Iraq–Serbia relations

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Iraqi–Serbian relations
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Iraq
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Serbia

India and Serbia maintain diplomatic relations established between India and SFR Yugoslavia in 1958.

Contents

History

Yugoslav relations with Ba'ath-era Iraq

Yugoslavia established a large engineering and technology presence in Iraq soon after Saddam Hussein came to power. [1] [2] Upon the 2003 Iraq invasion, Western military analysts referred to maps and advice from former engineers of the now-defunct [3] Serbian company Aeroinženjering, which had built Saddam Hussein's underground bunkers along with many airports in Iraq by the 1980s. [4]

Later on, in the 1990s when FR Yugoslavia was isolated by international sanctions, Serbian company Yugoimport SDPR designed and built Ba'ath party headquarters in Baghdad along with an additional five underground bunkers for Saddam Hussein; Yugoimport SDPR's blueprints of the bunkers in which Saddam and loyalists hid during the United States invasion merited enough importance that they were handed over to the United States when the invasion began. [5]

A rumor was speculated by the media in 1999 during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia that Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević and Saddam Hussein allegedly negotiated a discreet military alliance that would improve their ability to defy the West and withstand Allied bombing attacks, along with low-profile support from Russia and China. [6]

Boka Star seizure

In 2002, a Yugoslav ship Boka Star, owned by a Montenegrin named Marko Balić was seized by the United States Navy after it was tipped off to have a large weapons shipment to Iraq. Serbia and Montenegro was one of the only countries in the world to have continued military shipments to Iraq during sanctions against Iraq and the Hussein regime. [7] The shipment was attempted just a year before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Recent period

In 2010, Serbian foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić said after talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Serbia and Iraq share a common stance on international law and issues of territorial integrity and sovereignty. [8]

Military relations

In 2008, Serbia signed a $235 million-dollar deal to export weapons and military equipment to Iraq. [9] The deal included the delivery of 20 Utva Lasta aircraft to the Iraqi Air Force, [10] all of which were delivered by early 2012. [11]

Resident diplomatic missions

See also

Related Research Articles

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Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later its Iraqi regional branch. Ideologically, he espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, while the policies and political ideas he championed are collectively known as Saddamism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq and weapons of mass destruction</span>

Iraq actively researched and later employed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from 1962 to 1991, after which it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and halted its biological and nuclear weapon programs as required by the United Nations Security Council. The fifth president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was internationally condemned for his use of chemical weapons against Iranian and Kurdish civilians during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s. Saddam pursued an extensive biological weapons program and a nuclear weapons program, though no nuclear bomb was built. After the Gulf War, the United Nations located and destroyed large quantities of Iraqi chemical weapons and related equipment and materials; Iraq ceased its chemical, biological and nuclear programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the 2003 invasion of Iraq</span>

This is a timeline of the events surrounding the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2003 invasion of Iraq</span> United States-led military invasion

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion began on 20 March 2003 and lasted just over one month, including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a United States-led combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded the Republic of Iraq. Twenty-two days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of Baghdad was captured by coalition forces on 9 April after the six-day-long Battle of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" in his Mission Accomplished speech, after which the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the first of several successive transitional governments leading up to the first Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005. U.S. military forces later remained in Iraq until the withdrawal in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the Iraq War</span> Sequence of events in the US invasion of Iraq

The following is a timeline of major events during the Iraq War, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The following lists events in the year 2003 in Iraq.

