Rouhollah Latifi made the remarks concurrent with the visit of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to Iraq and added that Iraq has a special place in cultural, religious, political, social and economic relations of Iran and is the only country with the largest land border with Iran.
Iraq is the second destination of non-oil exports of Iranian goods, he said, adding that this Arab country has many religious and ethnic commonalities with Iran.
Turning to Iran’s trade with neighboring Iraq, Latifi added that the country’s export of non-oil goods to Iraq has significantly increased in the previous years in a way that Iran exported about $9 billion worth of non-oil products to Iraq in 2019.
He put the value of non-oil products exported from Iran to neighboring Iraq in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21 to August 22, 2024) at $4.6 billion.
He then pointed to the significance of Iran’s exports to Iraq and noted that Iraq is considered a rich country due to the export of $100 billion worth of oil annually and since Iraq has suffered a lot due to the outbreak of three wars in this country, it currently meets many of its needs through importing products into the country.
Iraq has accounted for 20 percent of Iran’s total exports so about 30 percent of Iranian agricultural and food products is exported to the neighboring Iraq, the spokesman emphasized.
Presently, Iran’s rivals are making their utmost efforts to get the lion’s share in exporting products to Iraq, he said, calling on responsible officials of the country to take effective measures in order to increase Iran’s export share in the lucrative market of Iraq.
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