Anti-Saudi blocs in Iraqi parliament want to sue

Jun 3, 2020

BAGHDAD — While Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi takes steps to improve relations with neighboring Arab countries and seeks to carry out economic projects with them in an attempt to ward off the repercussions of the current economic crisis, a number of parliament blocs are preparing a draft law to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for “dispatching suicide bombers to Iraq.”

Upon taking office, Saudi Arabia was the first destination of Iraq’s new finance minister, Ali Abdul Amir Alawi. Alawi, who also serves as deputy prime minister, arrived in Saudi Arabia at the end of May as Kadhimi’s envoy to discuss the electricity grid connection between the two countries, bring Saudi investments into Iraq and demand that Iraq’s share under April’s OPEC+ deal, which was signed to address the major decline in global oil prices, be increased.

Although the visit was fruitful, some Shiite political parties, including Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition and the Popular Mobilization Units’ (PMU) Fatah bloc in parliament, denounced the move taken toward the Gulf States and demanded Saudi Arabia be prosecuted instead. These blocs are seeking a law similar to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) passed by the US Congress in 2016, allowing for the prosecution of foreign states, including Saudi Arabia for the 9/11 attacks. They also started a social media campaign to market their draft law. 

The parties in favor of suing Saudi Arabia did not specify the legislation’s mechanisms that would force Riyadh to compensate Baghdad. Saad al-Muttalbi of the State of Law Coalition told Al-Monitor the parliamentary blocs that are part of Al-Binaa Alliance, including the State of Law Coalition and the Fatah bloc, are determined to enact a law to hold accountable Saudi parties that publicly promoted and funded the journey of Saudi suicide bombers in Iraq following the US occupation of Iraq in 2003. He added, “This law, which some blocs seek to pass, does not come as a reaction to the Iraqi-Saudi rapprochement. Rather, it seeks to restore respect to Iraq and compensate the victims of suicide attacks.”

Muttalbi expressed hope that the law or demands for compensation would not affect Iraqi-Saudi economic deals. He said, “We are neither opposing the electricity grid connection nor against the Saudi investments in Iraq. We hope that the two issues (passing the law of compensation and economic ties with Saudi) remain separate.”