JEDDAH, 10 October 2005 — Iraqi Interior Minister Abdul Jabar yesterday commended the policies of Saudi Arabia and said he would soon send a delegation to Riyadh to discuss prospects of strengthening security cooperation.
“I respect a lot the wise and balanced policies of Saudi Arabia, which usually ... adopts policies accepted by all,” Jabar told Asharq Al-Awsat daily, a sister publication of Arab News. Jabar hoped that the friction over his anti-Saudi tirade last week would be a “summer cloud that would go away.”
He said Interior Minister Prince Naif had sent him a message last week “that made me very happy, and I will send a delegation to Riyadh ... to reach a memorandum of understanding on security issues.”
In a reference to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Jabar said last week that Iraqis would “not accept a Bedouin on a camel teaching us about human rights and democracy”. He was responding to recent remarks by Prince Saud in which he expressed concern about purported Iranian meddling in Iraq.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Jabar’s statement did not represent his country’s policy toward Saudi Arabia. He emphasized the strong Saudi-Iraqi relations.
“If there are any differences of opinion it would be solved through negotiations,” he said and hoped that Riyadh would soon appoint its ambassador to Baghdad.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has publicly rebuked Jabar, calling his remarks “extremely regrettable.”
