Iran’s influential Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani departed on Tuesday for a three-day visit to Iraq, according to state media reports.

Larijani, whose visit is at the invitation of his Iraqi counterpart, Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, is expected to hold talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki and other senior officials, Iran’s Mehr News reported.



The talks will encompass bilateral economic and political ties, international matters and “shared issues such as the dust problem and ways to solve it,” Mehr quoted Larijani as saying, referring to the issue of hazardous dust storms that have become a major problem in both countries.



Larijani’s visit to Baghdad comes as Iran continues to seek to increase its influence in the majority Shi’ite Iraq, a move that began when the US started to draw down its military from the country in 2010.