Foreign relations of Iraq

Member State of the Arab League Since 1980, the foreign relations of Iraq have been influenced by a number of controversial decisions by the Saddam Hussein administration.

Hussein had good relations with the Soviet Union and a number of western countries such as France and Germany, who provided him with advanced weapons systems.

[150] However, Egypt's strong material and diplomatic support for Iraq in the war with Iran led to warmer relations and numerous contacts between senior officials, despite the continued absence of ambassadorial-level representation.

[158] Although Sudan was trying to improve relations with the United States after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it remained critical of the subsequent American-led invasion of Iraq.

[158] On the one hand, it was quick to criticize the United States, which harshly condemned Sudan's record on human rights, for its double standard in dealing with prisoners in Iraq.

[158] By late 2004, however, Sudan's relations with the new Iraqi government had improved to the point that Iraq's foreign minister visited Khartoum and met with al-Bashir.

In the short term, Iraq's relations with Western and Far Eastern economic powers are determined by debt forgiveness and reconstruction assistance, which have come from many quarters.

On the other hand, Iraqi people are familiar with Indonesian exported products such as tires, soaps, spices, furniture, coal, clothing, palm oil, shoes, paper, automobiles, rubber and electronic goods.

Their objectives were to halt any potential foreign assistance to the Shias and to the Kurdish opponents of the regime and to end Iranian domination of the area.

In June 1982, Saddam Hussein ordered most of the Iraqi units to withdraw from Iranian territory; after that time, the Ba'athist government tried to obtain a cease-fire based on a return of all armed personnel to the international borders that prevailed as of 21 September 1979.

Subsequently, Iranian forces invaded Iraq by crossing the Shatt al Arab in the south and by capturing some mountain passes in the north.

The perceived threat to Iraq in the summer of 1982 thus was serious enough to force Saddam Hussein to request the Nonaligned Movement to change the venue of its scheduled September meeting from Baghdad to India; nevertheless, since the fall of 1982, the ground conflict has generally been a stalemated war of attrition—although Iran made small but demoralizing territorial advances as a result of its massive offensives in the reed marshes north of Basra in 1984 and in 1985, in Al Faw Peninsula in early 1986, and in the outskirts of Basra during January and February 1987.

In addition, as of early 1988 the government had lost control of several mountainous districts in Kurdistan where, since 1983, dissident Kurds have cooperated militarily with Iran.

Saddam Hussein's government has maintained consistently since the summer of 1982 that Iraq wants a negotiated end to the war based upon the status quo ante.

During the course of the war Iraq moved away from the close friendship with the Soviet Union that had persisted throughout the 1970s, and it initiated a rapprochement with the United States.

Iraq did not oppose then President Reagan's 1 September 1982 Arab-Israeli peace initiative, and it supported the moderate Arab position at the Fez summit that same month.

In August 2019, Iraq sent a protest letter to the United Nations regarding the geographical changes that the Government of Kuwait has made in the maritime area that lies beyond marker 162 in Khor Abdullah by upraising a shoal, which is designated as Fisht al-Aych.

[187] Iraq and Oman relations date back to the Sumerians, who used to call the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula region as Magan.

One element of Riyadh's containment policy included support for Iraqi opposition forces that advocated the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.

In the past, backing for such groups had been discreet, but in early 1992 the Saudis invited several Iraqi opposition leaders to Riyadh to attend a well-publicised conference.

To further demonstrate Saudi dissatisfaction with the regime in Baghdad, Crown Prince Abdallah permitted the media to videotape his meeting with some of the opponents of Saddam Hussein.

July 2005 saw the introduction of EUJUST LEX, the European Union's rule of law operation intended to train Iraqi police and legal officials in human rights along with other issues.

On 21 March 2003, the Danish Parliament made a fateful decision to support U.S. military action in Iraq and, in fact, contribute naval assets to the war.

In 2006, the Iraqi Transport Minister Salam al-Malki announced freezing all economic relations with Danish and Norwegian companies in protest against insulting cartoons published in the countries' newspapers.

Both countries established diplomatic relations on 27 November 1947 when has been accredited Chargé d'Affaires of Greece to Iraq (resident in Beirut) Mr. Nadji Vassiliou.

They date as far back as when Alexander the Great ruled Mesopotamia (which name is of Greek origin, meaning "the land between two rivers") and eventually died in Babylon, Iraq.

Greece traditionally maintained good and friendly relations with Iraq due to strong historical and cultural bonds, dating back to ancient times.

[229] Ties between London and Baghdad are slowly progressing, but relations between the two nations are somewhat uncertain seeing as many Iraqis remember the colonial oppression either they or their ancestors faced at the hands of the British Empire.

Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Hoshyar Zebari was first appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Iraqi Governing Council in Baghdad on 3 September 2003.

Iran and Iraq restored diplomatic relations in 1990 but are still trying to work out written agreements settling outstanding disputes from their eight-year war concerning border demarcation, prisoners-of-war, and freedom of navigation and sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab waterway; in November 1994, Iraq formally accepted the United Nations-demarcated border with Kuwait which had been spelled out in Security Council Resolutions 687 (1991), 773 (1992), and 883 (1993); this formally ends earlier claims to Kuwait and to Bubiyan and Warbah islands although the government continues periodic rhetorical challenges; dispute over water development plans by Turkey for the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.