First Saudi ambassador to Iraq since 1990

Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabber al-Sabah will attend the Arab League summit in Baghdad on Thursday in first such visit since 1990 invasion, Iraq’s ambassador to Kuwait said.

Ambassador Mohammad Bahr al-Ulum said the Kuwaiti emir has informed Iraqi officials who visited Kuwait recently that he would be attending the Baghdad summit. The ambassador also said that Emir Sabah would likely meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani Leaders from the 22-member group are due to meet on Thursday in talks likely to be dominated by the crisis in Syria.

Tight security has locked down the capital and the government declared a five-day holiday to help ease congestion caused by checkpoints and roadblocks, with tens of thousands of extra troops drafted in.

Three days before the summit, Iraq asked countries at an Arab League to forgive its pre-invasion debts, urging others to follow the United Arab Emirates and Algeria which have already agreed to write off what they were owed by their fellow OPEC member.

“We’ve asked Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco to help Iraq in closing up its debt situation,” Iraqi Finance Minister Rafie al-Esawi said on the first day of the summit, the first to take place in post-war Baghdad.

The Paris Club of 19 rich creditor nations agreed in 2004 to write off 80 percent of some $40 billion debt to help Iraq recover from the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted President Saddam Hussein but triggered years of violence and insecurity.

Debt forgiveness talks with non-Paris Club nations are still under way. “It needs more cooperation from Arab countries regarding the cancelling of debt,” Esawi said, thanking the UAE and Algeria for agreeing to cancel 100 percent of debts.

Finance minister talks opened the three-day Arab League Summit in Baghdad, the first to be held in the Iraqi capital in two decades and the first to be hosted by a Shi’ite Arab leader, PM Nuri al-Maliki.