Tasnim – Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Iraj Masjedi and the Iraqi Minister of Culture Faryad Rawanduzi held talks on a range of issues, including ways to boost relations between the  two neighbors in culture and tourism.

In the meeting held in Baghdad on Tuesday, the Iraqi minister hailed the relationship between Tehran and Baghdad as deep-rooted and stressed the need to promote ties in various areas, including culture, tourism, cinema and arts, the Arabic-language Al-Iraqiya TV reported.

The Iranian diplomat, for his part, emphasized that Iraq is a country with numerous cultural, political and scientific figures and needs no foreign human resources.

He, however, noted that the Iraq needs to boost education and training in all fields.

Iraq has been facing the growing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the Daesh terrorist group.

Daesh militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.

However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and later forced the Takfiri group to withdraw from most of the areas it had occupied.

Iran, meanwhile, is known as the first country to help Iraq in the face of terrorism and has always voiced support for Iraq’s solidarity and prosperity