Iraq’s parliament passes resolution against US policy shift on Quds

Rasa - Iraq’s Parliament has passed a resolution denouncing US President Donald Trump’s contentious decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital.”

News ID: 435670

Date: 09 January 2018 - 00:59

RNA - Ali es-Safi from the National Iraqi Alliance told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency on Sunday that lawmakers described the US move as a provocative measure against all religions and a threat to international peace.

The Iraqi legislators stressed that Jerusalem al-Quds is the capital of the Palestinian state, the parliamentarian added.

Trump made the announcement on December 6, 2017, and said he had asked the State Department with preparing to move Washington’s embassy from Tel Aviv to the Israeli-occupied city.

The dramatic shift in Washington’s policy vis-à-vis the city triggered global condemnations as well as demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories and other Muslim countries, including Iraq.

Back then, Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned the controversial US move and said occupied Jerusalem al-Quds must return to its Palestinian owners.

The US used its veto power at the UN Security Council to block a resolution against the move at the UN Security Council, but a similar resolution was overwhelmingly adopted at the world body’s General Assembly days later.

Jerusalem al-Quds remains at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians hoping that the eastern part of the city would eventually serve as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

In another development, Iraq’s Badr parliamentary bloc denounced recent reports that a number of Iraqi Sunni lawmakers had met the Israeli ambassador in Jordan.

Razaq al-Heydari, a lawmaker from Badr bloc, told the Baghdad Today news agency that if reports of the meeting prove to be true, it would be “a breach of the constitution.”

He also said he was surprised by “their betrayal of the trust of the people they represent” and their meeting with “an enemy of the Arab nation.”

“Some Sunni leaders denied the news and we are still waiting for the truth,” Heydari added.

Israel has no full diplomatic relations with Arab countries, except with Egypt and Jordan.

The reports of the meeting come amid tense relations between Jordan and Israel in recent months, following a shooting incident in which a guard at the Israeli embassy in Amman shot dead two Jordanians.

The Israeli mission was closed shortly after the regime repatriated the guard.

Jordanian officials demanded Israel turn over the officer for interrogation. Jordan has also refused to allow the Israeli ambassador back to the country in the wake of the incident.

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