Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush offers 'gift' to anyone doing same with Biden

Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi who gained fame for hurling his shoes at then-US president George W. Bush in a news conference, has offered "a gift" for anyone who does the same with President Joe Biden.

"Any journalist who throws a shoe at him [Biden], I will give him a gift," al Zaidi wrote on X on Wednesday.

Al Zaidi was responding to a tweet asking where he is and that his famous action is needed again.

"Where's the man [al Zaidi] with the shoes? We need him more than ever," an X account asked, to which al Zaidi responded with his gift tweet.

In Arab culture, exposing the sole of a shoe to a person is a sign of disrespect. Tossing a shoe at someone is considered even more offensive.

Tempers soared across the Muslim world on Wednesday after Biden let Israel off the hook following the latter's strike on a Gaza hospital which killed nearly 500 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others.

Biden, who delivered a full-fledged US backing for Israel in person during a solidarity visit to Tel Aviv, added to the fury visible on the streets of many countries since Israel began bombarding civilians in the tiny Palestinian enclave.

US invasion of Iraq

One of the main reasons for the US invasion of Iraq was the false claim that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction [WMDs].

A few years after the invasion, Bush admitted there were no WMDs in the Arab country.

Researchers estimate that nearly a half-million people were killed or died from causes directly attributable to the war in Iraq from 2003 through 2011.

Bush was never charged with anything.

"I wish we had found the weapons of mass destruction," he told CNN in an interview in 2010.

Zaidi served six months in jail for hurling his shoes at Bush.

He left for Lebanon after his release and went back to Iraq to run for a parliament seat, but lost.