(dpa) - The aim of the state visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Baghdad was the creation of "borders of peace," the official news agency IRNA reported Saturday.
"We should avail ourselves of this historic occasion to realize the ultimate aim of creating borders of stable peace and friendship," Deputy Foreign Minister Ali-Reza Sheikh-Attar told IRNA.
Ahmadinejad is scheduled to visit Baghdad on Sunday as the first- ever Iranian head of state to visit Iraq in decades.
"The only hurdle for realizing this aim is the interference of aliens in Iraq but we are confident that the wisdom of Iraqi leaders and the country's religious and cultural bonds will eventually make this aim come true," the Iranian official said.
For security reasons, neither the date nor the time of Ahmadinejad's visit have yet been disclosed.
Iran and Iraq had been involved in a devastating eight-year war (1980-1988) in which hundreds of thousands of Iranian soldiers were killed and injured and vast border areas have not yet been fully reconstructed after almost two decades.
Following the fall of Saddam Hussein's Baath regime, the two sides however decided to forget the past and start a new era of cooperation.
Iran has constantly denied US allegations of supporting and providing weapons to insurgents in Iraq and said that it would regard Iraq's peace and security as its own.