By Nicola Nasser*
The burgeoning
US-Iran rapprochement will only reinforce this trend to reinforce
Therefore, none seems more jubilant than
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in a statement issued by
his office on September 29 "hailed" what he described as "a great breakthrough"
and a "victory" in the US-Iran relations, said he was "very optimistic" and
pledged, according to Xinhua "that Iraq is ready to play a role to push
forward the positive development" between the very two countries, which have
been the "enemies" of Iraq and its war adversaries for decades now and which most
Iraqis hold responsible and accountable for their current miseries.
Al-Maliki's Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, in an interview with The Associated Press in New
York the next day, revealed that Iraq played a "helpful role" in the
development; moreover it aspires to " serve as a bridge of
communication and understanding between the two," he said.
Zebari was trying to take a credit that
the editorial of the Iranian Bahar daily on last August 23 attributed to
the Omani Sultan
Qaboos bin Said's visit to Tehran earlier that month and to the "role Oman
has played" in the past between Iran and the West.
Zebari even seemed so keen to convince
the US administration to take "the leadership" of President Hassan Rohani, who
was elected in June, and his Iranian government "more seriously" because "they
are serious" and "not playing games," contrary of course to the negative
reactions of the US Israeli and Arab GCC allies.
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