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Analysis: Betting on Iraq in the Gulf

Council on Foreign Relations

July 30, 2008
Author: Greg Bruno

When the United Arab Emirates announced in June it was forgiving billions of dollars in Iraqi debt (Al Arabiya), President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed vowed to alleviate "the economic burden faced by the brotherly Iraqi people." But some observers saw the move more as an investment in security than an economic bailout. "The bottom line is that the Iraqi crisis can spill over to impact the political, security, and strategic scene" in Gulf Arab states, writes Abdulaziz O. Sager, chairman of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. Arab diplomacy may be " a first step" to containing that threat, Sager writes.

The UAE, which also named an ambassador to Iraq, isn't the only Gulf state reaching out to its troubled neighbor. Jordan named an ambassador to Iraq on July 1, citing the desire for deeper ties fostered by Iraq's improved security (Jordan Times). A week later Bahrain ended a three-year diplomatic absence (Gulf News) in Iraq by announcing its own envoy, filling a void left by the attack on its charge d'affairs in July 2005. On July 17, Kuwait named its first ambassador to Iraq (KUNA) since Saddam Hussein sent forces to invade in 1990, kicking off the first Gulf War. The announcements signal new confidence in Iraq's security situation; no Arab envoy has been stationed in Iraq since Egypt's ambassador was kidnapped and killed in mid-2005 (BBC).

The drive for deeper political ties is part of a balancing act playing out in capitals close to Baghdad. The moves come amid a time of growing Iranian influence in the region. During Saddam's rule, Iraq's Sunni Baathist leaders kept the regional ambitions of Shiite-dominated Iran in check; the two countries waged a bloody war in the 1980s that left both sides battered.

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Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.