No more gestures to Saudis: Iraq’s Maliki

Source: AFP

BAGHDAD - Saudi-Iraqi relations are at a low ebb and Baghdad has no intention of making goodwill gestures because Riyadh sees them as a sign of weakness, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday.

Ties have been strained since the US-led invasion of 2003 toppled dictator Saddam Hussein and ended 1,400 years of Sunni Arab domination of Shiite-majority Iraq.

Maliki’s Shiite-led government accuses Riyadh of not doing enough to stop its citizens crossing the border and joining the mainly-Sunni insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis in the past six years.

“Iraq has no intention of making new goodwill gestures towards Saudi Arabia because my initiative has been interpreted in Riyadh as a sign of weakness,” Maliki said in a statement posted on the government’s website.

He was referring to an international conference on Iraq at the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in May 2007, during which Saudi King Abdullah refused to meet Maliki, accusing him of “embodying sectarian divisions.”

Read more: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2009/May/middleeast_May562.xml§ion=middleeast

n/t

Not when they need Saudi cooperation.

And Maliki is ignoring the steps Saudi Arabia has taken. Insurgents from SA are way down because the government has stepped up their border guards.

and less Saudi cooperation

I don't blame them...

Thanks to Bush, Iran has become the de-facto government in Iraq.

What Maliki wants to do is remove Sunnis from the government, which will continue the sectarian fighting.

As long as he continues that policy, Saudi Arabian radicals will have a reason to try to cross into Iraq.

crossing into Iraq, Maliki & Co will continue that policy.

And to think 'Main Street' was 'corporately' LIED to repeatedly for that... :grr:

Saudi Arabia started a fence last year with Iraq and U.S. reports say incursions are way down.

But it plays to Maliki's strength to claim otherwise.