BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Several Middle Eastern leaders and
French President Emmanuel Macron met in Baghdad on Saturday at the Baghdad
Conference for Cooperation and Partnership, a summit hosted by Iraq, which
wants its neighbors to talk to each other instead of settling scores on its
territory.
اضافة اعلان
Iraq's security has improved in recent years but it is still
plagued by big power rivalries and heavily armed militia groups.
Competition for influence in the Middle East between Iran on
one side and the United States, Israel, and Gulf Arab states on the other has
made Iraq the scene of attacks against US forces and assassinations of Iranian
and Iraqi paramilitary leaders.
The strained relationships within the region have also led
to disruptions to global oil supplies with attacks on Saudi Arabian oil
installations — blamed on but denied by Tehran.
Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said during a news
conference that Iran and Saudi Arabia, which began direct talks in Iraq in
April, were continuing their meetings and hoped for "positive
results", but gave no further details.
Organizers of the Baghdad summit said they did not expect
any diplomatic breakthroughs. "Getting these countries to sit around the
table — that will be achievement enough," said one Iraqi government
official.
Heads of state attending included His Majesty
King AbdullahII of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad Al-Thani and Macron. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates sent their
heads of government, and Turkey its foreign minister.
Macron was due to stay an extra day, meet Iraqi leaders and
visit French special forces fighting Daesh insurgents.
Shiite Muslim Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, longtime rivals
for regional dominance, sent their foreign ministers. The two countries resumed
direct talks in Iraq in April this year, but those meetings yielded no
breakthroughs.
Iranian officials have said they are focused more on the
outcome of talks in Vienna with Western powers over Iran's nuclear program and
international sanctions.
"The meeting in Iraq ... is only focused on Iraq and
how the regional countries can cooperate to help Iraq," an Iranian
official told Reuters ahead of the Baghdad summit.
The US-Iran rivalry brought the Middle East to the brink of
war after the United States under former US president Donald Trump killed
Iran's military mastermind Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad
airport in 2020.
Iran-backed militias have launched increasingly
sophisticated drone and rocket attacks against US forces stationed in Iraq, and
also fired drones at Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia has blamed attacks on its oil installations on
Iran — a charge Tehran denies.
The US military drawdown in Iraq and the new nuclear talks
with Iran instigated by President Joe Biden's administration have prompted
Riyadh to favor engagement with Iran as a way to contain tensions without
abandoning its security concerns.
Ahead of the summit, UAE Vice-President Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid Al-Maktoum met Qatar's Al-Thani and described him as a "brother and
friend" in a sign of warming ties between the Gulf rivals.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt in 2017 severed
ties with Qatar over charges it supports terrorism, which Qatar denied.
Since a deal in January, Riyadh and Cairo have restored
diplomatic ties. Abu Dhabi and Manama have yet to do so.
Complicating the security landscape in Iraq, Turkish troops
are battling Kurdish separatists in the north. Their presence has drawn rocket
fire from Iran-aligned militias.
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