Iranian FM Kharazi in Iraq

BAGHDAD - Iraq hailed Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi's landmark visit Tuesday as a new start in their tumultuous relations, while Tehran offered its full support to the new Iraqi government.
"I have no doubt this visit will open up significant new horizons for cooperation between the two countries," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zerbari said at a joint news conference.
"Post-Saddam Iraq is a new Iraq, at peace with its neighbours, far removed from its bellicose predecessor," he said.
"We must break with the past and open a new page, build better relations in all fields based on mutual respect and non-interference," Zebari added.
Kharazi, the highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime two years ago, assured his counterpart that Iran would not interfere in their neighbour's affairs.
"Iraqis are in charge of their own affairs... Any interference would be an insult to the Iraqi people," Kharazi said.
"Iran is absolutely ready to cooperate with Iraq in all fields, the economy as well as all other issues of common interest," he added.
Kharazi's visit, just two days after that of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, highlights the warming of ties between the two neighbours and their attempt to normalise relations.
Relations between Shiite majority Iran and the interim government set up by the United States in June 2004, just over a year after a US-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein, were uneven.
But the new Shiite-dominated government, many of whose ministers spent many years in exile in Tehran and have close ties with Iran, an arch-foe of Washington, has helped ease relations.
Baghdad and Tehran re-established diplomatic ties last September, although many issues are still unresolved from their devastating 1980-1988 war which left one million dead.

Relations between Iraq and Iran since 1975
- March 6, 1975: The Algiers Accord is signed by the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein, then Iraqi vice president. It redefines their common borders, mainly the strategic Shatt al-Arab waterway, and land divisions.
- April 1, 1979: The Islamic Republic of Iran is proclaimed following the revolution that toppled the shah.
- 1980: In April, Iraq asks for the immediate evacuation of three strategic islands in the Ormuz Strait, which are being fought over by Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Relations break off between Tehran and Baghdad.
In September, armed clashes break out at the border. On September 17, Saddam, now president of Iraq, denounces the Algiers accord and on September 22, Iraqi troops advance into the Shatt region.
- Aug 20, 1988: A ceasefire takes effect after eight years of war, which cost up to one million lives. The two countries accept UN Resolution 598, which demands the end of combat and the retreat of their armies.
- Aug 1988-April 1989: Negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations. The Shatt al-Arab is the primary stumbling block of the talks.
- Aug 2, 1990: Iraq invades neighbouring Kuwait
- Aug 15: In a dramatic move, Saddam says Baghdad will accept the Algiers Accord, pull troops out from Iran and complete a full prisoner exchange. On August 17, the Iraqi retreat and prisoner exchange begins.
- Sept 9: Visit to Tehran by Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz, who calls for "a speedy normalisation of relations."
- Oct 14: Diplomatic ties begin again at the official level.
- Nov 15: Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati visits Iraq.
- Dec 10, 1991: UN report officially declares Iraq responsible for the outbreak of war with Iran.
- April 5, 1992: Iranian air strikes hit a People's Mujahedeen base, the main armed opposition group to the Tehran regime based in Iraq.
- Feb 19-23, 1994: Negotiations fail again.
- July 1995: Iran mediates a truce between Kurdish parties in Iraq to help put an end to clashes between Kurdish factions in the autonomous zone, which has escaped the control of Baghdad since the end of the Gulf war. Iraq decries Iran's move as a "flagrant violation" of its internal affairs.
- Aug 18, 1997: Saddam allows Iranians to visit sacred Shiite holy sites in Iraq for the first time since 1980.
- Feb 14, 2000: Iran asks Iraq to stop hosting the Mujahedeen, saying without such action relations between the two countries cannot be normalised.
- Oct 13: Kharazi visits Iraq.
- Feb 9, 2003: Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri makes his second visit in five months to Iran.
- March 20: US-led forces launch war on Iraq. Iran condemns the invasion as "unjustifiable and illegitimate," while at the same time announcing Tehran's neutral stance. Saddam's regime is ousted in April.
- Nov 17: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami recognizes the transitional Iraqi Governing Council established in July.
- May 2004: Several violent demonstrations in Tehran against the occupation of Iraq and the desecration of religious Shiite sites.
- June: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismisses Iraq's new caretaker administration as a "lackey" government formed "on the order" of Americans.
- July: Iran denounces US protection of some 4,000 members of the People's Mujahedeen.
- Aug 23: Khatami denies any "provocative interference" in Iraq and denies any support for the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is staging a rebellion against American soldiers in Najaf.
- Aug 29: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh visits Tehran to try to improve relations.
- Sept 18: An Iraqi ambassador establishes an office in Tehran for the first time since 1980.
- Nov 30: Tehran hosts a ministers' meeting on Iraq security.
- Dec 15: Iraqi Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan accuses Iran of being Iraq's "most dangerous enemy" and of organising "a large terrorist network."
- April 29, 2005: Khatami offers Iran's political and economic cooperation with the government headed by Shiite Ibrahim Jaafar.