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| Iraq |
| Saudi Arabia to reopen Baghdad embassy |
| 2015-01-04 |
| A Saudi delegation will travel to Baghdad in the coming week to start preparations to reopen an embassy in the Iraqi capital for the first time in 25 years, official Saudi media said on Saturday. A thaw in the once chilly relations between Saudi Arabia and Iraq could help strengthen a regional alliance against ISIS militants who have seized territory in Iraq and Syria. Saudi Arabia closed its Baghdad embassy in 1990 after the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. It has long accused Iraq of being too close to Iran, its main regional rival, and of encouraging sectarian discrimination against Sunnis, a charge Baghdad denies. The Saudi move would help return Iraq to the Arab nation “after an absence since the toppling of the Saddam Hussein regime and the penetration of the Iranian regime into the joints of the Iraqi state,” said Abdullah Al Askar, head of the foreign affairs committee on Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council, which advises the government on policy. Saudi Arabia began cautious moves towards rapprochement after the appointment in August of Haider Al Abadi as Iraq’s new prime minister. Senior members of the kingdom’s ruling dynasty had branded his predecessor, Nouri Al Maliki, a puppet of Iran, according to US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks, and accused him of ruling Iraq only on behalf of the Shias. Citing an official foreign ministry source, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that besides reopening its embassy, the kingdom also planned to set up a general consulate in Irbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region. A team from the ministry would head to Baghdad this week to liaise with Iraq on choosing and preparing buildings for both missions, so they could start work “at the earliest opportunity”, SPA said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |