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Prominent Sunni and Shiite leaders on Friday openly called for peace with Israel, Channel 12 News reported.

At a conference held in the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the leaders and former generals in the Iraqi army demanded that Iraq join the US-brokered "Abraham Accords", which were signed last year between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The conference, which was broadcast live on several social media networks, featured, among others, Chemi Peres, the son of the late President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who spoke in Hebrew about the need for peace.

The emphasis at the conference was on the contribution of Iraqi Jews to the government and culture of Iraq and on the need to maintain ties with them as Israeli citizens.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid welcomed the precedent-setting initiative.

"From the day this government took office, our goal is to expand the Abraham Accords. The event in Iraq inspires hope for places we have not thought of before," he said, adding that Israel and Iraq have "a common history and roots in the Jewish community" and that "wherever they reach out to us, we will do everything to reach back."

While the Abraham Accords were an initiative of former US President Donald Trump, they have been backed by the Biden administration as well.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said shortly after he took office that the Biden administration supports the Abraham Accords.

A later report indicated that the Biden administration is laying the groundwork for a renewed push to encourage more Arab countries to sign accords with Israel, in a rare carryover of a signature Trump administration policy by and other Democrats.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)