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Will a Saudi embassy in Baghdad end tensions with Iraq?

Foreign missions in the Iraqi capital are still under threat yet the Saudi Foreign Affairs Ministry decided to send a technical team to choose a new location for its embassy which closed its doors 24 years ago. The visit aims to break the ice in a relationship that has been frosty for the past 10 […]

Abdulrahman al-Rashed writes in Al-Arabiya:

Foreign missions in the Iraqi capital are still under threat yet the Saudi Foreign Affairs Ministry decided to send a technical team to choose a new location for its embassy which closed its doors 24 years ago. The visit aims to break the ice in a relationship that has been frosty for the past 10 years. Saudi Arabia has also decided to open a general consulate in the Kurdistan region, implementing a previous decision which did not see the light due to political and security tensions.

Relations were never severed completely but there has been no Saudi embassy and no Saudi ambassador in Baghdad in recent years. An embassy has a message and the diplomatic team has a mission to carry out, which includes fixing what has been damaged during the many decades under various Iraqi governments. Relations were bad in the 1970s, especially with the rise of Saddam Hussein to the post of vice president as he gave directions to incite against Saudi Arabia, supported opposition groups and funded secret operations inside the Saudi kingdom. This did not end until after a meeting organized by Jordan. The meeting resulted in a number of agreements which included specifying a neutral zone and ending hostile activities.