High time Iraq-Egypt ties deepened – Egyptian FM

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said on Sunday that it is high time bilateral relations between Egypt and Iraq are deepened, stressing Egypt’s readiness to help the Iraqis and in the service spheres of housing and reconstruction. “Work will be underway to rehabilitate one of the sites to send an Egyptian diplomatic mission,” Abul-Gheit said during a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, asserting Egypt’s preparedness to provide training courses for the Iraqi foreign ministry staff at the Egyptian Diplomatic Institute. He added that he toured several sites in the company of the Iraqi foreign minister earlier in the day for this purpose. Zebari, for his part, said the visit was a “step in the direction of activating relations between Iraq and Arab countries,” terming Abul-Gheit’s visit to Iraq as “historic”. Zebari has said that he agreed with Abul-Gheit to activate the joint committee at the ministerial level, noting they discussed bilateral ties and developments on the Arab arena in general. “Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrestani has had negotiations with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Fahmi and saw eye to eye on the action mechanisms and exchange of expertise and training courses between the two countries,” the Iraqi foreign minister said. Touching on the issue of Egyptians detained in Iraqi jails, Zebari said some of them are “detained in Iraq because they committed terrorist acts inside the country,” indicating that the Iraqi government “is seeking an agreement with Egypt similar to that one with Saudi Arabia”. “By virtue of the Iraqi-Saudi Arabian deal, the two countries swapped prisoners,” the Iraqi top diplomat said. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had met in his office on Sunday with Abul-Gheit and Fahmi in the first ever visit by a high-level Egyptian delegation in 18 years. A cabinet statement received by IraqiNews.com indicated that Maliki welcomed the Egyptian delegation and expressed high esteem for the visit which, he said, “underscores the profound ties binding the two brotherly countries and would push forward relations in the political, security, economic and trade domains”. The Iraqi premier called on the Egyptian companies, with all their experiences in the different sectors, to participate in reconstruction projects in Iraq. “Iraq is today in need of cooperation with all its close friends, particularly Egypt,” he pointed out. He called on Egypt and other Arab countries to “help bring the Iraqi government out of the circle of international sanctions still imposed on it by virtue of Chapter VII of the UN Charter”. AmR (I) 1