Saudi Arabia denies to have opened borders with Iraq

Saudi Arabia has denied news on its intention to resume diplomatic relations with Iraq and said it had not opened a border crossing between the two states.

The Saudi dailies issued on Monday quoted the Saudi defense minister prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz as saying on Sunday evening that the press reports which stated that Saudi Arabia intends to resume diplomatic relations are groundless.

The Saudi minister also denied the reopening of the "Arar" border crossing between the two states. He added that this crossing is opened during al-Haj season for the crossing of the Iraqi pilgrimages and will remain so until relations are improved with Iraq.

Last week, Iraq's custom's director general Hamid Shuker said that Iraq had opened the border crossing for the transport of civilians and commodity that reached it ( Iraq) according to the oil for food program for the first time since the Gulf war in 1991, since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, SANA reported.