Sa’adollah Zarei in an interview with the site of Strategic Council on Foreign Relations explained:” Iraqi normalizing of relations with the Zionist regime is important from different aspects; firstly, because of Iraqi borders with Iran, as none of other countries having common land borders with Iran has joined the normalizing agreement”.

Zarei continued:” another issue is that Iraq as a country with a majority of Shi’ites population joins the normalizing of relations with the Israeli regime. In the meantime, Iraq is a country that has links with Resistance Front, and from this angle too, the establishment of relations with Iraq is of great importance for the Zionist regime”.  

Having referred to the point that the authorities of the Zionist regime had already left some footsteps in Iraq in the past, the expert of the Middle East issues touched upon the ties between them and the Iraqi Kurds, and continued:” the regime has also established indirect links with some sectors of Iraqi Sunnis via some Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan. It intended to use such links to normalize its relations too”.

According to the expert of the Middle East issues on September 26, 2021 the officials of the Zionist regime held a conference in Irbil, aimed to prepare the ground for normalization of relations, which was covered by Kurdistan Regional Government”.

He stressed:” in the meantime, rumors were circulating that some leaders of Iraqi parties had meetings with Israelis or at least they intended to have meetings”.     

Zarei explained that the visit of Pope Francis to Iraq in early March 2021 was also effective in harboring the atmosphere. Even some media reported the purpose of the visit of Pope Francis as to normalize relations between Iraq and the Zionist regime. 

The expert continued:” on this basis, the Zionist regime opposition groups in Iraq started an initiative and presented a bill containing 10 articles under the title:” Criminalizing Normalization and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist regime, and ultimately determine the issue in all sectors”.

Having stated that according to the bill, Kurdistan Regional Government headed by Barzani was also banned from such relations, Zarei said:” if there is any violation of the bill in Kurdistan Regional Government, there would be punishments predicted for the ties of the authorities of Kurdistan Regional government with the Zionist officials too”.

Weakness in the New Bill   

On the question that is said about parts of the Bill which has weaknesses and dangerous details that can pave the ground for infiltration of the Zionists in the country under titles like pilgrims, tourists as well as some other cases, the expert of the Middle East region explained:” in the text of the Bill, there is a phrase that says paying pilgrimage visits to religious sites is possible with the permission of Iraqi Ministry of Endowment. The issue was raised in general term and can be misused and thus cause problems in future; but since the general mood of the Bill is to prevent normalizing ties with the Zionist regime, there is nothing to be very worried about”.

Zarei also believes that the Bill opposes the normalizing of relations process. He said:” Tunisia and Algeria had already raised such a demand at their parliaments. But, today, the passing of the Bill by Iraqi parliament, in view of the importance of the country and its historic role in Arab countries, can be extended. As the parliaments of countries like Algeria, Tunisia, Chad, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine are completely ready to pass a bill similar to the new bill passed by Iraqi assembly on Criminalizing Normalization and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist regime”.         

The expert of the Middle East issues ultimately stressed on the point that the bill has clarified Iraqi position for ever versus the Zionist regime and establishing ties with it and said:” amid all this, Kurdistan Regional Government that had already made efforts to pave the ground for normalizing relations with Israeli regime in its agenda, was addressed more than others by the Bill”.