Iraq and Saudi reopen land border after three decades

BAGHDAD: Iraq and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday reopened their land border for the first time in 30 years, with closer trade ties between the two countries.

Top officials including Iraq’s interior minister and the head of its border commission travelled from Baghdad to formally open the Arar crossing.

They met up with a delegation who had joined them from Riyadh, all in masks, and cut a red ribbon at the border crossing as a line of cargo trucks waited behind them.

Arar will be open to both goods and people for the first time since Riyadh cut off its diplomatic relationship with Baghdad in 1990, following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

Baghdad sees Arar as a potential alternative to its crossings with eastern neighbour Iran, through which Iraq brings in a large share of its imports.

The two Arab states are also exploring the reopening of a second border point at Al Jumayma, along Iraq’s southern border with the Saudi kingdom.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhemi was to travel to Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as prime minister in May, but the visit was cancelled at the last minute when Saudi King Salman was hospitalised.

He has yet to make the trip, although Iraqi ministers have visited Riyadh to meet with their counterparts and a top-level Saudi delegation travelled to Baghdad last week.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening, Kadhemi fired back against those describing the rapprochement as Saudi “colonialism”. “This is a lie. It’s shameful,” he said. “Let them invest. Welcome to Iraq,” Kadhemi added, saying Saudi investment could bring in a flood of new jobs to Iraq where more than one-third of youth are unemployed.

The closer ties have been a long time coming. A thaw began in 2017 when then Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir travelled to Baghdad - the first such visit in decades - followed by a Riyadh trip by Iraq’s former premier Haider Al Abadi.

The first commercial flights resumed between the two countries and officials began discussing Arar, with high-profile US diplomat Bret Mcgurk even visiting the crossing in 2017 to support its reopening.

But those plans were repeatedly delayed, with Arar only opened on rare occasions to allow through Iraqi religious pilgrims on their way to Makkah for the Hajj.

G20 SUMMIT: Saudi Arabia hosts the G20 summit on Saturday in a first for an Arab nation, but the scaled-down virtual format could limit debate on a resurgent coronavirus pandemic and crippling economic crisis.

World leaders, from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, are expected to make speeches at the summit, sources close to the organisers said.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will preside over what some observers call “digital diplomacy.”

The two-day meeting of the world’s wealthiest nations follows a biter US election the results of which remain disputed by President Donald Trump and comes amid criticism of what campaigners call the group’s inadequate response to the worst recession in decades.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a staunch Trump defender, will be present in Saudi Arabia during the summit.

It was unclear whether Trump will speak at the event alongside world leaders, many of whom have already congratulated his succesful challenger, President-elect Joe Biden.

Held under the shadow of a raging pandemic, the summit which is usually an opportunity for one-on-one engagements between world leaders, is reduced to brief online sessions on pressing global issues - from climate change to growing inequality.

Discussions are expected to be dominated by the “implications of the pandemic” and “steps for reviving the global economy”, a source close to the Saudi organisers told reporters.

New vaccine breakthroughs have raised hopes of containing the virus, which has infected 55 million people globally and let 1.3 million dead. The Paris-based OECD projects global economic output will contract by 4.5 per cent this year.

G20 nations have contributed more than $21 billion to combat the pandemic, including production of vaccines, and injected $11 trillion to “safeguard” the virus-batered world economy, organisers said.

But the group faces mounting pressure to help stave off possible credit defaults across developing nations.

Last week, G20 finance ministers declared a “common framework” for an extended debt restructuring plan for virus-ravaged countries, but campaign group Action Aid described the measure as “woefully inadequate.”

Mis trust between member states has hampered coordination, with a US Treasury official accusing China - a top creditor to poor countries - of a “lack of full participation” and transparency.

In a leter to G20 leaders released on Tuesday, UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres called for “bolder measures” and emphasised that “further debt relief will be required.”