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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has begun his first official tour of neighboring states, making his first stop in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. There, he urged Saudis to invest in Iraq and discussed security matters. Significantly, al-Maliki spoke of the possibility of opening the Arar border crossing to facilitate commerce, but he also said he wants the Saudis to stem the flow of jihadists crossing into Iraq.

The talk of trade was a side issue, of course. The two chief aims of the trip were to find a way to contain the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, and to attempt to allay concerns among the mostly Sunni Arab states of the region about growing Shiite and Iranian power -- which are perceived in, and personified by, the rise of the Shia in Baghdad.

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