Iraq Arrests 24 People for Promoting Banned Baath Party

Security forces are seen at Baghdad's Tahrir square. (dpa)
Security forces are seen at Baghdad's Tahrir square. (dpa)
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Iraq Arrests 24 People for Promoting Banned Baath Party

Security forces are seen at Baghdad's Tahrir square. (dpa)
Security forces are seen at Baghdad's Tahrir square. (dpa)

Iraq’s national security agency announced on Tuesday the arrest of 24 people for promoting the dissolved Baath party.

In a statement, the agency said it had carried out a widescale campaign in various regions after receiving accurate intelligence information about people promoting the banned party.

In Kirkuk, intelligence efforts and tips from citizens led to the arrest of 13 people for belonging to and promoting the party, it added.

The campaign also included the al-Anbar, Baghdad, Karbala and Nineveh provinces.

Eleven people were arrested in a matter of hours, continued the agency.

Some individuals had recorded videos of themselves in which they glorified the former regime, while others have been accused of putting up posters in support of the Baath in public places.

The arrests were made in line with judicial orders and the law related to the ban of the party, stressed the agency.

All the detainees have been referred to the judiciary.

The constitution banned former ruler Saddam Hussein’s Baath party in 2005 and in 2016, the parliament ratified a law that criminalizes membership in and the promotion of the party.



Israel Approves Controversial Project in West Bank

A Palestinian woman is reflected in a bulletproof window at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 28, 2025, as she arrives to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the last Friday noon prayer of Ramadan. (AFP)
A Palestinian woman is reflected in a bulletproof window at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 28, 2025, as she arrives to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the last Friday noon prayer of Ramadan. (AFP)
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Israel Approves Controversial Project in West Bank

A Palestinian woman is reflected in a bulletproof window at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 28, 2025, as she arrives to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the last Friday noon prayer of Ramadan. (AFP)
A Palestinian woman is reflected in a bulletproof window at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 28, 2025, as she arrives to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the last Friday noon prayer of Ramadan. (AFP)

The Israeli security Cabinet approved on Sunday the construction of a road for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Critics say it will open the door for Israel to annex a key area just outside Jerusalem, further undermining the feasibility of a future Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the project is meant to streamline travel for Palestinians in communities near the large Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog group, said the road will divert Palestinian traffic outside of Maaleh Adumim and the surrounding area known as E1, a tract of open land deemed essential for the territorial contiguity of a future state.

That will make it easier for Israel to annex E1, according to Hagit Ofran, a settlement expert with the group, because Israel can claim there is no disruption to Palestinian movement.

Critics say Israeli settlements and other land grabs make a contiguous future state increasingly impossible. Several roads in the West Bank are meant for use by either Israelis or Palestinians, which international rights groups say is part of an apartheid system, allegations Israel rejects.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for their future state. A two-state solution is widely seen as the only way to resolve the decades-old conflict.