3 yıl önce

Iraq issues arrest warrants for attendees of Israel normalisation forum

Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council ordered arrest of three participants of the conference, which was held in Erbil on Friday calling for normalisation of relations between Iraq and Israel.

AFP

Iraqis attend the conference organised by US think-tank Center for Peace Communications (CPC) in Erbil, Iraq, on September 24, 2021.

The Iraqi judiciary has issued arrest warrants for participants in a conference in Erbil that called for normalising relations with Israel.

Arrest warrants were issued against the head of the Sunni Awakening Movement, Wissam al Hadran, former lawmaker Mithal al Alosi and Sahar Karim al Taie, an employee at the Ministry of Culture, the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement.

The statement said legal action will also be taken against the other participants in the event.

On Friday, a peace conference was held in Erbil in northern Iraq by a number of Sunni and Shia tribal figures, who called for the normalisation of relations between Iraq and Israel.

Even the US occupying forces are now distancing themselves from the Erbil conference on normalising relations with Israel, even if they won't admit it is a policy it endorses. https://t.co/RnNq6Fny2u
— Steve Sweeney (@SweeneySteve) September 26, 2021

Widely rejected idea

"We are a gathering of Sunnis and Shias, comprising members of the Sunni Awakening Movement of the Sons of Iraq, as well as intellectuals, tribal leaders, and active youth from the protest movement of 2019-2021,” a statement by the conference participants said.

It added: “We call for Iraq to enter into relations with Israel and its people through agreements similar to the Arab countries that have normalised.”

The conference was organised by the New York-based Center for Peace Communications (CPC), a US think-tank.

Iraq does not have relations with Israel and the idea of normalisation is widely rejected in the country.

Last year, four Arab nations – the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco – normalised their relations with Israel, a move denounced by Palestinians as a betrayal to its cause.