_1898c61f-a412-48e7-af89-037f1f6748d0.jpg "Ice melting: Qatar to open embassy in Iraq")
Ice melting: Qatar to open embassy in Iraq
(MENAFN- Arab News) BAGHDAD: Qatar will open an embassy in Baghdad Iraq's foreign minister said on Friday in the latest sign of improving relations between Gulf Arab countries and Iraq.
Tensions between the Gulf states and Iraq which has a Shiite majority have eased since Prime Minister Haider Abadi took office last year.
A rapprochement could help strengthen a regional alliance against Islamic State militants who have seized vast areas in both Iraq and neighboring Syria.
'We have agreed to open the Qatari embassy in Baghdad to begin resuming diplomatic work' Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari told a news conference.
Meanwhile Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for bombings outside two heavily fortified five-star hotels in the Iraqi capital that killed 10 people.
In a statement Islamic State said a suicide bomber called Abu Qutaiba had parked a car outside the Ishtar hotel in central Baghdad late on Thursday before driving another vehicle laden with 230 kg of explosives to the nearby Babylon hotel.
The bomber detonated himself and the vehicle he was driving there around the same time the first car bomb exploded 'killing and wounding dozens of infidels' according to the statement.
Iraqi authorities lifted a decade-old night-time curfew on Baghdad early this year seeking to restore a sense of normality to the capital.
Tensions between the Gulf states and Iraq which has a Shiite majority have eased since Prime Minister Haider Abadi took office last year.
A rapprochement could help strengthen a regional alliance against Islamic State militants who have seized vast areas in both Iraq and neighboring Syria.
'We have agreed to open the Qatari embassy in Baghdad to begin resuming diplomatic work' Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari told a news conference.
Meanwhile Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for bombings outside two heavily fortified five-star hotels in the Iraqi capital that killed 10 people.
In a statement Islamic State said a suicide bomber called Abu Qutaiba had parked a car outside the Ishtar hotel in central Baghdad late on Thursday before driving another vehicle laden with 230 kg of explosives to the nearby Babylon hotel.
The bomber detonated himself and the vehicle he was driving there around the same time the first car bomb exploded 'killing and wounding dozens of infidels' according to the statement.
Iraqi authorities lifted a decade-old night-time curfew on Baghdad early this year seeking to restore a sense of normality to the capital.
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