Zarif meets Iraqi FM, visits Soleimani memorial

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein for talks at the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad on Sunday. The two officials discussed relations between the two countries and regional developments.

Zarif was also expected to meet Iraq's president, the parliament speaker, and the prime minister to discuss regional security, bilateral relations, and investments. The visit comes amid tensions between the US and Iran, which escalated following the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike in the Iraqi capital earlier this year.

Zarif visited a memorial to Soleimani at the site where he and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in US airstrikes near Baghdad's international airport. Soleimani was the head of Iran's elite Quds force and mastermind of its regional security strategy.Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), was killed in the same strike.