Iran names ambassador to Iraq after 26 years

Hassan Kazemi Qomi has served as charge d'affaires to Baghdad for the past two years, although the two countries agreed to raise their representatiion to ambassadorial level in September 2004, AFP reported.

"There is good common ground between Iran and Iraq, and I hope this common ground will increase," Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told Iranian television as he accepted Qomi's credentials.

Iran and Iraq were at war from 1980 to 1988. The ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003 led to a cautious improvement in ties, even though some Iraqi officials accuse Iran of meddling.

In a statement issued by Talabani's office in Baghdad, Qomi was quoted as saying "Iran will help support Iraq in all possible ways, be it areas of security, economy and services."

"We will also help fight terrorism and help in the reconstruction of the country," Qomi said after the two met Tuesday in the Iraqi capital.

Qomi stressed the need to stabilise the security situation along the border of the two countries, saying "security for Iraq is security for neighboring countries, as an unsafe Iraq will be a safe house for terrorists."

He said continued insecurity would help justify coalition forces remaining in Iraq, in turn "negatively affecting relations between the two countries".

Tehran has repeatedly called for the withdrawal of foreign troops, although Talabani repeated to Iranian television his government's view that the time is not right.

"Once our armed forces are capable enough to confront the terrorists and able to defend our land, we will ask the foreign troops to leave Iraq," Talabani said.

When pressed by an Iranian reporter to give a timetable, Talabani replied: "Inshallah (God willing) in the next year."

Qomi said Iran was not responsible for any insurgent attacks in Iraq.

"Despite having a long border with Iraq, not a single car bomb has crossed into Iraq from the Iranian side. There is no single Iranian among terrorists in Iraq at the moment," he said.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has often accused Iran of smuggling explosives into Iraq for insurgent activities.

Qomi also denied that Iranian forces had entered Iraq's northern Kurdistan region to shell positions of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, as Baghdad claimed last month.

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