Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Osama Nugali said on Saturday that the decision was made following a meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari in the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah earlier this year, English-language newspaper Arab News reported.
“Prince Saud has assured al-Jaafari that the Saudi Embassy would be reopened in Baghdad,” he added.
Nugali further noted that Riyadh has not given any time frame for the embassy’s reopening.
Saudi Arabia needs to resolve “technical, administrative and security” issues before it can re-establish the mission and assign an ambassador, the senior Saudi official stated.
The Saudi government, which has not dispatched an ambassador to Baghdad since 1990, named a non-resident ambassador, Fahd bin Abdul Mohsen al-Zaid, to the Iraqi capital in March 2012.
Iraq has been fighting the ISIL terrorists since they took control of Mosul on June 10. The Takfiri terrorists currently control parts of eastern Syria and Iraq’s northern and western regions. They have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Izadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.
Senior Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.
