KUWAIT, Sept 21, (Agencies): Interior Minister Lt-Gen Sheikh Jaber Khaled Al-Sabah (ret.) said Tuesday Iraq’s neighboring countries sought to preserve security and stability of Iraq, noting Kuwait’s keenness to coordinate and cooperate with Iraq over border security.
“Stability of Iraq means stability for all (neighboring) countries, which are keen to help it (Iraq) be in control of its internal affairs,” Sheikh Jaber said in a statement to KUNA before leaving for Bahrain for the 7th meeting of Interior Ministers of countries neighboring Iraq, due to start tomorrow.
He said there was constant cooperation and coordination between Kuwait and Iraq over all files including border security.
Sheikh Jaber emphasized importance of the Bahrain meeting as the region was passing through “desicive and historic” changes.
Iraq’s neighboring countries are coordinating and cooperating between each other, said Sheikh Jaber, to protect and boost the security of Iraq as well as facing all forms of terrorism, cross-border smuggling, organized crime and drug trafficking. He said countries in the region share security interest.
Tomorrow’s meeting will group interior ministers of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey, representatives of the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab Council of Interior Ministers.
Meanwhile,  an Iraqi police official says a roadside bomb in a restive northern city has killed two Iraqi soldiers.
Col Sherzad Murfali says the blast on Tuesday targeted an army patrol on the outskirts of Kirkuk, which is the center of a power struggle between Iraqi Kurds and the central government in Baghdad.
Kirkuk is also the main oil hub in northern Iraq. It’s been the scene of sporadic insurgent violence and ongoing tensions between the region’s three main groups — Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen.
Kirkuk is 180 miles (290 kms) north of Baghdad.