"The two countries of Iran and Iraq have deep cultural and historical relations, and in recent years in the field of sports," Iran National Olympic Committee secretary general Dr. Seyed Manaf Hashemi said.

The two nations had formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding to encourage sports cooperation in December 2021.

"In line with the sports cooperation agreement signed between the Olympic Committees of the two countries, we are ready to host Iraqi sports teams, as you requested, because in some sports we are among the global and continental leaders," Hashemi said.

Iraq National Olympic Committee vice-president Ziyad Hassan Jassim and secretary general Haitham Abdulhameed had joined their Iranian counterparts for the meetings.

"Iranian sports have a high level of capability and, despite the fact that we have signed sports memorandums with European countries, we expect more from Iran due to the cultural ties, friendship and geographical proximity," Abdulhameed said.

Iran first competed officially in the 1948 Olympics when weightlifter Jafar Salmasi won bronze in the featherweights.

Since then, they have won nine medals in weightlifting but their most successful sport in Olympics has been wrestling with 11 gold medals, including the most recent from Mohammadreza Geraei in the Greco-Roman welterweight at Tokyo 2020.

Shooter Javed Foroughi won men's 10 metres air pistol gold and Sajad Ganjzadeh also became an Olympic champion in the men's 75 kilo kumite in karate as Iran returned with seven medals in all in the Japanese capital.

Iraq's only Olympic medal to date came at Rome 1960 when weightlifter Abdul Wahid Aziz won light weight bronze.

Muntandher Faleh Abdul Wahid did take boys' pole vault bronze at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing.