Saudi king hosts Iraq’s new president

RIYADH — Saudi King Salman welcomed Iraq's new President Barham Saleh on Sunday on his first official visit to the kingdom, amid a warming of ties between the Arab neighbours after years of strain.

The king hosted a lunch and "discussed regional developments" with Saleh, the official Saudi Press Agency said, after the Iraqi leader's arrival in Riyadh following a visit to Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran.

An Iraqi official said Saleh, a 58-year-old moderate Kurd elected to the largely ceremonial role last month, was on an overnight visit at the invitation of the Saudi monarch.

Ties between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iraq have been looking up in recent months, after years of tense relations.

After former dictator Saddam Hussein's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Riyadh severed relations with Baghdad and closed its border posts with its northern neighbour.

But a flurry of visits in recent months between the two countries has indicated a thawing of ties.

In October 2017, Saudi budget airline flynas made the first commercial flight from Riyadh to Baghdad in 27 years.

Iraq is seeking economic benefits from closer ties with the wealthy kingdom as it seeks to rebuild after the defeat of the Daesh group.

Riyadh is keen to develop relations with Baghdad to counter the influence of regional rival Iran in Iraq.

"Both literally and figuratively, Iraq finds itself stuck between two competing neighbours: Saudi Arabia and Iran," columnist Abdulrahman Al Rashed wrote in the leading Saudi daily Arab News on Sunday.

"The tripartite relationship... is tangled and complex," he wrote.

"It remains to be seen how senior officials in Iraq decide they want to define this relationship and deal with the two governments."

Iran has been highly influential in Iraq since the toppling of Saddam in 2003, and it was a key partner in pushing back Daesh.

But Iran has also been accused of interference that has caused factionalism and poor governance in Iraq.

Saleh made his first official visit to Tehran on Saturday, where he met his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in a bid to boost bilateral trade.