How the Gaza war has impacted the pace of Abraham Accords-style Arab-Israeli normalization

Analysis How the Gaza war has impacted the pace of Abraham Accords-style Arab-Israeli normalization
(L-R) Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords at the White House in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 26 September 2024
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How the Gaza war has impacted the pace of Abraham Accords-style Arab-Israeli normalization

How the Gaza war has impacted the pace of Abraham Accords-style Arab-Israeli normalization
  • The 2020 accords normalized relations between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain, marking a major step in the peace process
  • The Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack and the resulting war in Gaza paused the accords’ momentum, complicating future agreements

LONDON: It is exactly four years since Donald Trump stood on the South Lawn of the White House, flanked by a beaming Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of Bahrain and the UAE, each holding a copy of the Abraham Accords Declaration.

The signing of the agreements on Sept. 15, 2020, a process driven by the Trump administration, appeared to be the most significant development in the Arab-Israeli peace process for years.




In the historic Abraham Accords, Bahrain and the UAE recognized Israel’s sovereignty and agreed to normalize diplomatic relations. (AFP/File)

Both Bahrain and the UAE recognized Israel’s sovereignty and agreed to normalize diplomatic relations — the only Arab states to have done so since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

In so doing, as the one-page declaration signed by all four parties affirmed, they recognized “the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace in the Middle East … based on mutual understanding and coexistence,” and vowed to “seek to end radicalization and conflict and to provide all children a better future.”

A number of “firsts” followed. For the first time, it became possible to call direct to Israel from the UAE, and Emirati ships and planes began to dock and land in Israeli ports and airports. Various trade and business deals were made.




The Abraham Accords ushered in an era of understanding that saw the opening of Abu Dhabi’s Abrahamic Family House, which has been featured in TIME Magazine's annual list of the World’s Greatest Places. (WAM photo)

The region’s major player was missing from the White House photo op that day in 2020, but speculation that Saudi Arabia would soon follow suit and normalize relations with Israel was rife.

Three years later, in a groundbreaking and wide-ranging interview with Fox News, broadcast on Sept. 20, 2023, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave the biggest hint yet that such a historic breakthrough might be afoot.




Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman being interviewed by Bret Baier of Fox News in September 2023. (AN Archives)

“Every day we get closer,” the Saudi crown prince told Bret Baier of Fox News, adding Saudi Arabia could work with Israel, although he added that any such agreement, which would be “the biggest historical deal since the end of the Cold War,” would depend on positive outcomes for the Palestinians.

“If we have a breakthrough of reaching a deal that give the Palestinians their needs and make the region calm, we’re going to work with whoever is there,” he said.

Just over two weeks later, on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and its allies attacked Israel. All bets were off, and the Abraham Accords seemed doomed to go the way of every previous initiative in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since the Madrid Conference of 1991.




People pay tribute near the coffins of some of the people killed in the October 7 deadly attack by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip, during a funeral in Kfar Harif in southern Israel, on Oct. 25, 2023. (AFP)

But, say some commentators, despite the death and destruction of the past year, it would be wrong to write off the accords completely, and whether or not the process can be resuscitated could depend on which of the two main candidates in the coming US presidential election is handed the keys to the White House by the American electorate on Nov. 5.

“I’m not sure I would describe the accords as being on life support,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs).

“They are actually weathering this very difficult storm of the Gaza war. That is certainly putting the leadership and the decision-making in the UAE and Bahrain under a microscope, and of course that poses difficult domestic dynamics for these leaders to navigate.

“But at the same time, they remain committed to the Abraham Accords and haven’t shown any willingness to walk back from them or to break diplomatic ties. They in fact are arguing that by having diplomatic ties with Israel, they have a better avenue to support Palestinians and work behind the scenes with the Israelis.”




​This picture taken on March 28, 2024 from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip shows buildings which have been destroyed by Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing battles between Israeli forces and Hamas militants since the October 7 attack on southern Israel. (AFP)

As for the Israelis, “normalization with Saudi Arabia is not on the cards for now, partly because obviously the Israeli leadership has different priorities right now, and after Oct. 7, the price of normalization became higher.

