The Iraqi Council of Representatives on Wednesday held the first reading of a draft law banning the normalisation of ties with Israel. The bill, which threatens the death penalty or life imprisonment for calling for normalisation, aims to stamp out future efforts for Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan region to formalise ties with Israel. According to the bill, which was published by Iraq’s state media in Arabic, all Iraqi officials, including those in the northern Kurdistan region, government institutions, private sector companies and the media are banned from establishing relations with Israel or …