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[size=36]Report: Saudi Arabia is trying to get closer to the Shiites of Iraq[/size]
Political | 03:29 - 03/06/2024
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Baghdad - Mawazine News:
Today, Monday, Al-Hurra Iraq website reported on the Saudi rapprochement with Iraq.
According to the report, after his visit to the Husseiniya shrine in Karbala last month, the Saudi ambassador to Iraq, Abdulaziz Al-Shammari, went to the Alawite shrine in Najaf, where the shrine of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib is sacred to Shiites.
The visit of the Saudi ambassador to Iraq to the shrine of Imam Ali, which is visited by millions of Shiites annually, coincided with the arrival of the first commercial flight from Dammam, where the Shiite minority in the Kingdom is concentrated, to Najaf for the first time.
But the visit of the Saudi ambassador to Karbala first, and then to Najaf, in which he also met with two senior Shiite authorities in a city that is home to one of the most important seminaries (the Jaafari religious sciences schools), opens serious questions about the messages that the Kingdom wishes to deliver through the movements of its envoy to Baghdad. .
Al-Shammari said in statements reported by the “Holy Hussein Shrine” website on the sidelines of his visit to the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, in the middle of last month, that “the visit to the Holy Shrine of Hussein is a message of love and affection to everyone.”
He added that “Saudi Arabia and Iraq are seeking joint economic, political and religious integration.”
In this context, Hassan Al-Mustafa, a Saudi political analyst specializing in Shiite affairs, considered that the Saudi ambassador’s movements represent “an expression of Riyadh’s seriousness in building good relations with Baghdad and openness to various components.” the Iraqian people".
Al-Mustafa said in his interview with the “Al-Hurra” channel website, “Saudi Arabia does not stop at sectarian borders, but rather is concerned with the general interest of the Saudi and Iraqi peoples.”
The head of the Baghdad Center for Studies, Manaf al-Musawi, believes, for his part, that the openness of the Kingdom’s ambassador to the Iraqi Shiite component “confirms that the situation in Saudi Arabia is changing with the new policy launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”
Al-Moussawi said in statements to the “Al-Hurra” website, “In the past, there was a religious conflict that sometimes amounted to excommunicating the other party, before the policy of openness carried out by (Crown Prince) Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which had a clear impact in the region and the world.” He added. “The (Saudi) ambassador’s visit to the Shiite scholars indicates the thawing of the ice between the two countries. I am talking about the sectarian problem that existed between the clerics in Saudi Arabia, who follow the Wahhabi approach, and the clerics in Iraq who follow the Jaafari school of thought.”
Decades of volatile relations
. Saudi-Iraqi relations have witnessed great fluctuations over the decades, and an exchange of accusations, the most prominent of which were from Shiite parties, against Saudi Arabia of supporting extremist organizations in the country that is seeking to recover from wars.
Saudi Arabia severed its relations with Iraq after former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
Even after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, tension continued between the two countries, especially during Nouri al-Maliki's presidency of the Iraqi government for 8 years.
After about 25 years of diplomatic rupture, relations began to gradually improve in 2015 following Riyadh sending its ambassador, Thamer Al-Sabhan, who did not stay for long.
The following year, relations between Baghdad and Riyadh became tense as the Iraqi Foreign Ministry asked its Saudi counterpart to change its ambassador following statements in which he accused “some militias” of preparing a plan to assassinate him, according to Agence France-Presse.
However, relations regained some of their health in February 2017, with a visit by the then Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel Al-Jubeir, to Baghdad in the first trip by a senior Saudi official to Iraq since 2003.
In the wake of successive and exchanged visits over the past years, the two countries decided in 2020 to work to restore... The opening of the main Arar border crossing between them, which was closed more than 33 years ago after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
“In the interest of both countries.”
Al-Shammari, who knows Iraq well, had been acting Saudi ambassador since 2016 before handing over his credentials as the Kingdom’s ambassador to Baghdad the following year.
The Saudi newspaper “Okaz” reported in 2016 that Al-Shammari is “a high-ranking officer with the rank of brigadier general, and (he previously served) as a military attaché at the Saudi embassy in Germany.” Al-
Shammari’s movements in Karbala and Najaf received widespread reactions from the Iraqis, who welcomed these visits.
