ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, has come under criticism for using the word “normalization” during a Christmas celebration in Baghdad—a term widely associated with normalizing relations with Israel and prohibited under Iraqi law.
“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,” Cardinal Sako said in his speech at St. Joseph's Chaldean Cathedral in Baghdad on Wednesday.
Speaking at the same event, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani responded to the Christian leader.
“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,” said Sudani, 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.
The normalization of ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords is a US-led joint Middle East peace initiative.