BAGHDAD (Agencies)
Kuwait named an ambassador to Iraq on Thursday and Lebanon’s parliamentary majority leader Saad al-Hariri urged more investment during a rare visit to Baghdad, highlighting the Arab world's growing interest in the war torn country.
Arab states have been reluctant to extend legitimacy to the U.S.-backed government despite pressure from Washington, which wants more regional engagement to dilute the influence of neighbouring Shiite Iran.
A senior Kuwaiti diplomatic presence -- its first since former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 -- would be a milestone for Baghdad's push for better regional ties given many Kuwaitis are still bitter about the Iraqi occupation.
A fall in violence to four-year lows has led to a flurry of high-level visits from foreign capitals, which previously cited security concerns for not sending officials to Baghdad.
Continuing his push to encourage investment in Iraq, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit Germany and Italy next week, the government's spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. |
 |
New envoy Kuwait's KUNA state news agency said former army chief of staff, Ali al-Mumin, had been named as envoy to Baghdad.
"A decree will be issued appointing Ali al-Mumin as ambassador to Iraq," the agency said, without giving details of when he would arrive in the Iraqi capital.
Mumin, who was chief of staff in the 1990s and subsequently retired from the army, heads a center in Kuwait to provide humanitarian aid to Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam.
No Arab ambassador has been stationed in Iraq since Egypt's envoy was kidnapped an killed shortly after arriving in 2005.
The United Arab Emirates and Jordan have named ambassadors in recent weeks, but they have not yet taken up their posts. Bahrain has said it would also name an envoy to Baghdad soon. |
|
Hariri visit Earlier on Thursday, senior Lebanese politician and billionaire businessman Saad al-Hariri met Maliki.
Hariri is head of the largest parliamentary coalition in Lebanon, which has its own sectarian divisions. Rival Lebanese leaders last week ended weeks of wrangling to form a unity government.
"Iraq and Lebanon are similar in the struggles they face. We are in the same situation. I believe Iraq is a democratic country and this democracy must succeed in Iraq, as it must succeed in Lebanon," Hariri told reporters.
His visit comes a week after Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan travelled to Baghdad. Jordan's King Abdullah is also due to visit soon.
Analysts have said Iraq's close ties to Iran -- whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the first regional leader to visit Baghdad -- had partly deterred the country's Sunni Arab neighbours from boosting diplomatic ties.
The government's failure to reconcile with minority Sunni Arabs had also drawn recriminations from Sunni Arab states. But Maliki's recent crackdown on Shiite militias has drawn praise from Sunni Arab politicians in Iraq.
Hariri called on Lebanese firms to invest in Iraq to create jobs to help build on the security gains. |
