Iraq’s Kadhimi to visit Iran, meet Raisi: Source

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi will land in Tehran on Sunday to meet with top Iranian officials to discuss pressing issues of mutual concern, including water and electricity, an informed source said.

The source spoke with Kurdistan 24 on condition of anonymity on Sunday and noted that the Iraqi premier will meet with President Ebrahim Raisi, who was recently inaugurated as Iran's new head of government.

Kadhimi is visiting Iraq's eastern neighbor on a formal invitation from the Iranian government, the source explained. This would mark the prime minister's first official visit to Iran after Raisi was sworn in.

The visit comes amid apparent disagreements over Tehran-Baghdad energy relations. Iran recently cut its gas supply to Iraq, which uses the resource to power the national grid, a move that reportedly came because of Baghdad's unpaid bills.

In early August, the Iraqi electricity minister said that, as a result of the cut, the central provinces' gas supply was reduced from 30 million to 20 million cubic meters per day while the southern provinces’ supply fell from 17 to 5 million.

Iraq's electric grid lost 2,600 megawatts of power, the ministry said.