IRANA 12 July, 2004
Iraqi officials have recently said that Iranian pilgrims can only visit Iraqi holy cities if they obtain visas, a local official in this border city said here Saturday.
The governor of the western border city of Qasr-e Shirin, Kermanshah Province, Hossein Khosh-Eqbal, said that after establishment of the Iraqi Interim Government on June 28, visit to the Iraqi holy cities by Iranian pilgrims could only be made by submitting visas and through official borders of Khosravi in the Iranian side and Mandhariya in the Iraqi side.
The border city of Qasr-e Shirin is located 728 km west of capital city of Tehran in Kermanshah Province.
Before coming to power of the Iraqi Interim Government, Khosh-Eqbal said, Iranian pilgrims could enter Iraq by simply passing the Khosravi international border crossing with their own passports but the interim government announced that they should only enter the country after receiving visas.
About 2,000 Iranian pilgrims used to visit Iraq on a daily basis through Khosravi border before the establishment of Iraqi interim government. |