Iraq summons Saudi envoy over comments on Iran-backed militias
Iraq summoned the new Saudi ambassador on Sunday after he suggested Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias were exacerbating sectarian tensions and should leave the fight against Islamic State to the Iraqi army and official security forces. Baghdad's move underscores the depth of enmity between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim powers as sectarian conflicts rage in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. […]Iraq summoned the new Saudi ambassador on Sunday after he suggested Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias were exacerbating sectarian tensions and should leave the fight against Islamic State to the Iraqi army and official security forces. Baghdad's move underscores the depth of enmity between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim powers as sectarian conflicts rage in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. Riyadh only reopened its embassy in Baghdad last month, shut down since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
In an interview with Iraq's al-Sumaria TV on Saturday, Saudi envoy Thamer al-Sabhan criticized the Hashid Shaabi, a coalition of mostly Iranian-backed Shi'ite paramilitary groups seen as a bulwark against the Sunni militants of Islamic State whose rise has inflamed sectarian tensions in Shi'ite-majority Iraq.
