(Reuters) – Iraq said early on Thursday it would summon the United States ambassador over remarks made by a U.S. State Department spokesperson about the removal of the Christian church head in Iraq.
Citing a presidency statement, Iraqi state media said the ambassador would be summoned on the back of comments made by State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller against the Iraqi government.
On Tuesday, Miller criticised a decision by Iraq’s president to revoke a decree recognizing Cardinal Louis Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, as head of the Christian Church in the country.
“I will say we are disturbed by the harassment of Cardinal Sako … and troubled by the news that he has left Baghdad,” Miller told a press briefing.
“We look forward to his safe return. The Iraqi Christian community is a vital part of Iraq’s identity and a central part of Iraq’s history of diversity and tolerance.”
(Reporting by Hatem Maher; Editing by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates)
