Israeli politicians this weekend hailed calls by an Iraqi group for normalizing ties between the two countries and for Iraq to join the Abraham Accords. In a rare move, more than 300 Iraqis, including tribal and religious leaders, participated Sept. 24 at a conference in Erbil, in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region.

Sahar Karim al-Ta’i, a senior official in Iraq’s Ministry of Culture. told the gathering, "As you know, Israel today is a powerful country. It constitutes an inseparable part of the United Nations and the world. Iraq must not neglect this fact.’’

"We demand our integration into the Abraham Accords," she said, referring to the measure signed last year between Israel, the Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. "Just as these agreements provide for diplomatic relations between the signatories and Israel, we also want normal relations with Israel. No force, local or foreign, has the right to prevent this call."

Karim al-Ta’i also addressed the issue of Israeli Jews of Iraqi origins. "For the sake of peace in the region, it has become imperative to recognize Israel as a friendly country, especially since half a million Israelis are of Iraqi origins. Their eyes are still turned towards Iraq. … They are still waiting for the moment when Israel is recognized as their country and the country of their compatriots.’’ She then noted that Iraq should formulate new policies to deal with the lost property of the Jews who were forced to flee Iraq after the state of Israel was established, and to revive religious pilgrimage.