The two visits to Karbala and Najaf, which enjoy religious status among Shiites, are considered the first of their kind by a Saudi ambassador, according to Al-Mustafa, who points out that they “send messages that Saudi Arabia respects cultural and sectarian diversity.”
He said, "The Kingdom rejects any sectarian rhetoric that divides Muslims or provokes hostility among them, and this openness is evidence that there are no barriers that hinder the building of strong popular ties between Saudi Arabia and Iraq."
Al-Mustafa cited the fact that Flynas, a private sector-owned economic carrier in Saudi Arabia, operates direct flights between the city of Dammam and Najaf, which is visited by millions of Shiite visitors annually, as a portion of these visitors come from the Kingdom.
On Saturday, the official Saudi News Agency (SPA) said that direct flights between Dammam and Najaf come “as a result of the continuous efforts of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council, as strengthening bilateral relations with Iraq enjoys the support of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his Crown Prince, based on the historical relations between the two countries.” And to advance it to new heights in order to achieve common interests and enhance growth and stability in the region.”
Al-Mustafa believes that direct flights via a Saudi carrier are “an expression of Riyadh’s intention to strengthen popular ties between the Kingdom and Iraq by supporting religious tourism.”
The Dammam to Najaf flights add a new air line between the two countries, as Saudi cities are linked to the capital, Baghdad, and the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
Al-Mustafa points out that “these relations will develop in the future” to address economic prospects through investments and trade exchanges.
He continued: "As the security situation improves, and the Iraqi parties, specifically the armed ones, commit to not attacking the Kingdom or harming its economic, civil and military interests, these relations will develop into greater cooperation in more fields."
In this context, Al-Musawi believes that the development of relations between Baghdad and Riyadh “is in the interest of both countries.”
As for Baghdad, relations with Saudi Arabia “return Iraq to the Arab incubator and work to make it a strong country,” according to Al-Musawi. As for the Kingdom, he said, this “relieves pressure on Saudi Arabia regarding its dealings with the Shiite minority.”
Source: Al-Hurra Iraq
Today, Monday, Al-Hurra Iraq website reported on the Saudi rapprochement with Iraq.
According to the report, after his visit to the Husseiniya shrine in Karbala last month, the Saudi ambassador to Iraq, Abdulaziz Al-Shammari, went to the Alawite shrine in Najaf, where the shrine of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib is sacred to Shiites.
The visit of the Saudi ambassador to Iraq to the shrine of Imam Ali, which is visited by millions of Shiites annually, coincided with the arrival of the first commercial flight from Dammam, where the Shiite minority in the Kingdom is concentrated, to Najaf for the first time.
But the visit of the Saudi ambassador to Karbala first, and then to Najaf, in which he also met with two senior Shiite authorities in a city that is home to one of the most important seminaries (the Jaafari religious sciences schools), opens serious questions about the messages that the Kingdom wishes to deliver through the movements of its envoy to Baghdad. .
Al-Shammari said in statements reported by the “Holy Hussein Shrine” website on the sidelines of his visit to the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, in the middle of last month, that “the visit to the Holy Shrine of Hussein is a message of love and affection to everyone.”
He added that “Saudi Arabia and Iraq are seeking joint economic, political and religious integration.”
In this context, Hassan Al-Mustafa, a Saudi political analyst specializing in Shiite affairs, considered that the Saudi ambassador’s movements represent “an expression of Riyadh’s seriousness in building good relations with Baghdad and openness to various components.” the Iraqian people".
Al-Mustafa said in his interview with the “Al-Hurra” channel website, “Saudi Arabia does not stop at sectarian borders, but rather is concerned with the general interest of the Saudi and Iraqi peoples.”
