Kadhimi seeks Saudi-Iranian appeasement before Biden’s Middle East tour
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has pre-empted next month’s the Arab-American Riyadh summit with a diplomatic shuttle between Jeddah and Tehran, which is seen as an attempt to smooth out the contentious atmosphere over Iran’s nuclear programme ahead of the forthcoming trip by US President Joe Biden to the region.
Kadhimi met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Sunday, a day after he visited Saudi Arabia in an apparent bid to revive talks between the regional rivals to ease years of hostility.
“We have agreed to work together to bring stability and calm to the region,” Kadhimi said in a joint televised news conference with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.
“Dialogue with regional officials can resolve the regional issues,” Raisi said, without elaborating.
On Saturday, Kadhimi held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah which the state news agency SPA said included bilateral relations and “boosting security and stability in the region”.
Kadhimi's visit comes during a months-long impasse in the indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to secure a 2015 nuclear pact.
US President Joe Biden is expected to visit Riyadh in mid-July and talks there are likely to include Gulf security concerns over Iran's ballistic missile programme and its network of armed proxies across the Middle East.
In recent months, the United States has sought to reassure the Gulf states and Israel that Washington will continue to confront any threat from Iran while it promotes nuclear diplomacy with Tehran. But it does not seem to have succeeded in convincing its regional partners and allies, who believe that the agreement will only ratchet up Iran's aggressive activities in the region.
Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia suffered attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, without these eliciting a strong response from the US. This is considered to have been one of the main reasons that led to the fraying of the relationship between Washington, on the one hand and Riyadh and Abu Dhabi , on the other.
Appeasement between Saudi Arabia and Iran could help advance the pace of negotiations over the nuclear agreement, especially after the Europe’s top foreign affairs official, Josep Borrell, succeeded in reactivating the process which was in a stalemate.
Biden is expected to make a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia in the middle of next month. The schedule of the visit will be divided into two parts. On July 15, he will meet Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On the second day the US president will attend a joint summit convened by Saudi Arabia with the participation of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Jordanian King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Iraqi Prime Minister Kadhimi.
Iraq has hosted five rounds of negotiations between Iranian and Saudi officials in recent months with the aim of normalising relations between the two countries, which have been cut off since 2016.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that Prince Muhammad and Kadhimi held an "official discussion session in Jeddah, during which they reviewed the bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and areas of joint cooperation."
“We have agreed to work together to bring stability and calm to the region,” Kadhimi said in a joint televised news conference with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.
“Dialogue with regional officials can resolve the regional issues,” Raisi said, without elaborating.
On Saturday, Kadhimi held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah which the state news agency SPA said included bilateral relations and “boosting security and stability in the region”.
Kadhimi's visit comes during a months-long impasse in the indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to secure a 2015 nuclear pact.
US President Joe Biden is expected to visit Riyadh in mid-July and talks there are likely to include Gulf security concerns over Iran's ballistic missile programme and its network of armed proxies across the Middle East.
In recent months, the United States has sought to reassure the Gulf states and Israel that Washington will continue to confront any threat from Iran while it promotes nuclear diplomacy with Tehran. But it does not seem to have succeeded in convincing its regional partners and allies, who believe that the agreement will only ratchet up Iran's aggressive activities in the region.
Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia suffered attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, without these eliciting a strong response from the US. This is considered to have been one of the main reasons that led to the fraying of the relationship between Washington, on the one hand and Riyadh and Abu Dhabi , on the other.
Appeasement between Saudi Arabia and Iran could help advance the pace of negotiations over the nuclear agreement, especially after the Europe’s top foreign affairs official, Josep Borrell, succeeded in reactivating the process which was in a stalemate.
Biden is expected to make a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia in the middle of next month. The schedule of the visit will be divided into two parts. On July 15, he will meet Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On the second day the US president will attend a joint summit convened by Saudi Arabia with the participation of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Jordanian King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Iraqi Prime Minister Kadhimi.
Iraq has hosted five rounds of negotiations between Iranian and Saudi officials in recent months with the aim of normalising relations between the two countries, which have been cut off since 2016.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that Prince Muhammad and Kadhimi held an "official discussion session in Jeddah, during which they reviewed the bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and areas of joint cooperation."