ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church Louis Raphael Sako on Thursday firmly denied claims that he has called for the "normalization" of ties with Israel, rejecting an audio recording circulating on social media and describing the controversy surrounding his recent remarks as a “manufactured” crisis.
Speaking to Rudaw, Cardinal Sako rejected accusations that he had advocated political normalization with Israel. “Regarding this crisis, it is a manufactured one,” he told Rudaw in Baghdad. “I have neither called for political normalization nor signed any agreement for normalization with Israel.”
The clarification followed remarks he made during a Christmas celebration in Baghdad on Wednesday, where he used the word “normalization.”
“Mr. Prime Minister, there is talk about normalization, and I hope that the new government will ensure that normalization is in Iraq and with Iraq,” he said at the event.
An audio clip circulating on Iraqi social media, purportedly features Sako claiming that he had visited Israel and discussed Iraq’s situation with Israeli officials.
Sako said the recording was fabricated using artificial intelligence and that his remarks had been deliberately misinterpreted.
“What I said was that normalization should happen for Iraq,” he said. “Iraq is the country [land] of Abraham, the country of prophets, the country of civilizations, and diverse cultures, and it is a country for tourism.”
“I have refused to visit Israel,” he said, adding that he had previously been invited to visit with the late Pope Francis but “respectfully refused because of the situation in Palestine.”
At the same Wednesday event, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani responded to Sako’s remarks.
“In Iraq, we do not need normalization; rather, we need brotherhood, love, and coexistence. This is a moral, religious, constitutional, and legal commitment that governs our relationships. The term ‘normalization’ does not exist in the Iraqi lexicon, because it is linked to an occupying entity that stands against land and humanity, and which all heavenly religions reject,” Sudani said, referring to Israel.
The Iraqi parliament passed a bill in 2022 which criminalizes relations with Israel. The main part of the bill bans “the establishment of diplomatic, political, military, economic, and cultural relations and any other sort of relations with the invading Zionist entity.”
The penalties stipulated by the law range from life imprisonment or temporary imprisonment up to the death penalty for those convicted under its provisions.
Following Sako’s remarks, powerful Shiite politician Qais al-Khazali, leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), and influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned against promoting normalization with Israel and called for legal accountability.
The normalization of ties with Israel under the US-led Abraham Accords has been adopted by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. Washington has sought to expand the initiative to include other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Syria.
Iraq is among the countries that openly and strongly support the Palestinian cause, with some pro-Iran armed groups in the country having targeted US and Israeli interests in the region over the issue.
Ziyad Ismael contributed to this report from Baghdad.