The Parliament of the Persian country approved a project that punishes with up to the death penalty the establishment of links with the Jewish State by institutions, officials or individuals
FILE PHOTO: U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price speaks during a news conference in Washington, U.S., March 10, 2022. Manuel Balce Ceneta/Pool via REUTERS
The United States condemned this Thursday the law approved by the Iraqi Parliament that criminalizes the establishment of relations with Israel by institutions, officials or individuals of the Arab country, with penalties that include < b>death sentence.
“The United States is deeply disturbed by the passage of legislation by the Iraqi Parliament that criminalizes the normalization of relations with Israel”, the spokesman said. of the State Department, Ned Price, in a statement.
Price criticized that this law puts “in danger freedom of expression and promotes a atmosphere of anti-Semitism.”.
Furthermore, he said that It “contrasts” with the steps other Arab countries are taking to “build bridges and normalize relations with Israel.”.
FILE PHOTO DR: U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price speaks at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 28, 2022. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS< p class=”paragraph”>“The United States will continue to be a strong and unwavering partner in supporting Israel, even as it expands ties with its neighbors,” Price stressed.
The law approved this Thursday penalizes any kind of relationship with Israel and applies to thoseIraqis who are in the country or abroad, official and unofficial institutions, civil society organizations, foreign companies working in Iraq, and investors doing business in the country.
This new legislation imposes harsh sentences ranging up to life imprisonment or even the death penalty for those who violate its articles, which include a ban on traveling to Israel or having any kind of contact with that country.
EFE/Miguel Ángel Molina
In September of last year, a hundred Iraqi figures , including several tribal leaders, participated in a conference in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, in the north of the country, in which a call was made for Iraq to normalize its relations with Israel, as they have done in the last two years United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
The decision of these countries broke with the agreement reached in 2002 by the members of the Arab League to condition the recognition and establishment of relations with Israel to the signing by the Jewish state of a peace agreement with the Palestinians and to the end of the occupation of their t erritories.
(With information from EFE)