Bahrain's foreign minister visits Iraq

Reuters    Translate This Article
18 October 2008

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa visited Iraq Saturday in a sign of Baghdad's improving relations with Gulf Arab states after years of fragile ties.

'This visit is very important for both countries and it is a message about the continuation of the Arab presence in Baghdad,' Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told a joint news conference with Sheikh Khaled.

'It is also a sign for Arab countries to reopen their embassies and return their diplomatic corps to Baghdad,' he said.

Sheikh Khaled called on other Gulf countries to forgive billions in Iraqi debt dating back to the time of Saddam Hussein.

'These debts were imposed on Iraq and Iraqi citizens had no role in them. We are always working with our brothers to help Iraq,' he said.

Washington and Baghdad had long complained that Iraq's Arab neighbors, mainly led by Sunni Muslims, were keeping their distance from the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad, but those ties have improved considerably in recent months.

After long avoiding Baghdad because of security concerns, leaders and foreign ministers of Arab states have been visiting Iraq steadily since Jordan's King Abdullah made an unannounced stop in Baghdad in August.

Bahrain, which like Iraq has a Shi'ite majority, is one of several Arab countries that have dispatched ambassadors to Iraq over the past month after leaving the post vacant for years.

(Reporting by Waleed Ibrahim; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Copyright 2008 Reuters. Reprinted with permission from Reuters. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution or Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters Sphere Logo are registered trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. For additional information about Reuters content and services, please visit Reuters website at www.reuters.com. License # REU-4198-JJM.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.