Iraqi politicians and personalities have launched a campaign to pressure Baghadad into summoning Iraq’s ambassador to Washington after he said there were “objective reasons” to establish relations with Israel.
Farid Yassin’s comments came during an interview hosted by the state-owned Al Iraqiya channel last Saturday.
Answering a question about the recent US-organized Bahrain conference on the Middle East peace proposal, the diplomat said: “There are objective reasons that may call for establishing relations between Iraq and Israel.”
He also said there is an important Iraqi community in Israel, which still observes traditions from the days it left the country.
However, Yassin acknowledge that objective factors are not enough to establish official ties with Israel because there are moral and legal reasons, which Iraqis comply with.
He said Baghdad’s position is similar to other Arab states and that Iraq does not have relations with Israel. “Having contacts with its ambassador is a red line,” he said.
The diplomat’s comments put the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in hot water, prompting its spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf to issue a statement saying, “We do not establish any relations with the occupying state and we stand by our principle of boycott.”
The State of Law Coalition and the Dawa party, led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, issued two separate statements on Sunday condemning Yassin’s comments and calling for his resignation.
A day later, the Sairoon coalition joined political parties voicing their rejection to the ambassador’s comments.
In a separate development on Israeli-Iraqi relations, Iraqi news outlets reported that 15 Iraqi women who have been victims of ISIS, including Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, participated last month in a special training program in Israel.
