BAGHDAD, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Jordan's Prime Minister Adnan Badran met Saturday with Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi in Baghdad to seek cooperation on a number of issues.
Badran arrived unexpectedly in the Iraqi capital earlier in the day, becoming the highest ranking Jordanian and Arab official to visit the country since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.
Badran told reporters in Baghdad he and Abdul Mehdi agreed to reactivate their joint higher committee, led by the prime ministers of both neighboring countries, as well as other cooperation committees, suspended since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Badran said these committees will meet soon to discuss security, transport, energy and borders.
The Jordanian official added his visit was an expression of "brotherly relations due to the long history in joint cooperation."
It was not immediately clear why the highest-ranking Arab official to visit Iraq in more than two years was not received by his counterpart, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in Baghdad.
