At the Baghdad Conference for Co-operation and Partnership, which took place in Jordan on Tuesday, leaders from around the region and Europe got together to address the security situation in the Middle East, boost efforts to stabilise and reconstruct Iraq, and ease tensions between important actors.
The summit, which lasted for just one day, brought together top officials and government heads from a number of nations, including the United Arab Emirates, France, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman. According to the UAE’s national news agency, Wam, the ruler of Ras al Khaimah, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, is heading the delegation of the United Arab Emirates.
The initial iteration of the conference took place in Baghdad in August of last year, making this iteration the second time it has been hosted. The meeting’s only purpose was to provide support for Iraq’s sovereignty when it was first organised; however, it has subsequently expanded its scope to include other stakeholders and its mission statement to include protection of the area.
Emmanuel Macron, the current President of France, was present at the event. “I believe that what has been happening since last February 24 lends growing significance to the security and stability agenda that we first adopted in August of last year,” he said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “I believe that what has been happening since last February 24 lends growing significance to the security and stability agenda that we first adopted in August of last year.”
He mentioned improving the education and health care systems, developing cooperative industrial zones, and providing employment opportunities for young people as ways to strengthen regional security and stability.
Additionally, he assured them of France’s unwavering support.
He added, “We were by your side a year ago, we are by your side now, and we will be by your side next year.”
Importantly, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran, two competing countries in the area who cut relations in 2016, were also in attendance at the summit. It was not immediately obvious whether or whether the two individuals, Hossein Amirabdollahian and Prince Faisal bin Farhan, would meet on the margins of the conference in the Dead Sea area of Jordan.
Since the beginning of last year, Iraq has played home to a total of five meetings between Saudi Arabian and Iranian officials, the most recent of which took place in April. Despite these interactions, there has been no significant progress made in the ties between the two countries.
The Iranian minister gave his speech at the conference in both Arabic and Farsi. He added that cooperation between the countries in order to achieve regional stability was “not a choice, but rather an imperative requirement.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said that Cairo did not accept “foreign meddling” in the internal affairs of Iraq. This statement is presumably a reference to Iran and Turkey, both of whom have begun military operations within Iraq despite protestations from Baghdad.
It is the first time that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al Sudani has taken part in a significant international gathering that he is attending the conference that will take place on Tuesday. Many people believe that he has a better relationship with Iran than his predecessor, Mustafa Al Kadhimi had.
A favourable chance
A meeting between Mr. Amirabdollahian and Josep Borrell, the head of EU foreign policy, took place before the Jordan summit. Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, and Enrique Mora, Iran’s counterpart in the EU, also participated in the meeting, according to the agency.
Since September, negotiations to revive the nuclear pact that Iran signed in 2015 have been at a standstill. After it looked that a solution was getting closer for everyone involved, Western nations accuse Iran of making demands that are unacceptable.
The fragile state of ties between Tehran and the EU was brought into stark relief by comments made after the conference ended.
According to Mr. Borrell, he urged the Iranian minister that Tehran must immediately stop providing military assistance to Russia and ending domestic persecution.
On the other hand, he said that the conference was important “in light of the worsening ties between Iran and the EU.” According to what he indicated, the European Union will keep working with Iran even if there were presently no signs of a return to discussions.
Mr. Amirabdollahian also expressed his disapproval of what he saw to be the West’s backing of demonstrations taking place in Iran as well as the “illegal” sanctions that are being imposed on his nation.
On Monday, Mr. Borrell, who has been acting as a mediator for discussions aimed at renewing Iran’s nuclear agreement with Western powers, met with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
On Twitter, he said that they had a productive conversation about how to collaborate to promote Iraq’s sovereignty, security, and stability. We also discussed a wide range of other regional topics, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East Peace Process, as well as the connections between the EU and Jordan and the current reform process in Jordan.
On the same day, Mr. Amirabdollahian said that the meeting would provide a “excellent chance” for discussions that would attempt to restore the nuclear pact.
Iran on one side and Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia, and indirectly with the US, on the other, have been engaged in on-off discussions since April with the goal of reviving the agreement, which is technically known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
However, the indirect discussions between Washington and Tehran, which were being mediated by the European Union, came to a halt as Iran was rife with demonstrations over the death in jail of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian citizen of Kurdish descent who was 22 years old. Amini passed away on September 16.
According to statements made by Mr. Amirabdollahian in front of reporters in Tehran, “Jordan is a fantastic chance for us to finalise these conversations.”
I have high hopes that… we will see a shift in strategy, and that the American side will act in a practical manner.
“I say very clearly to the Americans that they have to choose between hypocrisy and the call to negotiate a deal and the United States’ return to the JCPOA,” I said. “I say this with absolute clarity.”
The conference on Tuesday takes place at a time when a number of nations in the region are in the midst of instability.
Lebanon is still mired in a political and economic quagmire, while Syria continues to serve as a battlefield for rival geopolitical agendas. Over the last several months, Iraq has been the target of numerous Iranian missile assaults on what Iran alleges are locations held by opposition Kurdish forces.
Jordan, which has been beset by strikes and demonstrations over increasing gasoline prices in recent days, has announced that the army would be stationed on a route that is around 50 kilometres west of the capital city, leading from Amman airport to the Dead Sea conference centre.
Egypt, the most populous Arab country, is now engulfed in a serious economic crisis, which the administration attributes to the impact from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as well as the coronavirus outbreak that occurred before the war.