Iraqi prime minister says deals with Saudi Arabia are sign of ‘major shift’ in relations
Iraq and Saudi Arabia yesterday signed 13 political and economic agreements, in a sign of improving ties between the two countries after 25 years of estrangement.
The development came as Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi arrived in the Saudi capital Riyadh with a high-level delegation of senior ministers and business leaders.
Riyadh has been courting Baghdad in an effort to boost economic and diplomatic relations and curb Tehran’s influence in the region.
Prior to the visit, Mr Abdul Mahdi said that relations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia had entered a new stage.
“We are facing major shifts in our relations with Saudi Arabia,” he said in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Upon his arrival, the Iraqi leader met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, an Iraqi government statement said.
“Iraq wants to develop relations with Saudi Arabia in all fields,” Mr Abdul Mahdi said. The exchange of high-level visits “creates great opportunities” between the two countries and “will bring security and stability to the region”.
For his part, King Salman praised the warming of relations and emphasised the importance of “finding a common ground” between Baghdad and Riyadh.
Baghdad is walking a thin line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, and its relations with the Sunni kingdom have been turbulent.
Saudi Arabia cut relations with Baghdad after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. But reconciliation between the two countries started in 2015, when Saudi Arabia reopened its embassy in Baghdad after a 25year break. Consular services were not resumed until then and Iraqis wanting visas had to go through the Saudi embassy in Jordan.
This month, the kingdom announced that it would fund the construction of a $1 billion (Dh3.67bn) sports city in Iraq.
The kingdom also opened a consulate in Baghdad on April 4 to issue visas to Iraqis wishing to visit the country for personal or business-related matters.
Saudi Arabia said it would open three others in the country but did not specify dates.
On April 3, a visit by a high ministerial delegation led by Saudi Trade Minister Majid Al Kassabi held the second meeting of the Saudi-Iraqi
Co-ordination Council in Baghdad, established to help rebuild areas retaken from ISIS.
Mr Al Kassabi said that Iraq presented 186 investment opportunities to the kingdom and declared a “new chapter” in relations between them.
This was the Saudi trade minister’s second trip to Baghdad in the past three weeks.
Trade delegations have been shuttling back and forth between the countries in the past few months.
Officials are also looking to open a border crossing between Baghdad and the kingdom.
Baghdad is seeking economic benefits from closer ties with Riyadh and other Gulf states as it tries to address demands for reform and curb corruption.