The story: Iraq’s parliament has voted to criminalize any form of normalization with Israel, threatening the worst offenders with life imprisonment or the death penalty. The law has been condemned by Israel and the US while most Iraqi politicians in Baghdad and Iran have welcomed it. Meanwhile, amid cautious silence so far in Erbil, Shiite factions close to Tehran appear to be using the law to approach their Shiite rivals in the Sadrist Movement.

The details of the law: Iraq’s National News Agency (INA) reported on May 26 that the parliament in Baghdad “unanimously voted” on the “draft law to criminalize the normalization of ties with the Zionist regime.”

• The law imposes a “prohibition on establishing diplomatic, political, military, economic, cultural or any form of ties” with Israel. “Normalization” is defined as “as any act that would achieve any form of engagement, whether directly or indirectly, with the aim of establishing relations with the Zionist entity...