Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of “advancing normalization with Israel” by participating in the recent Sharm el-Sheikh summit, which aimed to conclude months of talks on ending the war in Gaza.
His remarks, made during a podcast interview, ignited political controversy ahead of Iraq’s upcoming elections and raised concerns about media freedom after the episode was briefly removed and later restored following public backlash.
Political analyst Ghani Ghadban told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that al-Maliki’s statements were typical of election-season rhetoric, noting that Sudani’s attendance at the summit—invited by Egypt’s President el-Sisi and US President Donald Trump—was conditional on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s absence, a condition shared by other countries such as Turkey.
Ghadban added that Iraq’s anti-normalization law, passed unanimously in 2022, imposes life imprisonment or the death penalty for any cooperation with Israel, making the allegations politically motivated rather than credible policy signals.