Iraqi President Brahm Saleh has refused to sign a law banning normalization with Israel. This was announced on Tuesday by the leader of the Iraqi Shiites, the well-known politician Muqtada a-Sadr. The Shiites succeeded in approving in three readings within two weeks a bill banning the existence of normalization with Israel
The Iraqi president has refused to sign a law banning the normalization of relations with Israel. The Iraqi Shiite leader, the well-known politician Muqtada al-Sadr, slammed the president, “It is a pity that the so-called Iraqi president refuses to approve the bill to incriminate normalization,” he tweeted. “I apologize for appointing him to the presidency in the past,” he added.
A month ago, the Council of Representatives (Parliament) of Iraq passed a law prohibiting the normalization of relations with Israel. The deputies voted unanimously in favor of a bill that establishes criminal responsibility for the normalization of relations with the “Zionist entity.”
Moreover, some time ago, Iraqi parliamentarians appealed to the League of Arab States in an urgent call to refrain from using the name “Israel” in official documents, while replacing the wording with “Zionist entity.” The deputies, who for more than half a year have been unable to solve the state’s tasks related to electing the president and appointing a new prime minister, have succeeded in approving in three readings within two weeks a bill to criminalize relations with Israel.
The United States has expressed serious concern about the issue. As reported by the State Department, “the law threatens freedom of expression and fosters a climate of anti-Semitism, and is also in stark contrast to Iraq’s neighbors’ progress in building bridges and normalizing relations with Israel, while creating new opportunities for residents across the region.”
Currently, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco maintain diplomatic relations with Israel from Arab countries, while the normalization of Israel’s relations with the last three countries took place through US-mediated action less than two years ago, the sixth state was supposed to be Sudan, but process Normalization gets stuck.
This is not the first time that Iraqi lawmakers have leveraged the death penalty when it comes to Israel. During Saddam Hussein’s rule, the Ba’ath party’s penal code called for the execution of those who “promote, or join Zionist organizations.”