Rouhani: Iran, Iraq Determined to Implement Joint Railway Project

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that launching railway link between Iran and Iraq is on the two countries’ agenda, and said that the government will do its best to help pilgrims have an easier, safer and faster visit to Iraq.

“The Iranian and Iraqi officials are working hard to implement the joint railway project,” President Rouhani said, addressing a session of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution late on Tuesday.

The Iranian president, meantime, lauded coordination and cooperation between the Iranian and Iraqi officials to hold Arbaeen procession in the best possible manner, and said, “Iraqi officials and people were kind and hospitable towards pilgrims of Imam Hossein (PBUH).”

President Rouhani noted that while the enemies are trying to show the region insecure and unstable, “we witness a multimillion rally in the most secure and peaceful conditions”.

Arbaeen has turned out to be a social and popular media to convey the message of freedom-seeking and standing against cruelty,” he added.

Arbaeen is the 40th day of mourning for Imam Hossein after he was martyred on the day of Ashoura over 13 centuries ago.

Imam Hossein (PBUH) was martyred in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the Imam's holy shrine.

In the battle, Imam Hossein (PBUH) was decapitated and his body mutilated by Yazid's armies. All of Imam Hossein's male family members, relatives, friends, soldiers who all together formed a 72-member army were beheaded in an unequal war with a 30,000-strong army of the enemy in the desert of Karbala.

The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson for the Shiites.

Imam Hossein's martyrdom - recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song - remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to Shiites, who make up a majority of the Muslim population in Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Bahrain.