Iraq issues arrest warrants over forum on ties with Israel

Judiciary to take legal action once attendees identified

Iraq’s judiciary yesterday announced it has issued arrest warrants for three people including a former MP over a meeting that called for a normalisation of ties with Israel.

More than 300 Iraqis, including tribal leaders, attended Saturday’s forum in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan organised by a US think-tank.

The judiciary, in a statement on its website, said it would take legal action against the others once they had been identified.

It named the three wanted for their role in calling for normal ties with Israel as tribal chief Wissam Al Hardan, former MP Mithal Al Alusi and Sahar Al Tai, head of research at the cultural ministry.

Al Alusi is a controversial secular MP who was briefly stripped of his parliamentary immunity in 2008 for visiting Israel.

Iraq has been technically in a state of war with Israel since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. After the 2003 US-led invasion, Hardan led the “Sahwa” group of tribesmen who joined with American forces in fighting jihadists.

Abraham Accords

At the forum held in Arbil, the Kurdish capital, Tai read out a closing statement saying: “We demand our integration into the Abraham Accords.”

Iraqi Kurdistan maintains cordial contacts with Israel. But the federal government in Baghdad, which has fought in Arab-Israeli wars, does not have diplomatic ties with the Jewish state whose sworn enemy Iran wields a strong influence in Iraq.

The forum sparked the fury of the federal government and was also condemned by Iraqi President Barham Salah, himself a Kurd, as well as several leading figures and parties.