Thamer Al-Sabhan.

Hashid Shaabi, a coalition of mostly Iranian-backed Shiite paramilitary groups, should leave the fight against the militants to Iraq’s Army and official security forces in order to avoid aggravating sectarian tensions, said Thamer Al-Sabhan, Saudi ambassador to Iraq. He was speaking to Iraq’s Al-Sumaira TV on Saturday.

Al-Sabhan said that the Hashid Shaabi militias are not wanted in Sunni Arab and Kurdish areas as “they are not accepted by the sons of Iraqi society.”

The ambassador’s remarks angered Iraqi Shiite lawmakers. “Interference in the Hashid Shaabi, speaking about Muqdadiya, and other issues … he must respect diplomatic customs,” said Khalid Al-Assadi, a member of Parliament’s foreign affairs panel.

The Alliance of Iraqi Forces, the main Sunni Arab bloc in Parliament, described Al-Sabhan’s remarks as “very natural.” It criticized the “political campaign” against him.

The reopening in December of the Saudi embassy in Baghdad, closed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait, was seen as heralding closer cooperation in the fight against Daesh.

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