ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A high-level Iraqi security delegation is set to visit Saudi Arabia on Thursday to discuss security issues, including drone attacks on the kingdom, Iraqi state media reported, with tensions between Baghdad and Riyadh high after US-Saudi strikes on Iraq. 

The delegation, which includes intelligence chief Hamid al-Shatri, Abdul Amir al-Shammari, director of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s office, and counterterrorism chief Muhannad al-Asadi “will discuss with the Saudi side a number of security issues of common interest,” state media said. 

Discussions are set to “include the attacks to which the kingdom has been subjected and the issue of drones,” just over two weeks after deadly US-Saudi strikes on Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) bases in Iraq drew vast condemnation from the Iraqi government and political forces. 

The strikes killed at least 20 PMF members and injured dozens and were carried out in response to the alleged responsibility of Iran-backed groups for drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities.

Riyadh and Washington said the attacks on Saudi Arabia were carried out at the behest of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

Iraq has said that investigative committees formed to probe alleged strikes from Iraqi territory on Saudi Arabia found no evidence supporting the claims.

In messages conveyed to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi through mediators, Saudi Arabia has accused the Badr Organization and Kataib Hezbollah, the most influential and organized Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite armed groups, of being behind the attacks targeting the country’s oil facilities in recent weeks, senior PMF officials told The New Region.

Zaidi on Friday reiterated Baghdad’s “firm stance on protecting Iraq's sovereignty” and “not allowing its territory to be used as a launching pad” for actions that harm other countries in a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali al-Humaidan

The US-Saudi strikes also came a day before Zaidi was set to visit Riyadh on an official invitation, a trip that was subsequently canceled following surging tensions. On Monday, the Iraqi government spokesperson confirmed that the premier “has received another invitation to visit Saudi Arabia.”