The foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt travelled to Baghdad on Monday to meet Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
Mr Hussein hosted his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts, Sameh Shoukry and Ayman Safadi, at a trilateral meeting before a summit that will bring the leaders of all three countries together.
The meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi was delayed because of a deadly train crash in Egypt.
The US has been pushing Iraq and other Arab countries to strengthen ties to counter Iranian influence in the region, which has been growing since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.
For months, the three countries have been hammering out co-operation deals, mainly in the energy sector, but no major progress has been made.
