Alwaght- The Saudi regime has been compelled to deny that the kingdom's de facto leader Mohammad bin Salman planned to visit Iraq following protests by thousands of irate Iraqis demanding the cancellation of the planned visit.
Following the protests, the Saudi Foreign Ministry denied on Saturday media reports of a scheduled visit of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Iraq, Saudi Press Agency reported.
On Friday, thousands of Iraqis have staged a protest rally in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad to voice their opposition to the earlier announced visit by Bin Salman.
Protesters gathered in Baghdad after the weekly Friday prayers, carrying signs calling bin Salman a war criminal and accusing Saudi Arabia of supporting ISIS and al-Qaeda Takfiri terrorists in their country.
The rally was organized by the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, which is one of the groups that fought against ISIS.
According to the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the Saudi crown prince plans to visit Iraq in the near future, but no date has been set yet.
The Saudi crown prince is already on a trip to the US during which he has met the leaders of a number of pro-Israeli lobbying groups as the kingdom is moving towards normalization of diplomatic relations with the Israeli regime.
In April 2017, Abadi said that “every Iraqi citizen has a right to believe that Saudi Arabia is a supporter of terrorism."
Abadi visited Riyadh in June last year after diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored in 2016.
