BAGHDAD, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Iraq on Saturday rejected the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and confirmed its commitment not to establish relations with Israel.
"We reaffirm that Iraq's position on the Palestinian issue is the same as our principled and historical position of rejecting the Israeli occupation of the Arab land," the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"We do not establish any relations with the occupying state, and are committed to the principle of boycott, not to abandon the rejection of all forms of normalization with this entity (Israel)," it added.
The ministry statement came in response to a circulated video in which Fareed Yasseen, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States, said that "there are objective reasons that might lead to the development of relations between Iraq and Israel."
After the ambassador's statement, the Iraqi parliamentary foreign relations committee called on the Foreign Ministry to "ensure the statements of its employees and representatives in the Iraqi diplomatic missions are in line with the foreign policy of the government."
