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Iraq PM visits Saudi Arabia to mediate talks between Riyadh and Iran
As part of diplomatic attempts to strengthen bilateral ties between Riyadh and Tehran, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi paid a visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday before departing for Iran.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was seen personally embracing Kadhimi at the airport in Jeddah in photos released by Saudi Arabia’s official press agency.
Saudi Arabia and Iran, which have not maintained diplomatic relations since 2016, have held numerous rounds of discussions in Iraq over the past year.
Kadhimi was scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia before traveling to Iran, an Iraqi cabinet minister told AFP earlier on Saturday.
According to the source, Kadhimi felt optimistic that he could restore relations between the two nations and thought that “reconciliation is approaching” between the regional rivals.
The official visit, according to the source in the prime minister’s cabinet, “comes in the context of the negotiations that Riyadh and Tehran just held in Baghdad.”
Those discussions, he claimed, “provided a road plan for repairing relations and returning to the right track of improving bilateral relations” between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which support opposing parties in conflict zones.
The insider continued, saying that the visits “had nothing to do with the talks over the formation of the new administration and are unrelated to internal political events in Iraq.”
Iran hasn’t maintained diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia for the past six years as a result of Iranian demonstrators attacking Saudi embassies there after the kingdom executed Shia preacher Nimr al Nimr.
Although Iran and Saudi Arabia are “neighbors forever,” the crown prince of Saudi Arabia stated earlier this year that it would be “better for both of us to sort things out and to look for methods in which we can live.”