Iranian FM arrives in Baghdad for talks over Syria

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad- Javad Zarif arrived in Baghdad on an official visit to meet with the Iraqi leaders over the Syrian crisis, an official television and a newspaper reported on Sunday.

"Iranian Foreign Minister arrived in Baghdad airport on an official visit and was received by his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari," the state-run Iraqia channel said.

Zarif is expected to hold meetings with Zebari and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to coordinate the stances of the two countries toward the Syrian crisis and to discuss its consequences on the region in the light of a possible U.S. strike on Syria, the government-owned al-Sabah newspaper quoted an Iraqi Foreign Ministry source as saying.

Zarif is also expected to meet with some political and religious figures in Iraq, the newspaper said without naming those figures, Xinhua reported.

Relations between the Shiite Muslim country of Iran and the Shiite-dominated government of Iraq have been picked up considerably since Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime was ousted in a U.S.- led invasion in 2003.

Iraq and Iran fought a bloody eight-year war in 1980s, resulting in the loss of one million lives.