Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb told AFP on Monday that he will fly to Iraq Wednesday in the first trip of its kind by an Arab head of government in a decade.
"I will travel by plane to Baghdad on Wednesday afternoon for a two-day visit at the head of an official delegation to co-chair the Jordan-Iraq joint commission," Abu Ragheb said, confirming earlier press reports.
The commission has not met since 1989, Abu Ragheb said, adding that his trip will be aimed at "promoting the good relations between the two countries".
The joint commission is expected to discuss the renewal of an annual oil and trade agreement between Jordan and Iraq which provides Amman with all its oil needs at preferential rates.
At the end of September a cabinet official told AFP that Abu Ragheb would travel to Iraq soon but the visit was apparently delayed for calendar reasons.
On September 27 Jordan became the first Arab nation to defy a UN air embargo on Iraq imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, when it send a humanitarian flight to Baghdad.
Mudar Badran was the last Jordanian prime minister to visit Iraq, traveling there in 1991 by road -- AMMAN (AFP)
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