The points I would like to emphasise in my deliberations are going to concentrate on Iraq and the two flanks, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the sectarian tension in the region and the United States government’s position in Iraq and in the region. I will start by saying that the people of Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia live under the same faith and are in principle, united in this season of pilgrimage. We can choose and probably change our friends, but we cannot choose or change our neighbours. Even our best friend and strategic ally, the United States, must understand this.
Our region has been tormented throughout its history by the clashes of powerful adversaries and invaders from the west and the east, from far away and from our region. The promise of this region is unlimited, because it has all the elements of culture, knowledge, resources and geographical position to be a world-dominant region. We have a choice in this region. Either a regional cooperation, or conflict. From where we sit in Baghdad, and from an Iraqi perspective, we look at the region and see the region looks like this: competition turned into conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, on the soil of Iraq.
The region looks like a conflict between the industrialised West and our resource-rich region, with all three countries embroiled in that conflict. The region looks like a decade of simmering conflict, which has kept us apart, fighting amongst ourselves rather than cooperating for the good of the region, its people and the world. The choice is ours. Either a regional reconciliation, or a regional pettiness. Conflicts within the region seem to dominate the regional environment. Reconciliation within the region means looking into the future rather than dwelling on the past. Reconciliation in the region is about finding common ground rather than settling old scores. Without a regional reconciliation, there can be no national reconciliation.
Our promise in this region is unrealised. Our gift to the world is much more than oil and its benefits. In this region, divided we will fall into schism versus Sunni-ism, but united we rise to an example of unity and benefits that can come from human diversity. The regional security is indivisible. You cannot stabilise Iraq and destabilise Iran, for example, at the same time. These Gulf countries and Iraq have identical security threats, challenges and interests. The security of the Gulf’s countries, including Iraq, is indivisible. It is one package.
One of the most serious problems we confront in Iraq is the conflicting regional interest inside Iraq. Iraq is a crossroad. It is a juncture, where the Arab Muslim world meets the non-Arab‑Muslim world.
Some of the regional countries are tempted to meddle in Iraqi internal affairs. Of course. It is natural. Weak bodies attract viruses from the outside. To overcome this obstacle, we embarked on a very successful programme of building our Iraqi security forces to reach the self-reliant status. Some of the regional countries are helping in fuelling the sectarian conflict and maintaining the political stagnation in my country. Helping even in the cessation of the political process. They can play a more positive role in encouraging the reluctant parties to join the political process, to help in the national reconciliation programme that the government started in May last year.
The government of Iraq embarked on a very successful programme of regional engagement at the beginning of this year. The results are in front of you. We believe, with Iran, we have been partially successful. We have recently observed some good measures from Iran on tightening the control along the borders and making it difficult for arms shipment to the militias. Our engagement with Syria has borne fruit. There are some good measures that the Syrians are taking to tighten the control in Damascus airport, stopping foreign terrorists from crossing the borders to Iraq. Our engagement with Saudi Arabia encouraged Saudi Arabia to apply effective measures on the flow of the Saudi young men, so-called jihadists, coming to Iraq. It has also encouraged Saudi Arabia to apply tighter control on the flow of funds coming to the jihadists in Iraq.
Our engagement also with Turkey has been extremely successful. The central government of Iraq has an excellent relationship with the government of Turkey, and Turkey has refrained from an all-out invasion to destabilise the Iraqi‑Kurdistan region. We have reached a very good conclusion with the help of our friends, the United States of America. The regional engagement of the Iraqi government with the four main neighbours – Iran, Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia – has been extremely successful over the last 12 months.
As for the GCC countries, I am not going to ask the question ‘What are the negative effects of the GCC countries staying outside Iraq’. Let me tell you the positive reasons for the GCC countries to come to Iraq. They will have more security, because the GCC countries will have better security through security cooperation and intelligence sharing with Iraq because we are fighting the same enemy. If the jihadists are going to be sequestered in Iraq, they are going to spill over to the region. Also, if they get engaged in Iraq, they will have the lion’s share of the huge economic reconstruction opportunity in the Iraqi market. If some regional countries or GCC countries continue to be imprisoned by their paranoia or scepticism of an Iranian-influenced central government of Iraq, or of a Shia-Kurd‑dominated government in Baghdad, how long is this going to last? Centuries?
