Saturday, 18 July 2020_Iraqi officials say Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi will travel to Saudi Arabia and Iran back-to-back next week in his first foreign trip as premier.
On Sunday, Kadhimi will host Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Baghdad, before travelling with Iraq's ministers of oil, electricity, planning and finance to Saudi Arabia the following day, the officials said Saturday.
"They are set to stay in NEOM, an area in the kingdom's northwest that is currently under development, and are scheduled to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with whom Kadhimi is known to have warm personal ties," AFP reported.
The officials said Baghdad proposed a package of energy-focused development opportunities in Iraq to Saudi Arabia earlier this month, and the talks will likely focus on financing for those proposals, other infrastructure projects, and a reopening of the Arar border crossing between the two countries.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan announced after a meeting in May with Ali Allawi, Iraq's deputy premier and acting minister of finance and oil, in Riyadh that the kingdom would be sending back its ambassador to Baghdad as Riyadh sought closer ties with Iraq following the defeat of the Daesh.
The Saudi minister claimed that the kingdom supported Iraq's efforts to achieve security and stability and that Riyadh respected Iraq's sovereignty without foreign interference.
Such statements belie the stormy relations between Saudi Arabia and Iraq which for many years complained of Riyadh's financial and logistical help to militants and Takfiri terrorists wreaking havoc in the region.
Washington and Riyadh have long been the main beneficiaries of mayhem in Iraq, where they have sought to bolster remnants of Daesh alongside other Takfiri outfits.
Unrest and insecurity serves the US goal to extend and justify its protracted military stay in Iraq, which is staunchly opposed by the Iraqi people. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, sees Takfiri groups as its best hope to wield influence in Iraq and prevent the empowerment of real stakeholders in the country.
Iraq’s Badr organization, which is part of the country's Popular Mobilization Forces or Hashd al-Sha’abi, recently said the US and Saudi Arabia were after reviving Daesh by facilitating the return of its fugitive militants to Iraq, adding that frequent attacks conducted by the Takfiri terrorist group served that aim.
The organization said the renewed US-Saudi support for Daesh was similar to that of 2014, when the Takfiri outfit unleashed a campaign of death and destruction in Iraq and overran vast swathes in lightning attacks.
Your Comment