A high ranking government official of Iraq today denied reports that the Saudi government has rejected the planned visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Jawad Al-Maliki to the Saudi kingdom.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari confirmed this in the international media as issues affecting the scheduled conference on Iraq’s security situation is being ironed out between Iran and the United States.
Earlier reports said that Saudi King Abdul Aziz had rejected the request of Maliki to visit the Saudi kingdom in an effort to strengthen bilateral relations between the neighboring Middle East countries.
It appeared that the Saudi king had expressed frustrations over Maliki’s continues inability to contain the daily sectarian violence which already killed more than 3,000 people since the violence started in Iraq. The Saudi king was concerned about the on-going killings of Sunni Muslims, which were believed to perpetrated by the Iranian-supported Shia extremist militants in some parts of Iraq.
In view of these developments, a conference that will bring across the table ranking government officials in Iran, Iraq and the United States, has been scheduled in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh later this week.
Zebari was quoted in wire reports that the conference is also a welcome development between Iran and the U.S., both of which are at loggerheads over the nuclear program issue which Iran failed to abide by its earlier commitments.
He said that the conference will once and for all lead to easing up the tensions that now exist between the two countries. In this way, it is expected to have a positive impacts on how to stabilize the security situation in Iraq. Zebari said that the conference is vital at this point in time after neighbors noted the importance of easing up the chaos in most of Iraq.
Iran will be represented in the May 3-4 conference by no less than its Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. While the United States will be represented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
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