Iranian Pilgrims Require Visa to Visit Holy Sites in Iraq

[mourningdove92]

Iranianpilgrims required to offer visa to visit Iraqi holy cities
Qasr e Shirin, July 10, IRNA -- Iraqi officials have recently said
that Iranian pilgrims can visit the Iraqi holy cities only by
submitting their visas, a local official in this border city said here
Saturday.
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.
http://www.irna.ir/?SAB=OK&LANG=EN&PART=_HOME&TYPE=HP&id=200407101528314
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