Nouri al-Maliki

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will pay a visit to Iraq next month in a move to further reinforce recently mended bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries.

Turkey and Iraq have reinforced their pledge to mend ties during the Turkish prime minister’s visit to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, agreeing on closer cooperation against Islamist jihadists’ threat and revive economic ties with a greater momentum than before.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met his Iraqi counterpart Haidar al-Abadi in Baghdad Nov. 20, as long-strained ties between the two countries improve.

Davutoğlu was given an official welcome at the main palace in the heavily fortified Green Zone, after which he held talks with Abadi, the Iraqi premier's office said, without providing further details.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is set to pay a two-day visit to Iraq on Nov. 20, a week after the Iraqi foreign minister held talks in Ankara as part of efforts to mend ruined ties between the two capitals.

Iraqi President Fuad Masum's visit to Saudi Arabia is aimed at patching up long-strained relations between the two countries as Baghdad battles jihadist militants, a senior official said Nov. 12.
      
Masum arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and met with King Abdullah, the highest-level contact between the neighbouring countries in years.
      

A senior Iraqi official has expressed the new Iraqi government’s intention to demand the money collected in a Turkish bank over the Kurdistan regional government’s unilateral sale of oil through Turkey that sparked a row between Ankara and Baghdad during Nouri al-Maliki’s rule.

Iraq’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ibrahim al-Jaafari was in Ankara for the last two days. This has been the first high level official visit since the relations between Turkey and Iraq froze during Nouri al-Maliki’s Prime Ministry. Hence, his message was quite critical.

Turkey and Iraq vowed to leave their sour past behind them and rejuvenate their relations during an official visit to Ankara by Iraq’s foreign minister.

Iraq’s new Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari is set to visit Turkey next week in a bid to restore bilateral relations that deteriorated during Nouri al-Maliki’s term of Prime Ministry.

Nuri al-Maliki finally bowed to pressure with Iraq and beyond on Aug. 14 and stepped down as prime minister, paving the way for a new coalition that world and regional powers hope can quash a Sunni Islamist insurgency that threatens Baghdad.