The Iraqi government has revoked the license of the Saudi-owned MBC television channel in the country and ordered the broadcaster to close its bureau in Baghdad after it aired a report disrespectful to prominent figures of resistance groups in the region.
“All necessary legal measures have been taken and the channel’s operations in Iraq are suspended,” the commission announced in a statement.
The MBC report clubbed the Axis of Resistance - Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian Hamas, Yemen’s Ansarullah and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – and their leaders with terrorists like Osama bin Laden.
Named in the report were Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in an Israeli strike on southern Beirut last month, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran in late July.
It also cited Haniyeh’s successor Yahya Sinwar, who organized Operation Al-Aqsa Flood (Storm) inside southern Israeli-occupied territories on October 7 last year.
The report broadcast by the Saudi television channel referred to the martyred commanders and leaders of the Axis of Resistance as "terrorists".