![]() Today, fewer than 250,000 remain-an 80 percent drop in less than two decades. The numbers in Iraq are especially stark: Before the American invasion, as many as 1.4 million Christians lived in the country. The graph of the religion’s decline in the Middle East has in recent years transformed from a steady downward slope into a cliff. The Almakos had watched neighbors and friends wrestle with the same question: stay, or go? Now more and more Christians in the region were deciding to leave. That fear was compounded by their faith: During the war years, insurgents consistently targeted Christian towns and churches in a campaign of terror. Even after he stopped working for the military, they feared he might be a victim of violence. Catrin worried about him driving back and forth to the base along highways that cross some of the most contested land in Iraq. Evan had been injured by an explosion near a U.S. “Everybody who was working with the United States military-they get killed,” Catrin said. Their families lived there: her five siblings and aging parents, his two brothers.īut they also lived amid constant danger. Catrin loved her kitchen, where she spent her days making pastries filled with nuts and dates. Both of them had grown up in Karamles, a small town in the historic heart of Iraqi Christianity, the Nineveh Plain. During the years they had waited for their visas, Catrin and Evan had debated whether they actually wanted to leave Iraq. “I was so confused,” Catrin told me recently. The family had been assigned a departure date just a few weeks away. Now a staffer from the International Organization for Migration was on the phone. military during the early years of its occupation of Iraq. ![]() Catrin’s husband, Evan, had cut hair for the U.S. Four years earlier, Catrin Almako’s family had applied for special visas to the United States. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud visited Iraq earlier this month, where he pledged more Saudi investment in Iraq, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said.He call came in 2014, shortly after Easter. There have been several rounds of talks between the regional rivals, but they stalled last year. Riyadh has accused Iran-backed militias of conducting attacks on Saudi Arabia from Iraqi soil.įor the past two years, Iraq has been mediating between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The armed groups moved into the area during the war with the Islamic State (IS) group that had taken control of much of western Iraq in 2014. Security at the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border has been a sticking point between the two countries for years, due to the presence of Iran-backed militias on the Iraqi side of the frontier in recent years. It shut its only border crossing with Iraq, Arar, only reopening it at the end of 2020. Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic ties with Iraq in 1990 following its invasion of Kuwait. Relations between Baghdad and Riyadh were tense for much of Saddam Hussein's brutal reign of Iraq. However, an Iraqi official told The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on condition of anonymity that Saudi officials had at the meeting "focused on the importance of regular forces taking over security at the border". The Iraqi statement mentioned only that the agreement "included all forms of security cooperation, exchange of views and activation of joint security work". ![]() Iraqi and Saudi statements about the signing of the memorandum offered little detail about its contents. The deal was the first of its kind to be signed by the two countries since 1983, according to the statement. The "security memorandum of understanding" was signed by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud and his Iraqi counterpart Abdul Amir al-Shammari in Riyadh, the Iraqi interior ministry said in a statement Sunday. Iraq and Saudi Arabia have signed a border security agreement, the first of its kind in 40 years and a sign of strengthening ties between the neighbour states. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |