Iraqi education minister in Riyadh

Iraqi dailies published on Monday said that Iraqi Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Abdul Jabbar Tawfiq Muhammad met in Riyadh with his Saudi counterpart, Khaled Nin Muhammad al-Anqari.

The Iraqi dailies added that the Iraqi Foreign Ministry secretary and its former representative at the Arab League, Nabil Najm, attended the meeting during which talks dealt with deliberations of the "meeting of the Arab higher education ministers in Riyadh" which was opened on Monday night.

The Iraqi dailies gave no more details.

Questions have been raised whether the first Iraqi-Saudi talks on this level (of ministers) since the Gulf war of 1991 would be dedicated to educational matters. Observers say that Riyadh, which is embarrassed to start open political contacts with Baghdad, would find in this educational meeting a cover for a political meeting.

The observers expect that Iraq, which discovered that maintaining relations with Riyadh is an introduction to restoring relations with the Arab states, and that Saudi Arabia, which is facing Arab pressure for reconciliation with Baghdad, may at last have reached the conviction on the need to maintain understanding.

Iraq severed diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, after the latter permitted allied troops led by the US to use its lands as a base for striking the Iraqi forces in Kuwait.

Baghdad also accused Saudi Arabia of providing bases and supplies for the US and British jets which have been since the Operation Desert Fox in December 1998 launching daily strikes against Iraq.

Since the beginning of Operation Desert Fox, Saudi Arabia had obstructed several Arab meetings devoted to Arab attempts in solidarity with Iraq and demanding the lift of international sanctions imposed on it.