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Anti-Saudi blocs in Iraqi parliament want to sue

Iraqi political forces said they intend to enact a law to sue Saudi Arabia and have Riyadh compensate for the damage caused by suicide attacks carried out by Saudis in Iraq, which would embarrass the Mustafa al-Kadhimi government that is making a new start in Iraqi-Saudi economic relations.
Police tape cordon is seen at the site of a bomb attack at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the Baladiyat neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq June 21, 2019. REUTERS/Khalid Al-Mousily - RC1F71BFBE30

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.

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