Saudi Ambassador to Iraq Abdulaziz al-Shammari stressed on Tuesday that Baghdad is a pioneering country in the world, highlighting the rapprochement between the Kingdom and its neighbor.
He said: “The Saudi and Iraqi political leaderships agreed that the Kingdom’s rapprochement with Iraq will lead to Baghdad’s return to the Arab fold.”
He made his remarks while receiving a delegation from the Baghdad center for strategic studies and international relations and Kurdish Democratic Party member Shawan Mohammed Taha and a number of political and economic officials.
“We are approaching Iraq with practical steps and our role in the upcoming phase is to empower it,” Shammari continued.
“We are in a race against time and several meetings have been held at the Iraqi-Saudi economic coordination council,” he continued.
“Ties between our countries were severed for 30 years and we need to establish a strategic relationship with our Iraqi brothers on the economic, security and trade levels,” he stated.
Head of the Baghdad center Monaf al-Moussawi said that the meeting with Shammari pushes forward the Saudi-Iraqi rapprochement.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The center hopes that there will be constant cooperation with studies centers in Saudi Arabia.”
He revealed that talks with the ambassador proposed the idea of forming an Iraqi-Saudi forum that would bring together academic and media figures.
For his part, Taha said: “The Kurdish individual is no different than the Iraqi.”
He spoke of an intention to correct the Iraqi media’s approach towards some Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia.
“There are sincere Iraqi, Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen intentions towards the Kingdom,” he stressed.
The Baghdad center for strategic studies and international relations is a non-government organization that seeks to rectify local or Arab disputes through offering studies and organizing seminars.
