Iraq, Saudi Arabia resume diplomatic relations

The Iraqi prime minister Eyad Allawi said that Iraq and Saudi Arabia agreed to re-open their embassy after 13 years of closing them.

In a press conference, Allawi held in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Allawi explained that his fifth station in his Arab tour which covered Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon that the two embassies will be opened " as from today," ( Yesterday).

For his part, the Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that Saudi Arabia and Iraq decided during the meeting in Jeddah to resume their diplomatic relations after severing them under the rule of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Al-Faisal met with the Iraqi prime minister in Jeddah and they discussed bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern between the two countries.

On June 6 al-Faisal expressed Riyadh's readiness to resume its diplomatic relations with Baghdad.

The two states closed their embassies at the initiative of the former Iraqi president, following the invasion of the of the Iraqi army of Kuwait in 1990 which was followed by the second Gulf war in 1991, led by the US with the participation of more than 30 countries.