Iraq Says Baghdad Hosting Iran’s Talks With Jordan And Egypt

The Iraqi foreign minister announced Thursday that Iran’s negotiations with Jordan and Egypt have started with the mediation of the Iraqi government in Baghdad.

Fuad Hussein made the remarks during an interview with the Saudi Al-Arabiya television, without giving any further details. There were no comments from Cairo and Amman on the report. 

Diplomatic representation between Egypt and Iran is at the level of interest section offices since the two countries severed ties following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 

Hussein called for turning the talks between Tehran and Riyadh into a “declared dialogue”, adding that the focus of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's visit to Saudi Arabia last Saturday was the dialogue between Riyadh and Tehran, where he went the following day.

Despite all speculations and expectations, Kadhimi’s visit led to no tangible results as the visiting Iraqi premier and Iranian president did not announce any news about Tehran-Riyadh talks during their joint press conference.

Iran and Saudi Arabia -- which are locked in proxy conflicts around the region -- have held several rounds of talks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad since 2021.

It was the Islamic Republic that suspended the talks in March a day after Saudi Arabia announced it had beheaded 81 men, including seven Yemenis and a Syrian, for “heinous crimes.” Forty-one were Saudi Shiites, Human Rights Watch reported, apparently convicted over protests.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in 2016 when mobs attacked its embassy in Tehran after Riyadh executed 47 dissidents including the leading Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.