Secret talks and quiet ties — that's what paved the way for last week's deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to normalize relations.

Touted by President Donald Trump as a major Mideast breakthrough, the agreement was in fact the culmination of more than a decade of quiet links rooted in frenzied opposition to Iran that predated Trump and even Barack Obama, as well as Trump's avowed goal to undo his predecessor's Mideast legacy.

As US President Donald Trump prepares to host Iraq's new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, here are key dates in relations between their countries since 2003.

- Invasion -

From his office in Beirut, Shady Rizk had a front-row view of the cataclysmic explosion at the Lebanese capital's port.

The shock announcement that the UAE and Israel are normalising relations has been applauded by allies and booed by rivals, but for many Gulf citizens there is deep unease over the embrace of a longtime enemy.

Arriving in Lebanon after last week's deadly Beirut blast, U.S. envoy David Hale bypassed politicians to head straight to a hard-hit neighborhood where young volunteers are helping people abandoned by their state.

Up until the eve of the deadly Beirut blast, Lebanese officials exchanged warnings over a dangerous chemical shipment in the port, but did nothing despite experts' fears it could cause a massive conflagration.

For nearly a week, Mona Zahran had to sleep on a couch pulled across her apartment's front door. Beirut's massive explosion knocked her doors off their hinges and shattered her windows, and she feared looters would take advantage of the chaos that has hit the Lebanese capital since.

It was the latest and probably most humiliating blow in the turbulent life of the 50-year-old.

The resignation of the government deepened political uncertainty as Beirut on Tuesday marked one week since the deadly port explosion rocked the capital and shook the nation to its core.

The August 4 blast, the country's worst peacetime tragedy which killed at least 160 people and wounded over 6,000, is widely blamed on state negligence and has ignited unprecedented popular rage against the ruling class.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned on Monday in the wake of a massive explosion that devastated the capital Beirut and reignited angry anti-government protests over a spiraling economic crisis.

Lebanon's prime minister Hassan Diab, who resigned Monday, six days after the massive Beirut blast, owed his appointment late last year to public anger with the ruling elite, but in the end fell victim to it.