Iraq asks Riyadh to replace ambassador

Request comes as Baghdad denies plot to kill him

BAGHDAD // Iraq asked Saudi Arabia to replace its ambassador yesterday following his comments about Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs and the alleged persecution of Sunnis.

In recent days, Thamer Al Sabhan – the first Saudi ambassador in Iraq since Riyadh reopened its embassy in Baghdad after it was closed in 1990 – had spoken of a terrorist plot to assassinate him.

It came after a Shiite militia leader, Aws Al Khafaji, said in an interview with an Iraqi TV channel that killing the envoy would be an honour.

The Iraqi foreign ministry denied that a plot to kill him had been uncovered.

“The presence of Sabhan is an obstacle to the development of relations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia,” Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Jamal told Al Aahd, a TV channel that belongs to Iranian-backed Shiite militia Asaib Ahl Al Haq.

He tweeted that the ministry was “asking its Saudi counterpart to replace the ambassador of the Saudi Arabian kingdom in Baghdad”.

The request by Baghdad’s Shiite-led government underscores the depth of enmity between Sunni and Shiite regional powers as sectarian conflicts rage in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

Iran and Saudi Arabia broke off ties in January after several years of frayed relations.

In 2011, US authorities said they had disrupted an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi envoy to Washington at the time. Mr Al Sabhan told the Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper that Iraqi intelligence provided him with information about the assassination plans. He said this was happening as Iran tried to block reform efforts in Iraq and other Arab countries. Mr Al Sabhan’s appointment in December was seen as heralding closer cooperation in the fight against ISIL who control territory in Iraq and Syria and have claimed bombings in Saudi Arabia.

But Iraqi Shiite politicians and militias have made persistent calls to expel Mr Al Sabhan, who has been calling on Baghdad to exclude Shiite paramilitary groups from its military campaign against ISIL to avoid abuses against Sunnis in Iraq.

Mr Al Sabhan, responding to messages expressing solidarity with him after the Iraqi announcement, tweeted: “I am a servant of this [ Saudi] leadership which is seeking to assist the truth and the well-being of Muslims, may God preserve it.”