SandBox Comments: Durango Herald "Saudi Arabia names ambassador to Iraq"

Sameer N. Yacoub:
"Saudi Arabia is taking a major step toward thawing diplomatic relations with Iraq by posting an ambassador to Baghdad for the first time in more than two decades, Iraq's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Hoshyar Zebari said that the Saudi envoy to Jordan, Fahad Abdul Muhsin al-Zayd, will also act as a non-resident ambassador to Iraq. He will arrive in Baghdad soon to submit his credentials from Riyadh.

"We welcome this development which represents a good restart and a step to normalize the relations between the two countries," Zebari told The Associated Press.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry confirmed the appointment in a statement.

Relations between the Saudis' powerful Sunni kingdom and the Shiite-led government in Iraq have been frosty for years. Riyadh and other Gulf states cut diplomatic ties with Baghdad after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990...." (Read more? Click title)

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SandBox Comments: SkyHi Daily "William Hamilton: College, Iraq, and Afghanistan: Who pays?"

"....That leaves Iran, which has the largest armed forces in the region and an abiding hatred for the United States. If, as many experts predict, Iraq becomes a vassal state of Iran, what are the options for an industrialized world that depends so heavily upon the oil of the Persian Gulf?

Despite our nuclear submarines in the Persian Gulf and our aircraft carrier task groups operating in the Mediterranean and in the Arabian Ocean, we really do not have any meaningful way of force projection into the heartland of Iran. So, unless the Saudis are willing to take on the Iranians, the industrialized world must make nice-nice with the Iranian regime..."
(William Hamilton)

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"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."