Tillerson in Riyadh for Iraq-Saudi historic talks
TILLERSON ARRIVES IN RIYADH AND IS EXPECTED TO VISIT QATAR TOO
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Riyadh yesterday to attend a landmark meeting between officials from Saudi Arabia and Iraq aimed at improving relations between the two countries and countering Iran’s growing regional influence.
The chief US diplomat flew into King Salman Air Base a little more than a week after US President Donald Trump unveiled a strategy to contain Iran and compel Tehran to agree to close what he charged are flaws in the multinational 2015 deal designed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Tillerson’s only official meeting yesterday was a working dinner with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir. He was stopping in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of a six-day trip that will also take him to Qatar, Pakistan, India and Switzerland.
Today Tillerson will attend the inaugural session of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council, a body created to boost relations between the two countries. Tillerson will seek Saudi financial generosity and political support for Iraq, its embattled neighbour.
As US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits the Middle East this weekend, he’ll hope to achieve something that has eluded top American diplomats for a generation: sealing a new alliance between Saudi Arabia and Iraq that would shut the doors of the Arab world to neighbouring Iran.
While the United States strives to heal the rift between the Gulf Arab states and Qatar, and resolve civil wars in Yemen and Syria, Tillerson is the Trump administration’s point man on an even more ambitious and perhaps even less likely geopolitical gambit.
US officials see a new axis that unites Riyadh and Baghdad as central to countering Iran’s growing influence from the Arabian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, particularly as the Iraqi government struggles to rebuild recently liberated Daesh strongholds and confronts a newly assertive Kurdish independence movement.
History, religion and lots of politics stand in Tillerson’s way. He arrived in Riyadh yesterday and is expected to visit Qatar tomorrow. The effort to wean Iraq from Iran and bond it to Saudi Arabia isn’t new, but US officials are optimistically pointing to a surer footing they believe they’ve seen in recent months. They’re hoping to push the improved relations into a more advanced phase with Tillerson participating in the inaugural meeting of the Saudi Arabia-Iraq Coordination Committee in Riyadh today.
Reconstruction effort
Two US officials said Tillerson hopes the Saudis will contribute to the massive reconstruction projects needed to restore preDaesh life in Iraqi cities such as Mosul and lend their backing to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi. The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to publicly preview Tillerson’s plans.
Iran’s reported intervention in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, following the much criticised vote for independence in a referendum, has deepened the unease.
US President Donald Trump wants to see “a stable Iraq, but a stable Iraq that is not aligned with Iran,” H.R. McMaster, his national security adviser, said this past week. He suggested Saudi Arabia could play a pivotal role.
Trump and his national security team have framed much of the Middle East security agenda around counteracting Iran. Shortly after taking office, Tillerson identified improving Saudi-Iraqi ties as a priority in the broader US policy to confront and contain Iran. Officials say he has devoted himself to the effort.