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There are various rationales for the Iraq War that have been used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent hostilities.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War</span> Bilateral relations

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Yugoimport–SDPR is a Serbian state-owned weapons manufacturer as well as intermediary company for the import and export of defense-related equipment. It is headquartered in Belgrade, with production facilities in Velika Plana, Kuršumlija, Uzići and Pančevo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

Diplomatic relations between Iraq and the United States began when the U.S. first recognized Iraq on January 9, 1930, with the signing of the Anglo-American-Iraqi Convention in London by Charles G. Dawes, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The historiography of Iraq—United States relations prior to the 1980s is considered relatively underdeveloped, with the first in-depth academic studies being published in the 2010s. Today, the United States and Iraq both consider themselves as strategic partners, given the American political and military involvement after the invasion of Iraq and their mutual, deep-rooted relationship that followed. The United States provides the Iraqi security forces hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid and training annually as well as uses its military bases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq–Saudi Arabia relations</span> Bilateral relations

Iraq–Saudi relations are the bilateral and diplomatic relations between the Republic of Iraq and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Both sovereign states share the Iraq–Saudi Arabia border.

<i>House of Saddam</i> 2008 TV miniseries

House of Saddam is a 2008 British docudrama television miniseries that charted the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein. A co-production between BBC Television and HBO Films, the series was first broadcast on BBC Two in four parts between 30 July and 20 August 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq–Italy relations</span> Bilateral relations

Iraqi–Italian relations are the interstate ties relations between Iraq and Italy. Iraq has an embassy in Rome and Italy had an embassy in Baghdad and a consulate-general in Basra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq–Jordan relations</span> Bilateral relations

Relations between neighbours Iraq and Jordan have historically been close. The two states were created after World War I from former Ottoman dominions by way of a secret bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic. Several efforts to unify the countries have been pursued over the last century. Jordan has an embassy in Baghdad and Iraq has an embassy in Amman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern history of Iraq</span> History of Iraq since World War I

After World War I, Iraq passed from the failing Ottoman Empire to British control. Kingdom of Iraq was established under the British Mandate in 1932. In the 14 July Revolution of 1958, the king was deposed and the Republic of Iraq was declared. In 1963, the Ba'ath Party staged a coup d'état and was in turn toppled by another coup in the same year, but managed to retake power in 1968. Saddam Hussein took power in 1979 and ruled Iraq for the remainder of the century, during the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, the Invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War of 1990 to 1991 and the UN sanction during the 1990s. Saddam was removed from power in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The timeline of the Gulf War details the dates of the major events of the 1990–1991 war. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 and ended with the Liberation of Kuwait by Coalition forces. Iraq subsequently agreed to the United Nations' demands on 28 February 1991. The ground war officially concluded with the signing of the armistice on 11 April 1991. However, the official end to Operation Desert Storm did not occur until sometime between 1996 - 1998. Major events in the aftermath include anti-Saddam Hussein uprisings in Iraq, massacres against the Kurds by the regime, Iraq formally recognizing the sovereignty of Kuwait in 1994, and eventually ending its cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq–Mexico relations</span> Bilateral relations

The nations of Iraq and Mexico established diplomatic relations in 1950. Both nations are members of the United Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq–Yugoslavia relations</span> Bilateral relations

Iraq–Yugoslavia relations were historical foreign relations between Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. Iraq established diplomatic relations with the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1958. Josip Broz Tito visited Iraq in August 1967 and again in February 1979.

References

  1. Serb boss links to Saddam bunkers – 2002 – The Free Library
  2. Pravda – English – Tito's bunker in Bosnia may help liquidate Hussein (January 9, 2003)
  3. B92 Biz – Kreditom kupujemo Aeroinzenjering (Serbian)
  4. Canada.com – Iraqi bunkers called virtually indestructible
  5. Time – Iraq's bunker busters – May 26, 2003
  6. "Serbia, Iraq reportedly forging alliance". Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  7. "Arrest warrant for Boka Star owner". Maritime News. JOC. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  8. Serbia-Iraq will raise relations to ambassador level
  9. Fox News – Serbia seals Multimillion Arms deal with Iraq – March 28, 2008
  10. Flight Global- Iraqi Air Force receives second batch of Serbian Lasta 95 trainers
  11. Novosti – Iraqis fly Serbian planes (Serbian) – February 8, 2012