Roundup: Jeddah summit in Saudi Arabia highlights Iraq's regional role: experts-Xinhua

Roundup: Jeddah summit in Saudi Arabia highlights Iraq's regional role: experts

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2022-07-22 02:50:29

BAGHDAD, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Amid a debate about what the Jeddah Summit for Security and Development has meant for Iraq, the country's political experts noted that Baghdad may have managed to gain some success by highlighting its regional role before and at the summit.

Hosted by Saudi Arabia on Saturday, the summit was attended by leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and the United States.

Nadhum Ali Abdullah, an expert at Arab Forum for Analyzing Iranian Policies, a Baghdad-based think tank, told Xinhua that Iraq's efforts in healing the rift between Iran and Saudi Arabia proved that the country is taking up a reliable mediator role in the region.

"Iraq's participation in the Jeddah summit confirmed its success in playing the role of mediator in the region by hosting rounds of direct talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia and removing part of the distrust between the two countries for the sake of regional calm," Abdullah explained.

Iraq hosted four rounds of direct talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia last year and a fifth round in April this year to improve their bilateral relations and ease regional tension.

"Through the Jeddah summit, Iraq strengthened regional cooperation in sustainable development, especially the conclusion of agreements to implement electrical interconnection with Saudi Arabia," the Iraqi expert added.

Iraq entered into a contract with the GCC Interconnection Authority to connect its power grid in the south with that in Kuwait, one of the six GCC member states, allowing the supply of about 500 megawatts of energy from the GCC countries.

Meanwhile, Iraq and Saudi Arabia signed in Jeddah the executive report on the principles of the electricity interconnection agreement the two countries signed at the beginning of 2022, to build a grid that connects the northern Saudi Arabian city of Arar to Yusufiya, a township near Baghdad, with a capacity of 1,000 MW and a voltage of 400 kV at a length of 435 km.

Iraq's presence at the summit confirms the success of Iraq in restoring its "strategic depth" in the Arab region, especially during the two-year leadership of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, according to Abdullah.

It is worth noting that the leaders at the summit were keen to express their full support for Iraq's sovereignty, security, and stability, its development and prosperity, and all its efforts to combat terrorism in the final statement. They also welcomed Iraq's positive role in facilitating diplomacy and confidence-building among countries in the region.

Hadi Marie, another political analyst, also said Iraq can get some benefit from its participation in the Jeddah summit, mainly by revitalizing its regional role.

"The Jeddah summit should not be seen as the goal, but rather it is part of a set of steps Iraq should take toward a stronger regional role in the future," Marie told Xinhua.