Iraq Issues Arrest Warrants For Supporters Of Israel Ties

The Iraqi judiciary on Sunday issued arrest warrants for participants in a conference in Erbil that called for normalizing 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 normalization of relations between Iraq and Israel.

"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 normalized."

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

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

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara -