Iraq summons Saudi envoy for ‘interference’

Iraq’s foreign ministry summons Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Baghdad on Sunday to protest his “interference” in the country’s internal affairs over remarks on militia forces fighting the Islamic State group.

Thamer al-Sabhan is the first Baghdad-based Saudi ambassador in a quarter century, but while full diplomatic relations are restored, there is still significant hostility to Riyadh in some quarters and there have already been calls for the envoy’s expulsion.

The foreign ministry summons Sabhan “to inform him of its official protest regarding his media statements that represented interference in Iraqi internal affairs,” it says in a statement.

Sabhan says in interview with Al-Sumaria television that the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary forces, which are dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias, are not wanted in Sunni Arab and Kurdish areas as “they are not accepted by the sons of Iraqi society.”

—AFP