The Committee of Foreign Relations in the Iraqi Council of Representatives revealed Thursday that the United Arab Emirates has deported 436 Iraqis, most of them Shias. This decision will bring about dangerous repercussions on the safety of the region.
A the secretary of the committee, Representative Iqbal Abdel-Hussein, said at a media conference held by the Council of Representatives that “The committee has received a report from the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Relations about the deportation of a number of Iraqis from the UAE – 216 citizens in 2015, and 220 other citizens in the past 2 months.”
Abd Al-Hussein added: “Upon checking the names of the deported, it appears that most of them were from a specific sect.”
He continued, “It’s both surprised and angered us, having dangerous repercussions for the safety of the region, it promotes disunity at the time where the greatest need is for us to focus on facing the common enemies of terrorism and ISIS.”
What the Iraqi Committee has released comes with the recent announcement of the GCC (of which the UAE is a part of) last Wednesday that it considers the Lebanese Hezbollah (which has many branches and factions, including one in Iraq) to be a "terrorist organization", calling for taking steps against [Hezbollah] as a result of “the Shia party’s continuing hostile acts”. The Arab Interior Ministers, after several hours, made the same decision, angering Iraq and Lebanon.
