Saudi Arabia: The Crown Prince's Visit that Did Not Take Place

Saudi Arabia: The Crown Prince's Visit that Did Not Take Place

03 April 2018

By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed

I wished that the rumors about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visiting Iraq were true, and that he does visit it. A mere rumor that prompted forces affiliated with Iran to come together to oppose it, shows its significance and reflects Tehran's fears of the independence of the Iraqi decision.

It would have been the first visit by a Saudi leader in a long time, since 1990 when the Arab Summit was held there before the invasion of Kuwait. We hope to see top Saudi officials and other leaders from the region revive the spirit of regional political life in the heart of this historic city, Baghdad.

The world must see Baghdad as the capital of Iraq and not the capital of Tehran. Also, that Haidar al-Abadi, and not Qassem Soleimani who militia leaders compete to please, is the prime minister and the executive head of the Iraqi state. The Saudi leadership's visit is a requirement to this relationship and a response to the call of Abadi who communicates with Riyadh in a positive way.

Abadi is trying hard to remove Iraq from its box of disputes which he inherited from Saddam Hussein's era, the American invasion and years of ruling by former PM Nuri al-Maliki who lived through a difficult period of balance and succeeded in holding a small Arab summit in 2012 that failed in politically supporting Iraq.

Abadi wants to distance Iraq from regional and international fighting on its territories and over its capabilities and powers. He wants to purge the country from Sunni and Shii'te extremists. Removing it from the cycle of conflicts would mean a stability that hasn't yet been comprehensively achieved since Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.

The transitioning of Iraq into a prosperous and stable state that resembles its Gulf neighbors requires a strong and coherent leadership in Baghdad, which focuses on saving the decision-making process in the country from foreign interference, sectarian fragmentation, factionalism and unilateralism that does not respect Baghdad's decisions.

Maliki had a strong personality. During his reign, he fought different factions and rejected political and geographic divisions in the South, West and North. He fought military wars against rebellions but he fell into the mistake of pursuing his own agenda, which is to rule permanently at any political price; this required costly foreign and domestic alliances.

Saudi Arabia can support the central authority in Baghdad to be more independent. It can provide it with geopolitical balance especially that Riyadh does not have hostile motives as it does not have disputes with its neighbor, Iraq, over borders or natural resources. Saudi-Iraqi rapprochement began when Abadi became PM and improved a lot later when Riyadh amended the concept of its relations from mere diplomatic ties to joint efforts.

It's obvious that the Iranian regime is behind the state of alert against the idea of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to Iraq and that it pushed its armed groups to warn the Iraqi government of any rapprochement, a clear evidence that Tehran fears Iraq's independence.

In Baghdad, the government and state officials, whether in the legislative or executive authorities, are concerned about protecting their country from interference by Iran and even by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other regional powers. Restoring Iraq as an independent state with decisions that serve its own interests actually serves the interest of the entire region.

However, Iraq's dependence on Iran's influence threatens the Iraqis first and then the region's countries. The wilayat al-faqih regime views Iraq as a passage, an annexation and a resource to fund it wars with men and money. Thousands of young Iraqis and others are fighting in Syria under the banner of Qassem Soleimani, the general who is tasked with dominating neighboring areas west of Iran including Iraq and Syria. This domination has chaos in Iraq followed by chaos in the region.

Supporting factions is Tehran's tactic to prevent the establishment of an Iraqi state with independent presidential, parliamentary, executive, military and security institutions. This is the model which Iran is fighting to impose in Yemen by abolishing the central government in Sana'a and creating militias parallel to the army. Just like it did in Lebanon and in the occupied Palestinian territories and which it seeks to solidify in Syria.

Does Saudi Arabia have an interest in a stable Iraq with independent decision-making? Of course. This is in the interest of the region's countries and primarily of the Iraqi people.

Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is the former general manager of Al-Arabiya television. He is also the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly magazine Al-Majalla. He is also a senior columnist in the daily newspapers Al-Madina and Al-Bilad.

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