SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Israel’s foreign ministry maintains some form of contact with almost all Arab countries, including Iraq, according to the Times of Israel.
Haim Regev, the outgoing director of the foreign ministry’s Middle East division, said the countries include ones officially designated as “enemy states” like Iraq, the Israeli newspaper reported.
“Over the last twenty years, the Foreign Ministry was always in touch with almost all the players in the Arab World,” said Regev during a briefing in Jerusalem.
He, however, stated that the list of covert contacts did not include Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, but does extend to Baghdad, the Times of Israel said.
Authorities in Iraq have yet to respond to the official’s claims.
Regev was one of the engineers of the Abraham Accords which saw Arab states normalize ties with Israel and were signed by UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in 2020.
In 2019, Iraqi ambassador in Washington Fareed Yaseen said there were “objective reasons that may call for the establishment of relations” between Iraq and Israel.
He also further said there was an important Iraqi community in Israel and they were still proud of their Iraqi attributes.
“At their weddings, there is Iraqi culture of celebration. At their weddings, there are Iraqi songs,” Yaseen added, according to the Times of Israel.
He also noted that “outstanding” Israeli technologies in the fields of water management and agriculture.
