Foreign Minister Shalom interviewed on Iraqi TV (says Israel wants diplomatic relations with Iraq)

Arutz Sheva ^ | June 30 2004

[yonif]

Translation from Hebrew to English by me:

In an interview to the Iraqi television network "Al Hora" Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that Israel is interested in establishing diplomatic relations with independent Iraq.

[yonif]

This will be a real test for the new Iraqi government there. Let's see if the militant Islamic ideological hate towards Jews and Israel is not present in that government.

[yonif]

Ping.

[F14 Pilot]

You will see that the Arab countries will oppose this!

[zarf]

Well this should be interesting. I think full recognition of Israel by Iraq may be a bit much to ask for this fledgling regime. They've got to solidify the security situation before they wade into these type of waters.

[jocon307]

"This will be a real test for the new Iraqi government there."

One that I am almost sure they will fail. However, intrestingly there was an article (a feature piece, not hard news) in the Wall Street Journal today about how Iraqis are 'doing weddings differently' in the current unsafe environment. The family of the featured groom are "devout" Christians, the mom's name was something very western sounding, Mary Rose, or something like that.

It made me realize there must be a good many Christians in Iraq, since they even had more than one Church to chose from for the wedding. So maybe there is some cosmopolitanism there and like Turkey the Iraqis will recoginize and deal with Israel.

If we hear the lefties moaning about it, we'll know it's a done deal.

[xm177e2]

I think it's more important that Iraqis get what they want from their new government than that Israel finds a "partner for peace" or whatever. When the Iraqis want to establish relations with Israel, they can. Until then, the Israelis should be cool.

[Brit_Guy]

I'm not sure this is as big deal as it sounds on first reading. 'Diplomatic relations' is a step down from 'Full Diplomatic Relations'. I am pretty sure that Israel has diplomatic relations with many Arab countries. I seem to remember visiting the Egyptian Consulate in Tel Aviv once to sort out paperwork prior to a trip down the Sinai. Even where direct consular presence is not in place, arab countries have diplomatic relations established through freindly proxy.

I would be interested in understanding how far the Israeli's want to go with this. If they are talking about setting up full embasseys and their ambassadors presenting credetials to the head of state then that would be something!

[ovrtaxt]

I think that whether Iraq wants to establish relations with Israel and whether they realistically can are two different things, at least until they bust some terrorist heads.

Once they get control of idiots like AlSadr and the Fallujah scum, and they show a little impatience with the violence, they will be a bit more free to make a decision like that, with regard to their own population.

Of course, this is an interim government, and they may feel the need to wait until elections.

Don't get me wrong, I wish they would do it today, but there are a lot of mouthbreathers running around who could make things very difficult.

[F14 Pilot]

Only Egypt, Qatar & Jordan have diplomatic relations with Israel. And offering hand of friendship is something and accepting that hand is something else. Israelis offer hand of friendship but we have to wait to see if Iraqis can accept it or not.

[mr.pink]

Hopefully the Iraqis will politely decline this offer until it's established whether or not Israel is covertly assisting the Kurds to keep the country destabilized.

[SJackson]

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