Saudi: 'Iraq is our Iraq, a support for the Arabs'

Iraqis are looking forward to renewed relations with Saudi Arabia after previous governments increased tensions between the two countries.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal said: “Iraq is our Iraq, and it is a support for the Arabs and Arabs supporter its stability and unity.”

After meeting Iraqi President Fuad Masum in Riyadh, Al-Faisal said: “The Saudi embassy in Baghdad will open soon and I am excited to visit Baghdad soon.”

He wished Iraqis would unite, stressing that “the Kingdom will be supportive of them”, and expressed his country’s readiness for “the consolidation of joint cooperation with Iraq, on various issues, and working to complete the opening of the Kingdom’s embassy in Baghdad”.

An Iraqi official in Haider Al-Abadi’s government had previously told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that a schedule is in place which includes discussions on security cooperation between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, especially regarding Iraq’s request that the Kingdom hand over the names of the Saudi members of the Islamic State (ISIS) who are present in Iraq, who number at least 1,500, as well as discussing their shared border.

It is likely that “the Iraqi president asks the Saudi leadership to help persuade Sunni religious and tribal leaders to support the government and the international coalition in the war on ISIS.”