Iraq is not prepared to put Dutch jihadis who fought with IS on trial, foreign minister Mohamed Ali Alhakim has told the NRC.

‘We take responsibility for our own citizens, their wives and children,’ the minister told the paper. European countries such as the Netherlands, he said, should take responsibility for their own nationals. ‘That is what we advise these countries,’ he said.

The minister also pointed out that Iraq is not allowed to try people for offences committed in countries other than Iraq.  Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok wants to see an international tribunal set up in Iraq to try foreign jihadis.

Although Iraq will try foreigners for offences committed on its soil, the country is not prepared to lift the threat of the death penalty – something the Netherlands is adamantly opposed to.

Blok’s plan, raised at the UN in New York in September, is only a discussion, Alkhakim said, even though European countries have come up with various conditions. What they are saying, he told the paper, is “you put them on trial and you keep them in your prisons”.

Alkhakim was in the Netherlands for two days of talks on Dutch Iraq relations.