Iraqi officials to hold talks with Riyadh soon
Saudi Arabia and Iraq will cooperate in security issues as senior Iraqi officials will arrive in Riyadh soon to discuss this matter, Saudi interior minister said in remarks published yesterday.
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia and Iraq will cooperate in security issues as senior Iraqi officials will arrive in Riyadh soon to discuss this matter, Saudi interior minister said in remarks published yesterday.
"Our brothers in Iraq, particularly the interior minister, underlined their keenness to deal with this matter. Soon Iraqi officials will arrive [in Riyadh] to discuss establishing channels of contacts between the two countries," Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz said after opening the fourth forum of the Saudi Association for Media and Communication.
Prince Nayef was quoted earlier this week as saying that the Iraqi authorities promised to cooperate with the kingdom in handing over any of Al Qaida suspects involved in terror attacks in Saudi Arabia. But he believed that the lack of security in Iraq and the inability of the concerned authorities to reach the suspects are the reasons that no suspects were yet handed over to the kingdom.
Security barrier
The Saudi-Iraqi borders have witnessed a number of infiltrations over the past few years during which Saudi authorities were able to arrest 682 Iraqi infiltrators and smugglers in the first half of 2005.
In a move to maintain security and stop infiltrators from both sides as well as others crossing the Saudi borders to Iraq from other countries, Saudi Arabia announced it would construct a security barrier along its border with Iraq.
Reports said that Saudi expenses for securing its borders with Iraq rose to four billion riyals(Dh4 billion) by August 2005 as opposed to 1.8 billion riyals at the end of 2004.
