How did Iranian media receive Kadhimi's visit to Tehran?

Speculation took place in the orbit of mediation between Tehran and Riyadh, the crisis of government formation and the Jeddah regional summit

Reda Al-Ghuraby Al-Qazwini

It was expected that the visit of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, to Iran, which took  place on Sunday 26/6/2022, would receive great attention from the Iranian side and the  Iranian media, and  that this visit was different fromAl-Kadhimi's previous visit to Iran dueto the internal conditions in Iraq,  regional developments  and ambiguity He turned around the future of the region, especially  in light  of the upcoming visit of US President Joe Biden to the region in general and Saudi Arabia in  particular,   and the holding of a Gulf-Arab summit, in addition to the file of the Iranian nuclear negotiations, all of this made this visit,  which came a day after Al-Kadhimi's visit to Saudi Arabia,  to   gain  great attention of Iranian newspapers, even if these newspapers differ in the reasons or reason for this visit.

There are several axes in the analysis about the reasons for the visit of Al-Kazemi emerged in the Iranian press, and that the newspapers close to the government required the side of caution and caution in the analysis and considered that thevisit came to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries and sign agreements, including these newspapers:

1-  Iran's official newspaper affiliated with thegovernment, entitled  "Neighbors in  Iran's orbit", considered that Al-Kazemi's visit is part of the policy and diplomacy of the neighborhood of President Ebrahim Raisi, and it conveyed the facts  and statements at the joint press conference between Al-Kazemi and Raisi, including emphasizing the  acceleration of linking the railway between Iran and Iraq, facilitating the fortieth visit, and agreeing to strengthen trade relations between the two countries and Emphasizing the regional dialogues, the newspaper did not address any analysis that took place in the newspapers and between analysts and political observers about the reasons for the visit andtalked about the visit regardless of the fact that the guest of the Islamic Republic is a caretaker prime minister whose government cannot do much.

2-  The newspaper titled the visit "The Iranian Regional Regime", which is not much different from the previous one, and considered that the recent foreign visits to Tehran, including the visit of the Russian Foreign Minister and the Iraqi Prime Minister, are evidence that the Middle East has become  Iran's point of activity, and the newspaper Watan Amroz repeated one of the most prominent analyses about Kadhimi's visit to Iran, which is the mediation between Riyadh and Tehran, and considered this the main goal of the visit, but this goal was not the only one, but the repercussions of normalization between a number of countries in the region and Israel were also present in the Kadhimi dialogues in Tehran, in addition to facilitating trade and banking relations between the two countries and the fortieth visit.

3-  The fundamentalist newspaper Farhechtkan, through its analysis of the visit of the Iraqi guest, took a different aspect  fromits fundamentalist and even reformist views, "Stabilizing the Prime Minister's Chair  and Saving Saudi Arabia" is the headline chosen by the newspaper  in order to show that there are Iranian analyses that are not optimistic about Kadhimi's visit to Haran,  and the newspaper wrote: « Al-Kadhimi's visit to Iran is more than a regional visit, it seems that  A visit in order to stabilize the chair, the  visit comes in light of the end of the government of Al-Kadhimi and the political conditions that Iraq is facing, so such visits earn him points, because some of the  prime ministers of the Iraqi  governments in the previous Iraqi governments, when they wanted to stay in power, they show themselves as neutral personalities who have good relations with all countries.

The newspaper touched on the issue of Al-Kadhimi's mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which was covered by the  majority of Arab and Iranian newspapers, but it showed that it is not convinced by the news of Al-Mayadeen TV, which published the news for the first time,  Farhechtkan believes  that  the Saudi-Iranian talks have reached the final stages and everyone is waiting for the reopening of diplomatic missions and embassies, so it seems that there are other reasons.

