Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Baghdad … responsible statements in a divided country

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry  summoned  the Saudi ambassador to Baghdad, Thamer Sabhan to inform him of its official protest about the media comments in which he criticized the militia of the popular crowd.        A spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Jamal said the Saudi ambassador’s remarks represent “interference in Iraqi internal affairs and coming out of the decency of diplomatic representation as he put it .,
The spokesman said  the militia of popular crowd “fight terrorism and defend the sovereignty of the country and operate under the umbrella of the state and under the command of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and has parliamentary representation that makes it part of  the political system,” he said.
This call came on the background  of the inquiry of Saudi ambassador Thamer Sabhan in an “exclusive  interview”  program , the dialogue, was broadcast on Alsumaria channel on Saturday, about the reason for rejection of the Sunnis and the Kurds of  the entry of the popular crowd to their areas and  the Saudi ambassador said  in  this  interview that the reason for this is the lack of acceptance  to these parties on the part of the community.
These  responsible statements of the Ambassador  has raised the resentment of the  Shiite political forces in Iraq noting that the  MP for the coalition of  law state Awatif Al-Nima has demanded  the government and the Foreign Ministry to expel the Saudi ambassador from Iraq because of his blatant   interference in Iraqi affairs and  insult to the popular crowd and trying to stir sedition among the Iraqi people, indicating that in the event of his stay , he will face dire consequences. She added: “This Ambassador deliberately insulted the popular crowd which sacrificed  with its blood for the Liberation of Iraq’s cities from the grip of terrorists Daash, and is aware that the popular crowd is an Iraqi military’s official body, and therefore his comments  is an insult to the Iraqi state, and it was better for him to respect the sovereignty of the country in which he was allowed to co-exist on its land as an ambassador and not play with fire.
“For his part, the head of the parliamentary Aldaawa Coalition Khalaf Abdul Samad, condemned  the remarks of the Saudi ambassador in Iraq  towards the militias of popular crowd   (Al-Hashd al-shaabi), calling on the Iraqi Foreign Ministry to intervene immediately and preserve  the dignity of the Iraqi state and the expulsion of the Saudi ambassador from Iraq. The MP Kamil  Al-Zaidi  from the coalition of the law state, considered  the Saudi ambassador’s remarks Thamer Sabhan as a blatant interference  to the internal affairs of Iraq, calling on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be at the level of the challenge faced by the country. Zaidi said “the Saudi ambassador has to know the limits of his work,” stressing that   the popular crowd is a basic corner in the protection of Iraq when it was attacked by Aldoaash and their supporters.”
The spokesman for the “popular crowd,” Ahmed al-Asadi has stated the following: “What is spoken  by the Saudi ambassador  exceeded all limits  of the  diplomatic  decency  . This is an excess  to the crowd and the government and   population and political majority, “referring to Iraqi Shiites. He asked “the Iraqi government and the Foreign Ministry to expel and punish the Ambassador on his impudent statements and direct  incitement  for sedition among the Iraqi people.”
And the jihad and construction movement  called   popular crowd body for  the establishment of a lawsuit in the Iraqi and international courts against the Saudi ambassador in Iraq Thamer Sabhan on charges of abuse and defamation . Jihad movement stated  in a press release saying : “Sabhan  abusive remarks against the Iraqi people and the popular crowd come   to inflame  for  sectarian charging and  discrimination among the  components of  unified Iraqi people.”
This display of these aggressive statements   of some Shiite Iraqi political forces that go beyond diplomatic norms not just to display but intended to indicate to  the  bad condition of Iraq  reached  with those forces.  to confirm that Iraq ,with these statements , is  endemic to the non-state. It is no secret for any one that the return of the Saudi diplomatic mission  again to Baghdad after a hiatus of more than twenty-five years on the back ground of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait on  the second of August 1990, was not welcomed by  Shiite political forces  allied with the Iranian regime, they are not in favor of this return and  also resist any  Arabic influential and active presence   negatively affect the Iranian influence in Iraqi entire scene, especially if this attendance by weighty state in  the Arab ,Islamic  , regional and international  environment such as Saudi Arabia, so they found in  the  rational statements  issued by the Saudi ambassador especially with regard to the issue of the popular crowd and who is responsible for providing protection to the crisis for the people of Diyala province, a favorable opportunity for abuse to Saudi Arabia and suspicion  to  its positive role  in Iraq  to ​​keep it away and    to the service of the Iranian regime.
It is worth noting that  the pursuit  to these statements comes to stand in front of one fact that the Shiite political forces to deal with the issue of Iraqi sovereignty in accordance with the principle of double standards. It conjures up this sovereignty and  desperately defend  in the face of Arab States, and summoned their ambassadors in order to maintain the sovereignty like the call for  the Saudi ambassador, and completely miss talking about it in the face of the Iranian regime’s practices in Iraq, and the question :  did they not listen to  that the deserts of  Najaf and Karbala in Iraq are   both  turned  into  training camps  of Shiite  Gulf, Yemen and Lebanon militias , to be subversive tools in their communities?!, did not they  read or heard the statement by the Iranian President adviser  for Religious Affairs and minorities Ali Yonsei that Iran is an  Empire and its capital is  Baghdad, and Iran and Iraq geography is  indivisible and our culture is not subject to dismantling, so we have to fight together or unite?!.  Did not also hear the  or see the  Goodwill Ambassador in Iraq, Qassem Soleimani who is a wandering in the provinces of Iraq, or that such acts and words are not a violation of Iraqi sovereignty or  the sovereignty  properties of political forces in a country different from other  ?!
Establish to tell by watching the unit  of Arab Studies in  the links Center  for Strategic Research and Studies  for the  dialogue  done by Alsumaria with the Saudi ambassador Thamer Sabhan that the ambassador did not impinges or detract from the Iraqi sovereignty but rather the contrary, it was quite careful in the use of vocabulary because he realizes the nature of his work as a diplomat representing his country , responsible for his remarks , regarding to the questions posed by the Saudi ambassador in the course of the dialogue   for  the popular crowd and Diyala province, and  what was taken place  of killing  based  on a sectarian basis,  they are of course questions came and  occurred  in the mind of all the followers of the Iraqi affair.
From  objective  review by researchers and  Followers of the situation in Iraq , they realize that the tasks of the  Saudi ambassador  since coming to Iraq in this current month, will not be easy tasks, but very private in a sectarian and divided country  , as  Iraqi political forces allied  with the Iranian regime  seek to  make it an Iranian protectorate, and taking it away  from its  the Arab depth.
Rawabet Research and Strategic Studies Center