Posted By Joshua Keating Share

Iraq's cabinet has announced that it plans to ban smoking in all public places, the first such law in the Middle East:
The stance is particularly aggressive — and perhaps unenforceable — especially in a nation where cigarettes sell for as little as 40 cents a pack and smoking in public areas and workplaces is widespread. But it coincides with the government’s attempts to improve living conditions here, like Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s order on Wednesday to remove blast walls from most of Baghdad within 40 days.
Given what else is on their plate, I would hope that Iraqi police won't be devoting a whole of their time to enforcing this. 
 

FP REDER

9:52 PM ET

August 7, 2009

"the first such law in the

"the first such law in the Middle East"
Wrong - Israel and Jordan banned smoking in public places. Surely they constitute part of the Middle East.

 

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