Iran, Iraq stress development of cooperation

Iranian and Iraqi officials in a meeting in Tehran underlined the necessity for the expansion of telecommunication and IT cooperation and relations between the two countries. The issue was raised in a meeting between Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Reza Taqipour and his Iraqi counterpart Muhammad Tawfiq al-Allawi in Tehran on Saturday. The meeting was held 9 months after Taqipour paid a visit to Baghdad and inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with al-Allawi on the expansion of mutual telecommunication cooperation. 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. In 2010, an Iranian telecommunication official voiced Tehran's preparedness to upgrade the telecommunication infrastructures and the fiber-optic communication network in Iraq's Northern regions. "In addition to fiber-optic projects, we have the ability to carry out all kinds of telecommunication activities in the region," Managing-Director of the Telecommunication Company of Iran's western province of Kurdistan Mohammad Saeed Ahmadi told FNA on the sidelines of an exhibition of Iranian companies' capabilities in the Northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah. Ahmadi underlined that Iranian state and private companies enjoy the required technical know-how to carry out any kind of telecommunication project abroad, and added, "We will start our work whenever authorities of Iraq's northern region state their readiness."