In addition, the newspaper adds  that explaining Iraq's position on the upcoming Jeddah regional summit to Iranian officials and gaining Iran's support in order to obtain the premiership for the second time is among the analyzes that analysts have paid attention  to in this field,  and Iranian political analyst Hassan Hanizadeh tells Farhechtkan that Al-Kazemi visited Iran in order to prevent the establishment of  a Hebrew-Arab NATO alliance  anddialogue with Iranian officials.Yen about the efforts of the United States andSaudi Arabia to form this alliance. Hanizadeh  believes that mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran will be the goal of the visit because there are positive developments in the talks and Kadhimi wants to hold the stick from the center by improving relations between Tehran and Riyadh and controlling Iraqi society, which is divided between supporters of relations with Ai Ran  and those with the idea of Arab rapprochement. andHanizadeh also believes that Kadhimi, through his visit to Iran, is asking the Iranians to pressure Muqtada al-Sadr to return Sadr's deputies to parliament and retract his resignation!.

As for the Iranian analyst  "Jafargnad Bashi" completely disagrees with Hani Zadeh  and believes that the visit lacks a program and a strategic agenda because Al-Kadhimi is an interim prime minister and therefore cannotsign long agreements with Iran, and the visit has internal dimensions because Iraq at the  beginning of the summer needs energy and electricity andno country in the region has fulfilled its commitments towards Iraq except Iran. Also, the understanding on the issue of the Arbaeen visit will beacceptable to Kadhimi among Iraqis, andthat Kadhimi wants to establish his position through such visits.

4-  The reformist newspaper  Sharq showed itself optimistic about the recent visits of influential figures such as the Russian Foreign Minister and the European Union Representative for Foreign Affairs to Iran, which will not add anything newto the speculation and interpretations of newspapers and media about the visit, but gave importance to this visit because it considered that the presence of KaizMai in Iran to mediate between Tehran and Saudi Arabia, gave me a different and positive  momentum. For Western diplomatic talks in Iran.

The newspaper added that Iraq played an important role in starting and continuing the Saudi-Iranian talks, and it seems that Iraq is eager  to exercise this role, and Sharq  newspaper singled out the  bulk of its analysis on the reasons for the visit to the current developments  in the Saudi-Iranian talks.

5-  The reformist newspaper Arman Amroz, unlike many Iranian newspapers, considered that the most important reason for Kadhimi's visit to  Tehran is to confirm his position as prime minister  and re-elect him, and the newspaper believes that contrary to many analyses on the issue of Iraqi mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Al-Kadhimi seeks through this visit to preserve his chair first  and clarify the role of Baghdad in the upcoming regional alignments second.. Al-Kadhimi's visit before the Jeddah regional conference, which came the day before he went to Tehran, is an attempt to convey this idea to  Saudi Arabia and that any Iraqi rapprochement towards Tehran does not mean a retreat from Baghdad's previous steps towards the  United States andSaudi Arabia.

In addition,  Kadhimi  is working to  maintain American, Saudi and Emirati support and does not want to ruin all bridges with Iran, so he is working to  find some kind of  balance in relations with the challengers and supporters of the Popular Mobilization  Forces, and that  Kazmi, who enjoys the support of Ammar al-Hakim andto some extent Muqtada al-Sadr, seeks not to affect the upcoming Jeddah conference on his luck to re-establish the prime minister's chair.

After not obtaining the required results in the Doha nuclear negotiations, which caused disappointment to some Iranian political forces and the press, which was optimistic due to the accumulation of positive indicators, it can be said that attention will turn towards  the upcoming Jeddah summit and its repercussions, and how will the United States deal with the Iranian file at the summit after the current results of the nuclear negotiations, which are still the subject of hopes of some Iranian and Western internal forces, even if the hopes are not  strong?  andWhat are Saudi Arabia's steps at the summit towards the Iranian file? Are  they escalatory steps in order to establish an Arab  NATO that has options to approach the Israeli side? How will this summit affect the future of the Middle East and the Saudi-Iranian crisis amid optimism for the restoration of relations between Riyadh andTehran?