The two neighboring Western Asian countries, Iraq and Iran, have recently eased visa restriction in an attempt to mitigate the effect of the restrictions that the US has imposed for years now to both. The duo aims to boost tourism and investment through such measures.
Last week, the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani made his first-ever official visit in Iraq. He was accompanied by a high-ranking political and economic delegation.
During the week, both countries announced the signing of several memorandums of understanding, including an agreement to ease visa procedures for investors and businesspersons. The agreement foresees a visa fee waiver for tourist visas and pilgrims.
“Visas will be issued by both sides and will be free of charge to Iranian an Iraqi pilgrims and tourists as of April,” the office of the Iranian President is quoted to have said in a press release.
“Tourism is a very important issue with regard to economy, culture and even politics, and issuing free visas to both countries can be effective in developing tourism“, the Iranian President said at the Mehrabad Airport upon arrival in Tehran late on Wednesday.
He also said that every year about 7 million people travel between Iran and Iraq and issuing free visas will contribute greatly to the increase in this number.
Previously in October last year, Iraq had announced it would sign bilateral visa-free agreements with several world countries. The spokesperson of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry Ahmed Mahjoub said at the time that starting 2019 Iraqi citizens would be able to travel to several new countries without a visa.
Iraq is placed at the bottom of the list of world’s passports listed from the most powerful to the weakest. The Iraqi passport holders can access least world countries without a visa (only 30). Whereas Iran is placed 96th on the list, out of 104 positions. Its citizens can visit 42 world-countries visa-free for tourism purposes.