Iran's Larijani to visit Baghdad for talks on Iraq conference

Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Larijani is to arrive in Baghdad on Sunday to hold talks about an Iraq conference to be held in Egypt later this week, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Larijani's visit is aimed at meeting senior Iraqi officials, IRNA quoted an informed source at Iran's Embassy in Iraq as saying.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih cancelled a planned visit to Tehran because of Larijani's visit to Baghdad, the report said.

Iran has not yet confirmed its attendance at the upcoming meeting of Iraq's neighboring states to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on May 3-4.

Besides the six neighboring states, Iraq's Foreign Ministry has invited the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States, representatives of Group of Eight industrialized nations, the United Nations, Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Arab League plus Egypt and Bahrain.

Source: Xinhua