Iraq and Iran agree on gas, electricity export at UN

Iran and Iraq have come to an agreement on the export of electricity and gas from Iran to Iraq during a meeting while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Saturday. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, discussed the bilateral deal made between the two countries during the Iraqi prime minister's visit to Tehran earlier this month. 

They also “agreed on serious efforts to address some outstanding problems”, reported Iranian news agency Tasnim, which included the release of Iranian financial assets held by the Iraqi government.

In June, Iran cut off the supply of electricity to Iraq for several days in order to put pressure on Baghdad to pay a $4 billion debt owed to Tehran. 

Iraq has suffered prolonged electricity shortages since the 1990s and depends on Iran for roughly one-third of its power supply. 

Details of the agreement have not yet been reported. 

More recently, Iraq threatened to take Iran to international courts on Friday after negotiations to resolve the water crisis reached a dead end. 

Iraq gets most of its water from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and some of the main Tigris tributaries flow through Iran, then Iraq.