Shafaq News/ A group of tribal figures who participated in the conference held in Erbil yesterday, Friday, disowned the notion of "normalizing with Israel", indicating that they were tricked into attending the event.
The comments above came in a statement issued by Salah Musleh, the Sheikh of the Bo Dhiab Tribe, earlier today in the capital of the Kurdistan Region, Erbil.
" We, tribal figures affiliated with the Sahwa groups from all over Iraq, would like to disclose the circumstances of yesterday's 'Peace and Restitution' Conference in Erbil and the motive behind our participation."
"We were invited by the so-called Wisam al-Hardan to a conference to reinstate the Sahwa fighters whose contracts were terminated, increasing their salaries, and enrolling them to security agencies. However, we were astonished that the conference we were invited to was held for a totally different reason."
"We hold the so-called, Wisam al-Hardan, liable, both legally and tribally; and we assert that we have nothing to do with that, neither directly nor indirectly. Our position is known and clear: we support the Palestinian people's right to recover all their rights, and we oppose normalization."
More than 300 Iraqis, including tribal leaders, attended a conference in Erbil organised by a US think-tank demanding a normalisation of relations between Baghdad and Israel, organisers said Saturday.
The first initiative of its kind in Iraq, where Israel's sworn enemy Iran has a very strong influence, the conference took place on Friday and was organised by the New York-based Center for Peace Communications (CPC).
The CPC advocates for normalising relations between Israel and Arab countries, alongside working to establish ties between civil society organisations.
Four Arab nations -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan -- last year agreed to normalise ties with Israel in a US-sponsored process dubbed the Abraham Accords.
"We demand our integration into the Abraham Accords," said Sahar al-Tai, one of the attendees, reading a closing statement in a conference room at a hotel in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
"Just as these agreements provide for diplomatic relations between the signatories and Israel, we also want normal relations with Israel," she said.
"No force, local or foreign, has the right to prevent this call," added Tai, head of research at the Iraqi federal government's culture ministry.
However, Iraq's federal government rejected the conference's call for normalisation in a statement on Saturday and dismissed the gathering as an "illegal meeting".
The conference "was not representative of the population's (opinion) and that of residents in Iraqi cities, in whose name these individuals purported to speak," the statement said.
The 300 participants at the conference came from across Iraq, according to CPC founder Joseph Braude, a US citizen of Iraqi Jewish origin.
They included Sunni and Shiite representatives from "six governorates: Baghdad, Mosul, Salaheddin, Al-Anbar, Diyala and Babylon," extending to tribal chiefs and "intellectuals and writers", he told AFP by phone.
Other speakers at the conference included Chemi Peres, the head of an Israeli foundation established by his father, the late president Shimon Peres.
"Normalisation with Israel is now a necessity," said Sheikh Rissan al-Halboussi, an attendee from Anbar province, citing the examples of Morocco and the UAE.