TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia announced that Iran has resumed gas exports to Iraq after it was temporarily halted.

"Gas export to Iraq was resumed as of Wednesday (June 21)," Zamaninia said.

He noted that the process has begun with a volume of about seven million cubic meters and will ultimately reach 35 million cubic meters.

Iran has inked two separate contracts to export the product to Iraqi cities of Basra and Baghdad.

Given Iraq's need for natural gas for consumption in power plants, negotiations on the export of the Iranian product to the neighboring state were launched in late 2010 while a contract for gas sales to Baghdad was sealed in June, 2013.

The agreement for deployment of natural gas to Basra was signed in October, 2015 by Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) and  Iraqi Deputy Minister of Electricity Khaled Hassan Saleh.