The head of the Baghdad Center for Studies, Manaf al-Musawi, believes, for his part, that the openness of the Kingdom’s ambassador to the Iraqi Shiite component “confirms that the situation in Saudi Arabia is changing with the new policy launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”
Al-Moussawi said in statements to the “Al-Hurra” website, “In the past, there was a religious conflict that sometimes amounted to excommunicating the other party, before the policy of openness carried out by (Crown Prince) Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which had a clear impact in the region and the world.” He added. “The (Saudi) ambassador’s visit to the Shiite scholars indicates the thawing of the ice between the two countries. I am talking about the sectarian problem that existed between the clerics in Saudi Arabia, who follow the Wahhabi approach, and the clerics in Iraq who follow the Jaafari school of thought.”
Decades of volatile relations
. Saudi-Iraqi relations have witnessed great fluctuations over the decades, and an exchange of accusations, the most prominent of which were from Shiite parties, against Saudi Arabia of supporting extremist organizations in the country that is seeking to recover from wars.
Saudi Arabia severed its relations with Iraq after former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
Even after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, tension continued between the two countries, especially during Nouri al-Maliki's presidency of the Iraqi government for 8 years.
After about 25 years of diplomatic rupture, relations began to gradually improve in 2015 following Riyadh sending its ambassador, Thamer Al-Sabhan, who did not stay for long.
The following year, relations between Baghdad and Riyadh became tense as the Iraqi Foreign Ministry asked its Saudi counterpart to change its ambassador following statements in which he accused “some militias” of preparing a plan to assassinate him, according to Agence France-Presse.
However, relations regained some of their health in February 2017, with a visit by the then Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel Al-Jubeir, to Baghdad in the first trip by a senior Saudi official to Iraq since 2003.
In the wake of successive and exchanged visits over the past years, the two countries decided in 2020 to work to restore... The opening of the main Arar border crossing between them, which was closed more than 33 years ago after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
“In the interest of both countries.”
Al-Shammari, who knows Iraq well, had been acting Saudi ambassador since 2016 before handing over his credentials as the Kingdom’s ambassador to Baghdad the following year.
The Saudi newspaper “Okaz” reported in 2016 that Al-Shammari is “a high-ranking officer with the rank of brigadier general, and (he previously served) as a military attaché at the Saudi embassy in Germany.” Al-
Shammari’s movements in Karbala and Najaf received widespread reactions from the Iraqis, who welcomed these visits.
The two visits to Karbala and Najaf, which enjoy religious status among Shiites, are considered the first of their kind by a Saudi ambassador, according to Al-Mustafa, who points out that they “send messages that Saudi Arabia respects cultural and sectarian diversity.”
He said, "The Kingdom rejects any sectarian rhetoric that divides Muslims or provokes hostility among them, and this openness is evidence that there are no barriers that hinder the building of strong popular ties between Saudi Arabia and Iraq."
Al-Mustafa cited the fact that Flynas, a private sector-owned economic carrier in Saudi Arabia, operates direct flights between the city of Dammam and Najaf, which is visited by millions of Shiite visitors annually, as a portion of these visitors come from the Kingdom.
On Saturday, the official Saudi News Agency (SPA) said that direct flights between Dammam and Najaf come “as a result of the continuous efforts of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council, as strengthening bilateral relations with Iraq enjoys the support of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his Crown Prince, based on the historical relations between the two countries.” And to advance it to new heights in order to achieve common interests and enhance growth and stability in the region.”
Al-Mustafa believes that direct flights via a Saudi carrier are “an expression of Riyadh’s intention to strengthen popular ties between the Kingdom and Iraq by supporting religious tourism.”
The Dammam to Najaf flights add a new air line between the two countries, as Saudi cities are linked to the capital, Baghdad, and the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
Al-Mustafa points out that “these relations will develop in the future” to address economic prospects through investments and trade exchanges.
He continued: "As the security situation improves, and the Iraqi parties, specifically the armed ones, commit to not attacking the Kingdom or harming its economic, civil and military interests, these relations will develop into greater cooperation in more fields."
In this context, Al-Musawi believes that the development of relations between Baghdad and Riyadh “is in the interest of both countries.”
As for Baghdad, relations with Saudi Arabia “return Iraq to the Arab incubator and work to make it a strong country,” according to Al-Musawi. As for the Kingdom, he said, this “relieves pressure on Saudi Arabia regarding its dealings with the Shiite minority.”
Source: Al-Hurra Iraq
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