Saudi to sign extradition treaty with Iraq

NEW DEAL: Saudi Arabia is poised to sign an extradition treaty with Iraq. (Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia is poised to sign an extradition treaty with Iraq, where several Saudis who joined the insurgency are believed to be held, an interior ministry spokesman said in remarks published Thursday.

"We have completed the drafting of an extradition accord which will be signed soon between the kingdom and Iraq," the spokesman was quoted in the local press as saying.

The treaty stipulates "the exchange of convicted prisoners ... so that they serve the rest of their sentences close to their families," said the spokesman, whose remarks were carried by the official SPA news agency.

He did not say how many Saudis were being held in Iraq, where Saudis are among foreign fighters who have joined Sunni Arab insurgents battling Iraqi government forces and their US-led backers.

Iraqi national security adviser Muwaffak Al-Rubaie said in March that Baghdad had repatriated six Saudis, one of whom was wanted by security authorities in Saudi Arabia, which has been battling suspected Al-Qaeda militants for more than five years.

Rubaie said the Iraqi government was holding fewer than 100 Saudis, who had all been put on trial and convicted, while US-led forces were holding fewer less than 50.

Saudi Arabia, citing lack of security in Iraq, has yet to reopen its embassy in Baghdad, more than four years after the two countries restored diplomatic relations in July 2004.

Iraq reopened its embassy in Saudi Arabia in February 2007 after it had been closed in December 1990 on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War when ties were broken off by the regime of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

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