Iraqi demonstrators storm Bahraini embassy to protest US-sponsored workshop

BAGHDAD - Angry protesters on Thursday broke into the Bahrain Embassy in Baghdad and brought down the Bahraini flag, protesting the US-sponsored conference in Bahrain aimed at promoting US peace plan named "Deal of the Century."

Dozens of the protesters raised Palestinian and Iraqi flags and broke into the embassy in western neighborhood of Mansour in Baghdad and burned the Israeli flag, expressing their rejection to the so-called "Peace to Prosperity" workshop in Manama, held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Many demonstrators chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and Bahrain, and I saw five men climbed to the roof of the embassy, dropped the Bahraini flag and then waved Iraqi and Palestinian flags," Sayf Ahmed Jabbar, a protester in front of the embassy, told Xinhua.

Later on, Iraqi security forces arrived at the scene and took control of the situation after they cordoned off the embassy building and blocked the roads leading to the site.

In Manama conference, the attendees discussed what the United States has described as the financial component of its plan to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The two-day event, which is led by Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, is boycotted by the Palestinian leadership.

Palestinian leaders said the gathering circumvents a political settlement based on a two-state solution, describing it as an attempt by US administration and some Middle East allies to liquidate the Palestinian cause.