Iran's Pezeshkian seeks to cement ties with Iraq

Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday kicked off his first trip abroad as president, hoping to cement Tehran's ties to Baghdad as regional tensions increasingly pull both countries into the widening Middle East fray. For Iran, its relationship with Iraq remains crucial for economic, political, and religious reasons something that has especially been true since the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, who launched a bloody, yearslong war against Iran in the 1980s.

Baghdad, meanwhile, has been trying to balance its relationship with Tehran, which backs powerful Shiite militias in the country, as well as with the United States, which maintains a force of 2,500 troops in Iraq that remain in battle with remnants of the once-dominant extremist Islamic State group.

The American troops remain both a literal and rhetoric target for Iran, particularly as Israel's nearly year-old war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds on. Ahead of Pezeshkian's arrival, an explosion struck a site near Baghdad International Airport used by the US military on Tuesday night.