What you have in Iraq is a democratic, parliamentary, constitutional system. That is what you have to accept. This struggle in our case is a very natural, political power struggle and a competition for economic interest between the three communities. The regional reconciliation has a direct impact on the national reconciliation in Iraq. It is not only that it has a direct effect on the national reconciliation in Iraq, but it has also a direct influence on the regional reconciliation within those countries which have similar demographic makeup in the region. It is extremely important to have the regional reconciliation rather than having this heightened sectarian tension in the region. The countries of the region can keep their political differences on one side, but they have to make the security issues and stability of their country a‑political and they have to de‑politicise the security issue, because we are fighting one enemy who has one politics, which is the destruction of our countries.
That is why Iraq is looking seriously to call for a regional security pact, like the good old Baghdad security pact or a NATO-style pact, with a set agenda on counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, counter-religious‑extremism and counter‑sectarianism. I think that is the way forward for this region. Otherwise we will continue in this sectarian conflict and religious extremism, if we do not join forces.
For the US in the region, I have this message: United States, unless they seriously engage with Iran and Syria, the long‑term regional security will be in doubt. It will be very doubtful. We cannot continuing playing ‘Tehran & Co versus Riyadh & Co’, otherwise we will continue suffering in this region. I think we learned the hard way. I believe the United States and Iran have learned the hard way that they have to cooperate in Iraq. Therefore it is feasible for the government of Iraq to have on one side a strategic ally, the United States of America, and on another side we have a good relationship with Iran. I believe they are not mutually exclusive.
That is why we have embarked on a strategic discussion and we have started a process of strategic partnership agreements with the United States of America. A long‑term relationship of cooperation and friendship between Iraq and the United States of America will be a great relief for all the GCC countries and all the countries in the region. This is to ensure that the strategic direction of Iraq is very clear to everybody in the region. We are heading West. This will greatly reassure and create a peaceful atmosphere, this partnership agreement. It will create a very peaceful and positive atmosphere in the Middle East region, vis-à-vis the long‑term future of Iraq. This is going to be similar to the other arrangement of the United States government, with other countries in the region.
Last year in this forum, people were talking about a down spiral and everybody was thinking Iraq was sliding into a full‑scale civil and sectarian war. The excellent work of the coalition forces and the Iraqi security forces and the awakening of the Iraqi people in the western provinces brought a huge reduction in violence in Baghdad and in the provinces. More than 70% of the violence we were talking about last year at this time has gone – the level of violence now in Baghdad, more than any other, and the level of violence in any other metropolitan capital in the world. Most of the violence in Baghdad now is not politically or religiously motivated. They are mostly organised criminal gangs, either with financial or a common, ordinary, criminal motivation.
There are two reasons for the insurgents to give up fighting and join a political process. One, they have realised that they could not win through force. Second, which we have provided, is an honourable exit and a peaceful way of coming back to the national fold and the national reconciliation process and the political process in Iraq. This government is called the National Unity Government. It started a very aggressive national reconciliation programme in May last year. We started from the bottom down, a process through conferences and through political inclusion and a free media campaign. Three or four months ago we started a ground-up process, a grassroots reconciliation process, through tribal awakening, Iraqi security volunteers and concerned local citizens and recruiting thousands of former Iraqi army officers into the new army. We are considering seriously an amnesty and immunity law. We have also just read, for the second time in the Council of Representatives, the justice and accountability law formerly known as the ‘debaathification law’.
There is a very serious and healthy discussion on hydrocarbons and revenue sharing, but we are implementing through an executive director and prime minister, most of the articles in this law although they are pending ratification by the Council of Representatives.
My last message for you, and the one I would like to leave with you, is this: from the old, autocratic regime to a new order in Iraq, it was a paradigm shift. The good thing about it is that we are now on the irreversible track to democracy. There is no coming back from democracy. But we are on the last mile of this world-record marathon toward the rebirth of our nation, all thanks to the sacrifices of the Iraqi people and the sacrifices of the coalition forces. I thank you very much for listening.
