SULAIMANI (ESTA) —Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has demanded the Iraqi parties on Friday to take advantage of Muqtada al-Sadr’s initiative.
Speaking in a press conference prior to his heading to the GCC summit in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Kadhimi said, “Sadr’s initiative is a national initiative”, and “Every party must extend gratitude for that initiative and take advantage of it”.
On Friday the ceremony of ‘Unified Praying’ was kicked off in Baghdad following Sadr’s urgent call, and Mahmoud al-Jayashi read a message on behalf of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to the followers saying, “we are in a complicated intersection”. And it elaborated on several points as an initiative.
Regarding the GCC summit Kadhimi noted, “the summit is dedicated to holding talks about climate change and energy issues, no talks will be held on the normalization of the ties with Israel”.
“Neither today nor tomorrow nor anytime Iraq will not be a part of any military alliance, and it will not be a danger for any other country,” he said.
“With U.S. president Joe Biden we will discuss that strategic deal between both countries in terms of economy and health” he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced that he will participate in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC+3) summit hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
GCC is scheduled to be held on July 15-16 in Saudi Arabia with the attendance of U.S. President Joe Biden along with leaders from Saudi, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE, and the head of states from non-GCC members Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq.
Kadhimi’s participation in the summit sparked concerns among the Shiites in Iraq saying, “The goal of the summit is bringing the Arabic countries closer to Israel and normalization the relations with Tel Aviv” Shiite Media reported.
Previously in May, the Iraqi parliament passed legislation that criminalizes normalizing ties with Israel.
The law was proposed by influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr whose party, which opposes close ties with the United States and Israel, won more seats in parliament in elections last October.
