BAGHDAD – On Monday, King Abdullah II of Jordan became the first Arab head of state to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein's regime fell in 2003.
Iraqi officials heralded the brief visit as a sign that their Arab neighbors finally were shedding their fear of a government they'd seen as religiously and ethnically divided.
"Our neighbors have started to realize … that Iraq is on the road to recovery," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. "Their wait-and-see attitude and hesitancy has gone. This is a national unity government."
The visit by the Jordanian monarch is a major step for the Shiite Muslim-led Iraqi government. Iraq has largely been isolated from its mostly Sunni Muslim Arab neighbors as violence skyrocketed and the influence of Shiite Iran became more pronounced. The United States has been urging Sunni Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, to upgrade relations with Iraq's government to counter Iranian influence.
With a drop in violence, Abdullah's landmark visit could encourage other heads of state to come to Iraq.
As soon as the king landed, he was rushed into a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Zebari, the two deputy prime ministers and other senior government officials to discuss "bilateral relations." The top issue on the agenda was Jordan's oil needs.
"In just a few hours, we didn't launch into deep discussions," Zebari conceded, but he added: "We discussed how economic relations could flourish between us. Jordan has a key interest and strategic relationship with Iraq."
Jordan now joins other Arab nations who've named ambassadors to Iraq. But no Arab nation has reopened an embassy in the country. Egypt was the final Arab nation to close its diplomatic mission in 2005, when the Egyptian envoy was kidnapped and killed.
Also on Monday, the Iraqi government suspended a massive military operation in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, offering a limited amnesty to insurgents who surrender by the end of the week. "It's a very clear message to the insurgents that there will be no other chance," Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Kareem Khalaf said.
An hour after the announcement, a woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up near a police station in the provincial capital of Baqouba, injuring 13 police officers and killing one. Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb killed five women who'd been on their way into the city to buy vegetables.
More than 600 suspected insurgents, including at least 10 leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq, have been arrested since Operation Glad Tidings began late last month, with about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers deploying in and around Baqouba.
Diyala, an ethnically and religiously mixed farming region that borders Iran, has seen some of the worst sectarian violence of the war.
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