Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi received an unprecedented warm welcome when he landed in the Jordanian capital Amman on Tuesday. King Abdullah II swept aside protocols and personally received the premier at the airport.
The Iraqi PM was in Jordan for a tripartite summit that included King Abdullah and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
Kadhimi, who had just returned from a successful visit to the United States, was seeking to employ Iraq’s financial and human resources to boost the concept of partnership and veer away from pervious government’s reliance on bilateral cooperation with Iran and Turkey, said sources close to the premier. Such a dependence has kept Iraq away from its Arab fold: Iraq’s trade balance with Turkey is estimated at 10 to 12 billion dollars annually and 8 to ten billion dollars with Iran, while the balance is at a meager 2 billion with Saudi Arabia and hardly any better with Egypt and Jordan.
The signs of a new chapter of Iraqi relations with its Arab neighbors first emerged with the formation of the Iraqi-Saudi coordination council during the term of former Iraqi PM Haidar al-Abadi. These relations were boosted with his successor, Adel Abdul Mahdi, before he encountered numerous challenges, notably massive popular protests that led to his resignation in late 2019. Abdul Mahdi had held summits with King Abdullah and Sisi in each of Cairo and Amman, but circumstances worked against him and the meetings never yielded any significant results.
Kadhimi will now try to pick up from where his successors left off. He has just returned with great American political and economic support and sought to propose the project of a “new Middle East”. This project will follow European example, whereby capital and technology would flow more freely.
Member of the Iraqi parliamentary foreign relations committee, Dr. Dhafer al-Ani said the tripartite cooperation between Baghdad, Amman and Cairo was not born yesterday, but dates back to several years.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Iraq needs the Arab fold, which would empower it in confronting regional problems from Iran and Turkey.” He added that no outstanding years-long unresolved issues exist between Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, which will facilitate the process of bolstering their relations.
In fact, he continued, Jordan and Egypt are both looking forward to striking promising economic and oil deals with Iraq. Iraq has always provided them with their oil needs. Cairo and Amman, in turn, view Baghdad as an important strategic partner in the region.
The tripartite summit may yield political and economic results if Iraq were to open up economically, which will in turn open up political opportunities and boost its Arab standing.
Iraqi MP Aras Habib Karim told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iraq needs to adopt a policy of regional and international openness that prioritizes its national interest, especially when it comes to economic, energy and investment affairs.
