Iraq president to visit Saudi Arabia as relations thaw

Riyadh: Iraqi President Fouad Masoum is to visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the highest-level talks between the two neighbours in years.

The official Saudi Press Agency gave no details of the programme for Masoum’s visit in a short announcement on Monday.

Tension between Iraq and Saudi Arabia has escalated over the years.

Relations plumbed new depths earlier this year when then Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al Maliki accused Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbour Qatar of backing “terror groups” in his country.

Riyadh hit back, blaming Al Maliki’s “sectarian” policies towards the Sunni Arab minority for Daesh’s capture of much of the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in June.

Relations began to improve after Masoum’s nomination of Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi in August to replace the controversial Al Maliki.

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz sent messages of congratulations to both men saying that he hoped the nomination would help “re-establish cohesion among Iraq’s people and preserve the unity and stability of Iraq.”

Saudi Arabia has since become a key ally in the US-led war against Daesh, with its warplanes taking part in the coalition air campaign against the militants in Syria, although not in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia shares a border of more than 800 kilometres with Iraq.