Iraqi Coalition Demands Saudi Apology for Terrorist Harms
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraq’s State of Law coalition, led by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, urged that Saudi Arabia should make formal apology to Baghdad for deploying more than 5,000 terrorists to Iraq.
While Saudi Arabia has not still apologized to the Iraqi nation and families of victims of terrorism for sending more than 5,000 Saudi terrorists into Iraq, Riyadh is pursuing diplomacy through football games with Iraq, spokesperson for the State of Law coalition, Abbas al-Mousawi, told Iraq’s al-Sumariya TV.
Expressing “serious doubts” about Saudi Arabia’s move to deploy its national football team to Iraq for a friendly or the Saudi king’s pledge to build a stadium in Iraq, Mousawi said the Saudi government should first adopt a clear stance towards terrorism and apologize for the verbal attacks by its religious preachers against the Iraqi political processes.
Iraq’s policies over the past years have been based upon respect for the sovereignty and interests of others, but certain countries do not believe in friendship and partnership and only seek to interfere in Iraq’s internal affairs, the spokesperson added.
In comments last week, head of the Iraqi Radios and TVs Union, Sayed Hamid al-Husseini decried plans for an upcoming visit to Baghdad by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying the crown prince wants to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq as the country heads toward parliamentary elections in May.
In an interview with Tasnim in July 2017, Iraqi political expert Ali Jaber al-Tamimi said Baghdad should sue the governments that sponsored terrorist groups in Iraq, particularly Saudi Arabia whose clerics have been calling for the massacre of Shiite Muslims.
“The main country that should be sued for supporting the terrorists in Iraq is Saudi Arabia,” Tamimi emphasized, noting that 40 clerics in Saudi Arabia have issued fatwas claiming that the killing of Shiite Muslims in Iraq is religiously permitted.
