Swedish companies are not stopped from operating in Iraq, according to Farhad Alaadin, foreign affairs advisor to Iraq’s prime minister. But the relationship between the countries has taken a turn for the worse after the latest Koran burning. Entrepreneur Nebe Almayahi fears that it will have a negative effect on Swedish businesses in the region.
– I think that it is several years of work that has been destroyed over a single event. It is of course very sad and very tragic, she says.
Almayahi has previously worked as an export promoter at Business Sweden and helped Swedish companies establish themselves in Iraq. The good relationship between the countries has been an advantage.
– Considering that Sweden and Iraq have historically had very, very good ties both politically and socially, it has been relatively easy, she says.
Got a bad reputation
But that may be about to change. The Koran burnings have meant that Sweden’s reputation has deteriorated.
– It doesn’t fit in with the common man’s image of Sweden and I think it might make the reactions even stronger, says Nebe Almayahi.
Sweden’s exports to Iraq were worth SEK 767 million last year, less than one-tenth of one percent of total Swedish goods exports. But the risk of spillover effects to other countries in the region is great, says Iran expert Rouzbeh Parsi, head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Foreign Policy Institute.
– Everyone has to show that they distance themselves from Sweden and then there is a risk of it escalating, he says.
Compare with Denmark
He compares the situation to the consumer boycott against Danish products in Saudi Arabia after the publication of the Muhammad caricatures in Jyllands-Posten.
– I don’t think we’ve gotten there yet where there could be a consumer boycott, he says, but continues:
– It is not impossible that something like this could happen.
Hear Nebe Almayahi talk in the video above about the situation for Swedish companies in Iraq.