By Xinhua
Baghdad : The Iraqi parliament passed Tuesday a bill to slightly change the nation’s flag temporarily, to meet demands from the Kurdish minority who threatened to ban Saddam Hussein’s flag during a pan-Arab meeting in Arbil next month.
The approval for the new flag came by majority after 110 out of165 parliament members approved the flag change.
The colors of the new flag, which will be expired in one year, are still red, white and black, but the three green stars which represent the objectives of Saddam’s Baath party: unity, freedom and socialism, will be removed.
The Arabic words “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greater), which have been added by Saddam Hussein’s handwriting after his army invaded Kuwait in 1990, will remain but with different calligraphy.
The measure came as debate over the flag during Saddam’s era stepped up after the Kurdish regional leader Massoud Barzani previously said that his autonomous region would not let Saddam’s national flag to hoist over his government buildings unless being changed.
The new flag will be hoisted over the government buildings all over Iraq starting from the day of its approval as the Kurdish city of Arbil, 350 km north of Baghdad, is prepared to host the meeting of Arab parliamentarians early in February.
The Kurds rejected the flag under Saddam as they said it remind them with the cruelty of Saddam’s army campaigns that killed thousands of them during the operations of Anfal in 1980s.