Iran-Iraq agree on Algiers accord

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Wed 26 Feb 2014 - 15:50

TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated that Iran and Iraq reached an agreement on implementation of Algiers Record concluded between the two sides on border issues.

'We reached an agreement with Iraq on implementation of 1975 Algiers Accord on Arvand Rud River, and it will be signed by the two foreign ministers after the legal procedure is completed in Iraq,' Zarif told a press conference with his visiting Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari here in Tehran on Wednesday.

'I should announce a promising news,' Zarif said, adding the two sides also agreed on ways of working on the river and implementing the deal.

The agreement has been reached on the level of experts, he said, adding Iran is waiting for Zebari's second visit to Iran after the legal procedure is done in Iraq.

The 1975 Algiers Agreement (also known as the Algiers Accord, sometimes as the Algiers Declaration) was an agreement between Iran and Iraq to settle their border disputes (such as the Shatt al-Arab, known as Arvand Rud River in Iran), and served as basis for the bilateral treaties signed on June 13 and December 26, 1975.

Less than six years after signing the treaty, Iraq attacked Iran to invade her border lands. The primary motivating factor behind the Iraqi invasion under deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was to annex and incorporate Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province to Iraqi territory. However, that invasion was quickly countered with fierce resistance by Iranian Armed Forces. The Iran–Iraq War lasted eight years, and finally ended with a United Nations brokered ceasefire in the form of United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, which was accepted by both sides.

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