Iraq and Syria.

Now with the militants facing a final territorial defeat in the Syrian village of Baghouz, Iran is looking for Iraq’s continued support as it faces a maximalist pressure campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump after his decision to withdraw America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Rouhani was received by an honor guard on landing in Baghdad, where he was welcomed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali Al-Hakim.

Rouhani then visited the shrine of Imam Kadhim, the seventh of 12 clerics revered by Shiites worldwide. Rouhani, a Shiite cleric himself, paused to reach out and touch the gate surrounding the imam’s tomb.

He then met President Barham Salih and was to later meet Prime Minister Abdel Abdul Mehdi, as well as visit other politicians and Shiite leaders.

Rouhani’s visit underscores how much has changed since the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, sparking an eight-year war that killed 1 million people.

(SD-Agencies)