Iraq’s Speaker of Parliament, Mohammed Al-Halboosi has arrived in Egyptian capital, Cairo in an official visit, where he is scheduled to hold talks with Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry on Sunday.
Speaker of Egypt’s House of Representatives Hanafy El-Gebaly welcomed Al-Halboosi in the Egyptian capital, the media office of the Iraqi parliament speaker said in a statement earlier today.
Shoukry and Al-Halboosi are scheduled to hold talks on the two countries’ bilateral relations and the most prominent topics of mutual concern.
Al-Halboosi’s visit comes only a month after Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, who took office last October, made his first official visit to Cairo as premier and held talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
Iraq, under Al-Sudani, has recently expressed the desire to help Iran mend its ties with both Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Late in February, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian thanked Iraq for its efforts advancing Iran’s dialogue and cooperation with the two Arab countries in a visit to Baghdad.
Al-Halboosi’s visit to Cairo comes a day after Shoukry’s meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in the first visit of its kind for over a decade. Both top diplomats welcomed the Saudi Arabia-Iran rapproachment, hoping that the step helps achieve further stability in the region.
Egypt and Iraq have intensified bilateral cooperation in recent years and have intensified coordination on regional issues of concern.
Egypt and Iraq are also bound by trilateral cooperation agreements with Jordan, including a power linkage project between the three countries.
During his early March visit, Al-Sudani met with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, where they agreed to assign the relevant ministers in both governments to work over the coming two months to activate the agreements the agreements signed by both countries.
This comes while both countries are also preparing to hold the Egyptian-Iraqi Joint Higher Committee in May or June this year, according to the Egyptian cabinet.
Egypt already has a power link with Jordan with a capacity of 550 MW and work is underway to boost its capacity in order for it to reach Iraq, Madbouly noted during his meeting with Al-Sudani.
He noted that the power line linking Egypt and Jordan can be boosted to up to 2,000-3,000 MW to serve this purpose.
The Iraqi premier said that the first phase of the trilateral power linkage project will be completed in June.
Al-Sudani also revealed consultations to establish a logistical zone on the Iraqi-Jordanian borders to contribute to securing goods and commodities, noting that Egypt can benefit from this zone by providing Egyptian goods to the Iraqi markets.
