NUR-SULTAN, August 1. /TASS/. Iraq’s Defense Minister Najah Hassan Ali al-Shammari may visit Moscow by the end of this year, the Iraqi ambassador to Russia, Haidar Mansour Hadi, told the media on Thursday.

"We have a joint Iraq-Russia military commission. In the past we had no defense minister and it was impossible to hold a meeting in Moscow. Now we have a defense minister and we hope we will be able to arrange for a meeting in Moscow," he responded to a question of when Iraq’s defense minister might visit the Russian capital.

The Iraqi ambassador said no date for the visit had been set yet.

"I hope that it will happen this year," he stated.