“And I think the Israeli leadership is calculating that if they wait this out — and perhaps over-anticipating that the Saudis will still be there, which could be a miscalculation — the price that they have to pay for normalization will go down again.

“I think that they’re assuming that the conditions in the region might change, or perhaps if the outcome of the US election leads to a Trump victory, that might alter what they need to do, what commitments they need to make toward the Palestinians that would satisfy the Saudis.”

INNUMBERS

18% Decline in Israel’s overall trade with outside world since eruption of Gaza war in October 2023.

4% Decline in trade between Israel and 7 Arab countries that have normalized ties with it during the same period.

14% Drop in Israel-UAE trade in the last quarter of 2023 following the conflict.

(Source: Abraham Accords Peace Institute)

But for Brian Katulis, senior fellow for US foreign policy at the Middle East Institute in Washington, “it’s a coin toss” whether a Trump or Kamala Harris administration would be most likely to reinvigorate the Abraham Accords.

“As we saw in the candidates’ debate on Tuesday evening, these issues don’t really matter to either of the leaders or the political discourse in America right now,” he said.

“These questions, of the Abraham Accords, of Israel-Palestine or of Iran, don’t really drive the political and policy debate in a major way compared to US domestic issues — immigration, abortion, who we are as a country, inflation.

“When it comes to foreign policy issues, China is much more relevant as a political question.”




Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris participate in a debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (AFP)

Although, as the father of the Abraham Accords, Trump might be assumed to be keen to re-engage with an initiative he once saw as a foundation stone of his legacy — in January, a Republican lawmaker nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize — “he’s just so erratic as a leader, and I don’t know that he’ll be focused on it,” Katulis said.

“Harris may actually put more time and thought into it. In the debate, she was the only candidate who talked about a two-state solution, and that’s music to the ears of anyone in places like Saudi Arabia, which have been calling for a state of Palestine forever.”

But Saudi Arabia is unlikely to shift far from the position it took in 2002, when it was the author of the Arab Peace Initiative, which was adopted by the Council of Arab States.

This offered Israel peace and normalization of relations with all 22 Arab states, in exchange for “full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land-for-peace principle, and Israel’s acceptance of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Merissa Khurma, program director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, said: “And of course, the Abraham Accords agreements completely flipped that formula because they offered normalization first.




Israel's revenge attacks against Palestinians in Gaza has not spared houses of worship, making efforts at restoring peace more difficult. (AFP)

“The premise they presented was that it was through these channels of communication that have now been established that we can try to address the thorny issues in the Palestinian-Israeli arena.

“But we all know that the reality on the ground was very different, that settlements and outposts have expanded and with the emergence of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, all of that has been accelerated.

“I’ve spoken to officials and thought leaders in the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, and there’s consensus that the Abraham Accords are, at best, on pause. Someone even said the accords are in a coma and they will need to be resuscitated after the war ends in Gaza.”

Harris, Joe Biden’s vice president, is likely to follow in his administration’s footsteps to some extent when it comes to the Abraham Accords.

“The Biden administration was a bit slow to embrace the model of the accords when they came into office, really, because, you know, they saw it as Trump’s legacy, and they were very partisan in their approach,” said Vakil.

“But they did come around, and they did begin to embrace this idea of integration through normalization. The reality, though — and this is what we’ve seen born out since Oct. 7 — is that without providing a mechanism and commitment to restart a peace process, and one that allows Palestinians to have self-determination, the accords, on their own, cannot deliver Israel’s security or provide the region with that integration, that economic and security integration that they’re seeking.”




Israel's relentless revenge attacks that has killed  more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza to date has only served to derail attempts at restoring peace in the region. (AFP)/File)

A reboot of the agreements in the wake of the cessation of the current hostilities would be an opportunity — if not a precondition — to reconfigure them and put Palestinian demands at the top of the agenda.

