Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari (L) walks with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully during a news conference in Baghdad March 23, 2015. (Reuters)
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has suspended its diplomatic mission and shut its embassy in Baghdad since Saddam Hussein’s invaded Kuwait in 1991.
“[Saudi Arabia] has agreed on the embassy’s location the Iraqi government has allocated and is currently making direct preparations for the embassy to start its wok in Baghdad soon,” Jaafari told journalists.
The Iraqi FM said has discussed the issue in previous talks he held with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud Al-Faisal.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Saad Al-Hadithi, spokesman of Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, said: “The Iraqi government believes positive steps have been taken within the context of relations between Iraq and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Jaafari’s comments come soon after the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, a partner in the anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) international coalition in Iraq, invited Abadi to Saudi.
The process of reopening the Saudi embassy, Hadithi maintained, has moved from political decisions to procedures as to where it will be located and what preparations to make.
The official said similar procedures will follow in the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan where Saudi plans to set up a consulate.
The rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria has raised concerns within the oil-rich Kingdom who is one of the nine Arab members taking part in the US-led airstrikes on the radical group.
The rapprochement between Saudi and Iraq, Hadithi said, reflects “a new trend between the two countries to turn a new leaf over the past and establish a new stage.”