Saudi Arabia improving ties with Iraq

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Wednesday that his country would consider reopening an embassy in Baghdad, a step long sought by the Bush administration to help legitimize the Shiite-led Iraqi government. At a joint press conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said he told the visiting U.S. secretaries of state and defense that his country will soon send a diplomatic mission to Baghdad "and explore how we can start an embassy in Iraq." Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim country, has had frosty relations with the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and has not hidden its suspicions that al-Maliki does not have the interests of Iraq's Sunni minority at heart. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thanked her Saudi host for considering diplomatic ties, calling it "an important step." The Arab world has lagged far behind Europe in placing embassies in Baghdad. Responding to criticism from the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, al-Faisal said Saudi Arabia is already doing all it can to address concerns about the flow of terrorists over its border into Iraq. "All that we can do in order to protect the border in Iraq we have been doing," he said. The foreign minister insisted his country was supportive of the Iraqi government. "As an indication of our good intentions, we let their (soccer) team win," al-Faisal joked, referring to Iraq's soccer victory over Saudi Arabia in the final of the Asia Cup. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-08-01-saudi-iraq_N.htm?csp=34