Iraqi-Saudi cooperation aimed at curbing insurgency to continue

Mar 9, 2008, 12:35 GMT

Baghdad - Iraq's deputy interior minister Hussein Kamal has said that Iraqi-Saudi cooperation to stop insurgents, mainly Saudis, from crossing the Iraqi border was continuing amidst intensified efforts to enhance bilateral relations between the countries, reports said Sunday.

Although the flow of foreign insurgents into Iraq has beem reduced considerably, a complete control over the borders could not be achieved without a consensus from all neighbouring countries to stop insurgencies, Kamal was quoted as saying in an interview with the independent al-Hayat newspaper.

Most foreign insurgents in Iraq hold Saudi citizenship, according to the deputy minister.

Kamal said that Saudi militants must be handed over to their government through a course of political agreements and negotiations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

'There is security cooperation between the Iraqi and the Saudi governments to stop insurgents. We are now working on signing a comprehensive security treaty that encapsulates all security fields,' said Kamal.

He said that there are nearly 600 Saudi insurgents in Iraq, according to a statement issued by the US military.

Nevertheless, he stressed that the total number of suspected militants who managed to cross into Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 exceeds thousands.

Most of the insurgents have managed to enter Iraq across the Syrian borders, Kamal said.

The Iraqi security forces have detained scores of Saudi militants, placing them in the Crober prison in Baghdad and the Boka prison in Basra.

Iraqi courts have charged them with membership of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, possessing weapons and explosives and illegally breaching the Iraqi border.

'A list of the names of Saudi insurgent detainees in Iraq was presented to the Saudi government when an Iraqi delegation visited the kingdom,' said Kamal.

The US and Iraq have repeatedly accused Syria of allowing insurgents to cross its border, but the flow of militants was stemmed considerably after Iraq and Syria signed a security agreement.