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Message from the Iraqi Government to the Government of Mr. Mehdi Bazargan, Head of the Provisional Government of Iran (February 13, 1979)
The Iraqi Government presents its compliments to Mr. Mehdi Bazargan, President of the Provisional Government in Iran, and would like to define its stand on events in neighboring Iran as follows:
1 - The firm policy of the Republic of Iraq of patronage of the July Seventeenth Revolution under the leadership of the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party, is to establish strong brotherly relations and relations of fruitful cooperation with peoples and countries neighboring Iraq, on the basis of respect of sovereignty, non-intervention in the internal affairs of others and respect of the peoples' legitimate aspirations in accordance with the principles they choose by their own free will. The Iraqi Government has always been keen on precisely and faithfully applying this policy whenever the governments of the neighboring countries adhered to it themselves.
2 - Iraq, in addition to the aforementioned general principles, has a special outlook on the relations with the two neighboring peoples of Iran and Turkey. These two peoples are not merely neighboring, but they are brotherly ones, linked with the Arab people in general and the Iraqi people in particular, by deep-rooted Islamic ties and common historical relations over the centuries. We believe that the nature of these religious and historical relations should be a strengthening factor of the positive relations in recent times between Iran and Iraq and other Arab countries.
3 - The peoples of Iraq, who struggled for tens of years against colonial domination, a decomposing royal regime and against all forms of tyranny and exploitation, and whose struggle was crowned by the July Seventeenth 1968 Revolution led by the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party, ensuring freedom, justice, and progress to them, views with sympathy and support the struggle waged by the neighboring and friendly people of Iran for freedom, justice and progress; it also feels proud of this victory scored by the Iranian people and happy for them.
4 - The Iraqi Government views with much satisfaction the statements of Ayatollah Al-Khomeini, the famous religious leader, and the leading personalities in the Iranian Popular Movement about the relations with Arabs, and the attitude toward the Zionist usurper. It considers these statements as expressing the conscience of the free Iranian people, who should stand at the side of the brotherly Arab people in its just struggle against oppressive Zionism, and the imperialism which supports it.
This is a basic feature of a free people, and it is one of the basic factors of the Islamic link between the Arab and Iranian peoples which we hope will be supported by its practical application in the present and the future. We also view with much satisfaction your statements and stands assuring the existence of an independent side in the tendencies of the Iranian Popular Movement, since this is the firm, principal and practical stand of the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party and Iraqi Government. For its protection we paid much, especially at those times when most parties in the region were following policies of subordination to foreign and colonial powers. Iran's joining us in this way is considered, in our view, to be an important positive change in the region which will help to support its independence and development.
5 - We wish the welfare of the neighboring and friendly Iranian people and look forward to establishing stable relations with the new Iran, relations of fruitful cooperation to reinforce the common ties and to serve the mutual interests of the two countries, as well as to consolidate freedom, peace and stability in this region.
