Manama: Saudi Arabia is sending a technical team to Baghdad to scout for a location for its embassy in the Iraqi capital.
The mission is being coordinated with the Iraqi government ahead of the opening the diplomatic mission in Baghdad more than 24 years after the last Saudi ambassador residing in the Iraqi capital left the country following the invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi army in August 1990.
The new embassy building will be inside the Green Zone, the fortified area that contains a number of Iraqi ministries and the US and British embassies, and the location-finding mission will be in Iraq within weeks, Osama Naqli, the head of the media at the foreign ministry said, Saudi daily Al Sharq Al Awsat reported on Thursday.
The official insisted the team who would work on finding an adequate location for the embassy would be purely technical and not political.
“They will check the available locations in the Green Zone in coordination with the Iraqi government as agreed,” he said. “The date for the opening of the embassy will depend on the selection of the location and on getting it ready.”
The decision by Saudi Arabia to dispatch the scouting team was taken following a flurry of talks between the Saudis and the Iraqis.
Diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iraq were severed in 1990 after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait.
In November, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal, following a visit by Iraqi President Fouad Maasoom, told the media in Riyadh that the Saudi embassy in Baghdad would reopen “sooner than you imagine” and that he was keen on making a visit to Iraq.
The last Saudi ambassador to serve in Iraq was Tarad Abdullah Al Hussain Al Harithi who served from 1983 until 1990.
In 2012, Saudi Arabia named its first ambassador to Iraq in more than two decades, but said that he would not reside in Baghdad.
Relations between the two countries were strained in 2003 following the emergence of an Iraqi government with close ties to Iran and Iranian-supported political movements inside Iraq.
The Green Zone, the common name for the international neighbourhood in Baghdad, is about 10 square kilometres.
Created by the forces that invaded Iraq in 2003, it is one of the most heavily guarded military sites in Iraq and includes the headquarters of the Iraqi government and army, the US and several other embassies and foreign organisations.
According to Iraqi daily Al Zaman, the Green Zone is well protected by thousands of troops with armoured vehicles and it has never had any security breaches.
Iraqis in general are not allowed to enter the Green Zone, while guests enter through private gates after getting official approval. All guests are thoroughly searched and photographed.
The daily said the area is almost devoid of children as officials living there send their children to study in Arbil, Amman, Beirut or other Arab cities.
