U.S. seeking retaliation for Iraqi legislation criminalizing ties with Israel: Expert
Approving legislation criminalizing any ties with Israel in the Iraqi parliament is not in favor of Washington and the U.S. is likely to retaliate the move through economic measures, an expert on the region said.
Reza Sadrolhoseini said in an exclusive interview with ILNA that the recent move by the Iraqi parliament to approve a law banning the normalization of relations with Israel rules out any scenarios that were designed inside and outside Iraq.
He noted that in the last 8 months a deviant news line has been created to affect the Iraqi people's behavior in terms of relations with Israel and some sessions about normalizing ties with Israel have been held in Kurdish provinces.
Reza Sadrolhoseini also pointed to clandestine visits by some Iraqi officials to countries in the region that were related to ties with Israel.
The legislation prevented these visits, according to Sadrolhoseini
“Approving the bill that criminalizes any ties with Israel in the Iraqi parliament is not in favor of Washington and that the U.S. is likely to retaliate the move through economic measures,” the expert said.
Iraq's parliament approved a law on Thursday that will ban normalizing relations with Israel. Iraq has never recognized Israel since its establishment in 1948 and Iraqi citizens and companies cannot visit Israel, but the new law goes further, specifically criminalizing any attempts to normalize relations with Israel.