TEHRAN – Iraqi Foreign Ministry Fuad Hussein arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to hold high-level talks with Iranian officials about bilateral, regional and international issues.

The chief Iraqi diplomat met with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani and President Hassan Rouhani.

The foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq discussed the latest developments in bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

During the meeting, Zarif expressed his appreciation to the Iraqi government for judicially following up on the assassination of the two martyr leaders, Major General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, expressing hope that anyone who ordered and carried out this criminal act would be punished through legal follow-up, according to the statement.

“Ending the presence of the American forces in the region would be the best response to this terrorist act,” Zarif said.

The Iranian foreign minister also expressed his satisfaction with the convening of the Joint Committee for Economic Cooperation between Iran and Iraq, expressing his hope that the agreements reached during the Iranian president’s visit to Iraq in various bilateral fields will be implemented as soon as possible.

Foreign Minister Hussein, for his part, described the visits of the delegations of the two countries as a sign of the two sides' commitment to bilateral relations. Reviewing the issues of relations between the two countries in various fields, he explained the views of the Iraqi side in this regard.

The Iraqi foreign minister also met with Shamkhani, who expressed appreciation to Iraq for issuing an arrest warrant against former U.S. President Donald Trump who ordered the assassination of General Soleimani and al-Muhandis.

During the meeting, Shamkhani underlined the need to fully implement joint agreements between Iran and Iraq.

The top Iranian security official also pointed to the need to establish peace and security in Iraq.

“Supporting and strengthening the authority of the Iraqi government and its sovereignty in establishing law and order is necessary to overcome the political, economic and security obstacles in this country,” he pointed out.

Shamkhani described the U.S. military presence in Iraq as a source of instability, saying that “the main cause of instability and the escalation of crises in the region is the sinister presence of foreign forces, especially American forces.”

Shamkhani also touched on the legal efforts made by Iraq to get rid of the yoke of American colonialism, underlining that the implementation of the Iraqi parliament’s resolution to expel foreign forces from the country as soon as possible is a good start for their withdrawal from the entire region.

The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran praised the efforts of the Iraqi Judiciary to issue an arrest warrant for Trump and Mike Pompeo for their responsibility for the crime of assassinating the leaders of the resistance in Iraq.

“We must not let the blood of the martyrs Abu Mahdi Muhandis and Qassem Soleimani go up in smoke, and the perpetrators of this terrorist crime must be severely punished,” Shamkhani continued.