“The Abraham Accords was a well-intentioned initiative led by countries in the region that wanted to prioritize their national security and economic interests,” Merissa Khurma said.

“No one can say taking the path of peace is a bad idea. But the heavy criticism from the region and the Arab public in general, which you can see in the polling from 2021 until today, is that in doing so they basically sidelined the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and flipped the formula that was the essence of the Arab Peace Initiative led by Saudi Arabia in 2002.”


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To move forward successfully, said Katulis, whoever becomes America’s next president must “prioritize Palestine and make it a big item on the agenda.”

To do this, they should “go back to good old-fashioned collective diplomacy and form a regional coalition with a new international framework to create the state of Palestine. It’s ripe for the picking, and I would lean into it.”

Katulis added: “I would advise either President Trump or Harris to work by, with and through all of these countries, from Saudi Arabia to Morocco and others, those that have accords and those that want to. I would spend at least six months assembling everything that people have argued since the war started, and what they’d be willing to do, and what they’d be willing to invest, and present to Israel, the Israeli public and its politicians an offer — a state of Palestine that is going to be good for your security and will also insulate you from the threats presented by Iran.




Palestinian demonstrators sit before Israeli border guards in Beit Jala, occupied West Bank on September 3, 2024 in solidarity with a Palestinian family whose land was taken over by armed Israeli settlers planning to build a new outpost, aggravating animosities. (AFP)

“It is important to think practical, to think realistic, and realistic is that the next US president is not going to actually attend to a lot of these issues, so we’ve got to work with and through people diplomatically.

“Use that new energy in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and other places, use the resources they have to actually do some good, and that good should have as its endpoint making an offer to say, this is a state of Palestine which will coexist with Israel.”

That new energy, said Khurma, was evident at the 33rd summit of the Arab League in Bahrain in May.

In the joint declaration issued afterward, the league reiterated “our unwavering position and our call for a just and comprehensive peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, as well as our support for the call of His Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, for an international peace conference to be convened and for irreversible steps to be taken to implement the two-state solution, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and authoritative international resolutions, with a view to establishing an independent and sovereign Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the basis of the lines of 4 June 1967.”




Palestinian Authority's President Mahmud Abbas holds a placard showing maps of historical Palestine as he meets by video conference with representatives of Palestinian factions gathered at the Palestinian embassy in Beirut on September 3, 2020,. (POOL/AFP)

For whoever becomes the next president of the US, this initiative could be the vital missing component needed to jumpstart the Abraham Accords.

“When they met in Bahrain, the Arab countries revived the Arab Peace Initiative and took it a step further,” Khurma said.

“In the US media, there was very little coverage, but the declaration is very important because it shows that even in the midst of this horrific war, these countries are still willing to revive the Arab Peace Initiative, a peace plan with Israel, and to extend a hand to normalize with Israel, but of course, without leaving the Palestinians behind.”
 

 


Trump, asked about Israel’s Gaza plans, says US will help on food

Trump, asked about Israel’s Gaza plans, says US will help on food
Updated 8 sec ago
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Trump, asked about Israel’s Gaza plans, says US will help on food

Trump, asked about Israel’s Gaza plans, says US will help on food
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump repeated a US pledge to help get food to Palestinians in Gaza when he was asked at the White House on Monday about Israeli plans for an expanded offensive in the territory.
Trump did not offer his views on Israel’s operations. He made the comments to reporters in the Oval Office.

Houthis say US, Israel bomb Yemen after strike on Israeli airport

A Yemeni man checks the rubble of a building hit in US strikes in the northern province of Saada on April 29, 2025. (AFP)
A Yemeni man checks the rubble of a building hit in US strikes in the northern province of Saada on April 29, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 16 min 20 sec ago
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Houthis say US, Israel bomb Yemen after strike on Israeli airport

A Yemeni man checks the rubble of a building hit in US strikes in the northern province of Saada on April 29, 2025. (AFP)
  • Houthi-run Al-Masirah television said that “US-Israeli aggression targets with six strikes the port of Hodeida” on Yemen’s western coast

SANAA: Yemen’s Houthis said the United States and Israel struck the port of Hodeida on Monday, hours after a reported US air raid on Sanaa and a day after the Iran-backed rebels targeted Israel’s main airport.
The Houthi-run Al-Masirah television said that “US-Israeli aggression targets with six strikes the port of Hodeida” on Yemen’s western coast, also reporting “US-Israeli aggression on the Bajil district” in the same province.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that Israeli warplanes struck Yemen.
Earlier the Houthis’ Saba news agency said US strikes hit the capital Sanaa and the airport road, wounding 16 people according to the rebels’ health ministry.
Al-Masirah reported another three strikes in Sanaa and seven in the northern governorate of Al-Jawf.
The reports on Houthi media come after Israel said a missile fired from Yemen on Sunday struck inside the perimeter of Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv for the first time.
The Houthis claimed responsibility, saying they fired a “hypersonic ballistic missile” at Ben Gurion, Israel’s main international gateway.
The Houthis said they “will work to impose a comprehensive air blockade on the Israeli enemy by repeatedly targeting airports, most notably... Ben Gurion Airport.”
The missile gouged a wide crater in the ground near an airport parking lot, injuring six people and forcing airlines to suspend flights.
The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen including Sanaa, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a tough response against the Houthis, as well as its main backer Iran, over the attack.
In a video published on Telegram before the reported attack on Hodeida, Netanyahu said Israel had “acted against” the Houthis in the past and “will act in the future.”
“It will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs,” he added, without elaborating.
On social media platform X, Netanyahu said Israel would also respond to Iran at “a time and place of our choosing.”
Iran on Monday denied supporting the attack, calling it an “independent decision” by the Yemeni rebels taken in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Reacting to Netanyahu’s threats, the Islamic republic warned it would retaliate against any attack on its territory.
“Iran underlines (its) firm determination... to defend itself,” the Iranian foreign ministry said, warning Israel and the United States of “consequences.”
An Israeli military spokesperson told AFP that Sunday’s attack was “the first time” that a missile has directly struck inside the airport perimeter.
An AFP journalist inside the airport during the attack said he heard a “loud bang” at around 9:35 am (0635 GMT), adding that the “reverberation was very strong.”
Flights resumed after being halted briefly, with the aviation authority saying on Sunday that Ben Gurion was “open and operational.”
Some international airlines have canceled flights, including SWISS which extended its suspension until Sunday.
US strikes on the Houthis began under former president Joe Biden, but have intensified under his successor Donald Trump.


Palestinians struggling to survive as Israel plans for Gaza's ‘conquest’

Palestinians struggling to survive as Israel plans for Gaza's ‘conquest’
Updated 05 May 2025
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Palestinians struggling to survive as Israel plans for Gaza's ‘conquest’

Palestinians struggling to survive as Israel plans for Gaza's ‘conquest’
  • For many of the Gaza Strip's residents, the most immediate threat to their lives remains the spectre of famine amid a months-long Israeli blockade
  • Israel’s new military roadmap changes little as it already controls most of Gaza, a resident says

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel’s plan for the “conquest” of Gaza has sparked renewed fears, but for many of the Palestinian territory’s residents, the most immediate threat to their lives remains the spectre of famine amid a months-long Israeli blockade.
The plan to expand military operations, approved by Israel’s security cabinet overnight, includes holding territories in the besieged Gaza Strip and moving the population south “for their protection,” an Israeli official said.
But Gaza residents told AFP that they did not expect the new offensive would make any significant changes to the already dire humanitarian situation in the small coastal territory.
“Israel has not stopped the war, the killing, the bombing, the destruction, the siege, and the starvation — every day — so how can they talk about expanding military operations?” Awni Awad, 39, told AFP.

Awad, who lives in a tent in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis after being displaced by Israeli evacuation orders, said that his situation was already “catastrophic and tragic.”
“I call on the world to witness the famine that grows and spreads every day,” he said.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) in late April said it had depleted all its foods stocks in Gaza due to Israel’s blockade on all supplies since March 2.

There is no food, no medicine, and no nutritional supplements. The markets are empty of food, and the government clinics and pharmacies have nothing

Umm Hashem Al-Saqqa, Gaza City resident

Aya Al-Skafy, a resident of Gaza City, told AFP her baby died because of malnutrition and medicine shortages last week.
“She was four months old and weighed 2.8 kilograms (6.2 pounds), which is very little. Medicine was not available,” she said.
“Due to severe malnutrition, she suffered from blood acidity, liver and kidney failure, and many other complications. Her hair and nails also fell out due to malnutrition.”
Umm Hashem Al-Saqqa, another Gaza City resident, fears her five-year-old son might face a similar fate, but is powerless to do anything about it.
“Hashem suffers from iron deficiency anaemia. He is constantly pale and lacks balance, and is unable to walk due to malnutrition,” she told AFP.
“There is no food, no medicine, and no nutritional supplements. The markets are empty of food, and the government clinics and pharmacies have nothing.”
New military roadmap
Gaza City resident Mohammed Al-Shawa, 65, said that Israel’s new military roadmap changes little as it already controls most of Gaza.
“The Israeli announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza is just talk for the media, because the entire Gaza Strip is occupied, and there is no safe area in Gaza,” he said.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 69 percent of Gaza has now been either incorporated into one of Israel’s buffer zones, or is subject to evacuation orders.

The reality is that Israel is killing Palestinians in Gaza by bombing, shooting, or through starvation and denial of medical treatment

Mohammed Al-Shawa, Gaza City resident

That number rises to 100 percent in the southern governorate of Rafah, where over 230,000 people lived before the war but which has now been entirely declared a no-go zone.
“There is no food, no medicine, and the announcement of an aid distribution plan is just to distract the world and mislead global public opinion,” Shawa said, referring to reports of a new Israeli plan for humanitarian aid delivery that has yet to be implemented.
“The reality is that Israel is killing Palestinians in Gaza by bombing, shooting, or through starvation and denial of medical treatment,” he said.
Israel says that its renewed bombardments and the blockade of Gaza are aimed at forcing Hamas to release hostages held in the territory.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised the new plan for Gaza on Monday and evoked a proposal previously floated by US President Donald Trump to displace the territory’s residents elsewhere.
The far-right firebrand said he would push for the plan’s completion, until “Hamas is defeated, Gaza is fully occupied, and Trump’s historical plan is implemented, with Gaza refugees resettled in other countries.”


Norwegian NGO decries Israel plan to take over Gaza aid

Palestinians queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip
Palestinians queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip
Updated 05 May 2025
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Norwegian NGO decries Israel plan to take over Gaza aid

Palestinians queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip
  • Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicize the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south”

OSLO: An Israeli plan to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza at hubs controlled by the military is “fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) told AFP on Monday.
Israel’s security cabinet said there was “currently enough food” in the territory which has been under full Israeli blockade since March 2, and approved overnight the “possibility of humanitarian distribution” in Gaza.
“We cannot and will not do something which is fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” Jan Egeland told AFP.
He said “the United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have said no to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military.”
Israel has accused Hamas of diverting humanitarian aid — which Hamas denies — and said its blockade was necessary to pressure the militant group to release Israeli hostages.
Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicize the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south, a scheme where people will be screened, where it’s a completely inoperable system.”
“That would force people to move to get aid, and it would continue the starvation of the civilian population,” he said, adding: “We will have no part in that.”
“If one side in a bitter armed conflict tries to control, manipulate, ration aid among the civilians on the other side, it is against everything we stand for,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Israeli scheme “will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies.”
International aid organizations as well as Palestinians in Gaza have for weeks warned of a dire humanitarian situation on the ground.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has said it has depleted its food stocks and that the 25 bakeries it supports in Gaza have closed due to a lack of flour and fuel.


Iraq’s justice minister says prisons are at double capacity as amnesty law takes effect

Iraqi Justice Minister Khaled Shwani speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 3.
Iraqi Justice Minister Khaled Shwani speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 3.
Updated 05 May 2025
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Iraq’s justice minister says prisons are at double capacity as amnesty law takes effect

Iraqi Justice Minister Khaled Shwani speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 3.
  • Justice Minister Khaled Shwani acknowledged the overcrowding has put a severe strain on prison health care and human rights standards

BAGHDAD: As a general amnesty law takes effect in Iraq, the country’s prisons are facing a crisis of overcrowding, housing more than double their intended capacity, the country’s justice minister said in an interview.
Justice Minister Khaled Shwani told The Associated Press on Saturday that Iraq’s 31 prisons currently hold approximately 65,000 inmates, despite the system being built to accommodate only half that number.
He acknowledged that the overcrowding has put a severe strain on prison health care and human rights standards.
“When we took office, overcrowding stood at 300 percent,” he said. “After two years of reform, we’ve reduced it to 200 percent. Our goal is to bring that down to 100 percent by next year in line with international standards.”
Thousands more detainees remain in the custody of security agencies but have not yet been transferred to the Ministry of Justice due to lack of prison capacity. Four new prisons are under construction, Shwani said, while three have been closed in recent years. Two others have been opened and six existing prisons expanded.
The general amnesty law passed in January had strong support from Sunni lawmakers who argue that their community has been disproportionately targeted by terrorism charges, with confessions sometimes extracted under torture.
But opponents say the law would allow the release of people involved in public corruption and embezzlement as well as militants who committed war crimes.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group, said in a statement that “the current version of the general amnesty law raises deep concerns over its potential legal and security consequences.”’
Shwani said 2,118 prisoners have been released from the justice ministry’s prisons since the amnesty law took effect, while others had been released from the custody of security agencies before being transferred to the Ministry of Justice.
“We have a committee studying the status of inmates and identifying those who may qualify for release, but the vision is not yet final,” he said. The minister said he expects a “good number” to be released but “cannot specify an exact percentage until we receive clarity from the judiciary on who qualifies for the amnesty.”
Iraq’s prisons house hundreds of foreign nationals, most of them convicted of terrorism-related charges or affiliation with the Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The inmates hail from countries including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Egypt, North African nations, and several European states, as well as a handful of US citizens. Shwani said discussions are underway with several governments to repatriate their citizens, excluding those sentenced to death.
He said inmates have been repatriated under existing agreements with Iran, Turkiye, and the United Kingdom, including 127 Iranian inmates who were recently transferred back to Tehran.
An Iranian who was convicted in the 2022 killing of a US citizen in Baghdad remains in custody, however, Shwani said.
Stephen Edward Troell, 45, a native of Tennessee, was fatally shot in his car in November by assailants as he pulled up to the street where he lived in Baghdad’s central Karrada district with his family. Iranian citizen Mohammed Ali Ridha was convicted in the killing, along with four Iraqis, in what was described as a kidnapping gone wrong.
All executions have been halted following the issuance of the general amnesty law, Shwani said.
Iraq has faced criticism from human rights groups over its application of the death penalty and particularly over mass executions carried out without prior notice to lawyers or family members of the prisoners.
Shwani pushed back against the criticisms of prison conditions and of the executions.
“There are strict measures in place for any violations committed against inmates,” he said. “Many employees have been referred for investigation, dismissed, and prosecuted.”
He insisted that the “number of executions carried out is limited — not as high as reported in the media” and said the death penalty is only applied in “crimes that severely threaten national security and public safety,” including inmates convicted in a 2016 bombing attack in Baghdad’s Karrada district that killed hundreds of people, as well as cases of child rape and high-ranking Daesh leaders.
Executions have been paused to reassess cases under the new amnesty law, he said.