Saudi embassy in Baghdad asks for protection following threats from ‘Iran-backed groups’

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Saudi embassy in Baghdad has asked the Iraqi government to provide security and guarantee the safety of its diplomatic staff following threats the embassy said they have received in recent months.

“We have asked the Iraqi government to provide us with vehicles and other protection devices but six months later they still have not provided any for us, those Iraqi political factions who are inciting people against Saudi Arabia have special agenda,” Thamer Al-Sabhan Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Iraq told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Wednesday.

The Saudi Ambassador accused pro-Iranian groups in Iraq of being behind the threats against their embassy in Baghdad. “According to our information, the threats against the embassy come from those groups who are affiliated with Iran.”

The ambassador said that most Iraqis were against acts of insult shown to Saudi national symbols on the streets of Baghdad.

“We know who is behind it, they have political goals against us, but what makes us feel secure is that the majority of Iraqis are against such things,” he said.

The Saudi diplomats in Iraq came in for serious criticism from Shiite groups following reports that they had visited a prison in Nasriya and promised to release Saudi nationals imprisoned on charges of terrorism.

“Our visit to see the Saudi prisoners is not true, although it’s the embassy’s duty to visit them and see their condition in prison, according to the international treaties and laws and not all the Saudis are linked to terrorism,” Al-Sabhan is quoted by the Arabic newspaper.

Photos circulating on social media recently showed a number of Iraqi Shiite pilgrims with concern that they could be members of the Shiite militia group Hashd al-Shaabi.

The Saudi Ambassador Al-Sabhan said that his country will not prevent anyone from making the holy journey unless they are on the terror list.

“Our country never prevents anyone from coming to visit the holy sites and to do their religious performance if they are not on the black list due to their links with terrorism or wanted by the Interpol,” he said.

In the wake of recent tensions between Baghdad and Riyadh, there have been calls among Shiite leaders in Iraq that the Saudi embassy must be closed and its staff expelled. This comes only a year after Saudi Arabia reopened its embassy after twenty five years of suspension.

The latest such call came from the Karabal provincial council who called on the Iraqi government on Tuesday to close down the Saudi embassy for “its support for terrorism in Iraq,”