Visiting Iraq, Iran's parliament speaker hails 'new order' in the region

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Wednesday stressed the importance of strengthening the “new order” in the region, on the first stop in a three-day visit to Iraq.

Ghalibaf’s trip comes at a time when Iraq is facing American pressure to disarm factions close to Tehran, which wields significant political influence in Iraq.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who took office three months ago with US backing, has pledged to restrict weapons to the control of the state.

Speaking from the site near Baghdad airport where Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a 2020 US strike, Ghalibaf said: “Our trip to Iraq today is aimed at strengthening the new order in the region and accelerating the strengthening of cooperation between all countries in the region without foreign interference.”

“Resistance in Iraq is… one of the elements of this country’s power. Today, resistance has gone beyond the borders of Iran and Iraq… and has become global,” he added.

Ghalibaf is scheduled to meet Zaidi later on Wednesday and then hold a meeting with the Coordination Framework, the largest bloc in parliament, made up of Shia parties with varying degrees of proximity to Tehran.

Iraq has been pulled into the Middle East war, with pro-Iran factions have launching attacks on US interests, which Washington has responded to with deadly strikes. Iran has also shelled positions belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.

Iraq is facing mounting challenges in maintaining a balance between Iran and the United States, and since the US invasion in 2003 it has been an arena of rivalry between the two powers.

READ MORE: Hormuz traffic slows as uncertainty over waterway persists

Zaidi has given the resistance factions — some of which belong to the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance — until September 30 to hand over their weapons to the state, coinciding with the scheduled end of the mission of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group.

Some of the most powerful factions, however, and those closest to Iran, refuse to cooperate.

On Thursday, Ghalibaf will head to the holy city of Karbala where he will take part in ceremonies marking 40 days since the funeral of former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28.