Our ‘recovery diplomacy’ has recovered thousands of artifacts stolen from Iraq during the war,” this was stated by Fuad Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, in an interview with Oman Arabic daily newspaper.
He said that his discussions with Omani officials were fruitful and successful and covered various economic, cultural, military and security aspects.
He added: “We agreed to activate the joint Omani-Iraqi committee which is expected to hold an important meeting by year-end. Iraq is experiencing a state of security and stability and this has spurred our economy and opened the door to international capital to invest in Iraq.
Iraq is studying mechanisms to get Iraqi professionals and competencies back to the country to contribute to the construction process.” Fuad Hussein denied that the news published about the agreement with the American side for the withdrawal of the allied forces came as part of a deal to calm down with Iran to avoid its reaction to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, pointing out that there is no written agreement with America so far but there are negotiations and viewpoints that are still on the negotiating table.
He noted that communication is open between Iraq and Iran and between Iraq and America to calm tensions that are not in the interest of Iraq or the region, pointing out that Iraq does not agree to all American policies in the region.
Iraq began to play a fundamental role in resolving many issues affecting the region such as the tensions in the Saudi-Iranian, Egyptian-Iranian and Jordanian-Iranian relations and Iraq has played a fundamental role in restoring these relations. We see it as a duty to help calm down regional tensions because Iraq’s security is linked to regional security, he said.
Asked about the future of the Iraq-US relations in light of the geopolitical transformations the region is witnessing, Hussein said: “The American presence in Iraq is small compared to other countries.
The Iraqi-American relations are good and we have an agreement and in light of this agreement taking the Iraqi interests into account. The Iraqi interests require us to have good relations with the Americans and this does not mean that we agree with all the American policy in the region. We are starting our relationship from the angle of Iraqi interests as well as the interests of the region. However, when we talk about our relations with the US, we are not only talking about security relations but rather about broad relations similar to our relations with many countries that are related to the economy, oil, education, health and so on. America is a major country and we have to be realistic.”
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
