Baghdad: The Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Industry, and Trade announced on Saturday that it has collected signatures to request a reassessment of the draft law on ratifying the afforestation and mutual investment protection agreement between the Republic of Iraq and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The committee also called on the Parliament’s Presidency to postpone the vote on the agreement and return it to the Council of Ministers for official approval before presenting it to Parliament.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, in a joint press conference, Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Yasser Al-Husseini, stated that ‘this agreement was neither discussed nor presented to the committee, and our opinion was never sought.’ He added that the committee gathered signatures requesting workshops with legal and economic experts, as well as representatives from relevant government bodies, to assess whether the agreement should be passed, amended, or rejected.

For his part, MP Saud Al-Saadi highlighted procedural issues, noting that ‘the Foreign Relations Committee failed to send a copy of the draft law or its report to MPs at least two days prior to the session, as required by the internal parliamentary rules.’

Al-Saadi further explained that ‘Article 9, Annex A, of the agreement grants excessive facilities to the Saudi side regarding expropriation of land and projects in Iraq, which contradicts Iraq’s Expropriation Law No. 12 of 1981 (as amended), and other applicable laws.’

He also pointed out that ‘Article 11 of the agreement includes broad exemptions and permissions for unrestricted financial transfers to Saudi Arabia under the guise of investment, while Article 13 allows for disputes to be referred to the Arab Court of Arbitration or international arbitration, which could undermine national interests.’

Al-Saadi stressed the importance of stipulating that any disputes related to the agreement be handled by Iraqi courts first before resorting to regional or international arbitration.

He concluded by noting that ‘this agreement has not received the approval of the current Council of Ministers, as the draft law was initially referred to Parliament during the fourth legislative term in 2019, and no new government decision has since been issued confirming its alignment with the current ministerial agenda.’