TEHRAN, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - Iran's foreign minister said Monday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was ready to visit Iraq, something no Iranian president has done in almost 40 years.
Manouchehr Mottaki said the president had accepted an invitation by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who visited Tehran in early August.
"We will make the necessary arrangements for such a visit, and an announcement will follow the final decision on the Iranian president's trip to Iraq," local media quoted the foreign minister as saying.
Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and the outbreak of a bloody eight-year war between the countries in 1980, relations were tense between Tehran and Baghdad until a landmark visit by then Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to Iran in November 2005.
