Address by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, National Security Adviser, Iraq

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you John, thank you very much,

 

[Salutation in Arabic]

 

At the outset I need to pay my respects and thanks to The Kingdom of Bahrain and to the IISS for organising this very successful debate. We started with Iraq, we continued with Iraq and we finish with Iraq. But let me start to the drawing board, by going back to the drawing board, which is what happened in Iraq in 2003.

 

Ladies and gentlemen it was not a coup d’etat, it was not change of regime, it was not a revolution, it was a paradigm shift from the old order of one thousand years to a new order. It has changed even the geopolitics. Some people thought that even it has changed the rivers and mountains of Iraq. It was total departure from the old past, the ossified, calcified religious supremacy, the old aggressive regime, to a new completely different set of rules. That’s why we, in the Government of Iraq, we the Iraqis, would like to ask you to exercise strategic patience for this paradigm shift, to take its own course and its own time. We paid heavily in treasure, in blood, in tears and in sweat and we’re more than happy to pay more to maintain our liberty and freedom and democracy.

 

What happened in 2003 was loss of identity because of the, we were shocked and awed. The identity which was forced and rammed down our throats for decades, now we need some time to retreat to our own corners and think of an identity. Who do we belong to? Probably we’ll discover that we belong to the GCC. But that will be done voluntarily.

 

The threats to our national security in Iraq, the immediate threats is al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sunna and the Takfiris. But they are incompatible with the normal living. I mean, Iraq is a very urbanised, very civilised society. They are no, incompatible (sic). This is the immediate threat. But the long-term threat is the resurgence of the former regime elements, because they have an alternative vision to fight for, and they have the experience, they have the connection and they have the funding. And also the rogue element of the militia, with the organised criminals as well.

 

But having said that I notice that there are, people are saying there are bad news from Iraq. I can tell you there are hundreds and thousands of good news from Iraq, in the economy, in politics. And even in security. Do you know that more than 80% of the country is secure and stable? I’m sure you know that hundreds and thousands of people they go to their work every day. Hundreds of thousands of people; they go to farms, their farms, to factories, to their offices, to their businesses – normal life. The violence is localised in North-west of Baghdad and in South-west of Diyala Province. So it is in a very localised area. But unfortunately good news does not make the news at all.

 

There are a lot of news not only in security and economy, we know that if we compare the standard of living of Iraq, an ordinary Iraqi, three years ago to now, seven or eight times the purchasing power of an ordinary Iraqi has gone up. And on political side, we finish the political process where there were three elections, and a constitution, and a constitutionally elected government, parliamentary system. So we have a democratic federal country now. If you look – you don’t need to look hard – if you look there are so many good news coming from Iraq.

 

I wanted to move on to the nature of the, of the conflict. The nature of the conflict, because some people say ‘Who’s the enemy?’, the nature of the conflict is – I am probably oversimplifying – but it is the competition between three communities competing for political gain or for political power and economic gain. That’s in summary. Or you can look at it as a fight. It’s not a fight between Shia and Sunnis, it’s a fight between the extreme Shia and the extreme Sunnis. So it’s a fight between the moderates and the extremists.

 

Probably some people ask why I was a little bit hard on our regional countries. We should ask why the regional countries is fuelling violence in Iraq. Are they frightened of the Americans’ military presence? I don’t think that this is entirely true, because a lot of them have already US troops on their territory. So are they frightened of democracy in Iraq? Partly true. Or are they frightened of the majority rule in Iraq? The total departure, that’s what they are afraid of: the total departure from the old order to the new order of majoritarial (sic) rule. The regional role in the violence in Iraq can be financial funding, religious justification with the fatwas of Takfiris – these are infidel upstarts (sic), hypocrites or whatever, [indistinguishable]. Fatwas everywhere. Political media or political conferences in some of the regional countries, and also media campaign against democracy in Iraq. Every single word in some of these al-Qaeda television – I will not name anyone, but I’ll call them al-Qaeda television channels – every single word can convert to a bullet and a mortar shell to our people, or a suicide vest, or a car bomb. Believe me.

 

They also, the regional countries, they supply manpower to the insurgency and terrorism in Iraq, and logistical support. For all these, and they blame the Iraqi Government for not controlling the security file, for the security situation in Iraq. But we would like to ask: Who was and who is in charge of the security in Iraq over the last three years? The answer to the question is the coalition, is the multinational forces. How can the Iraqi government be blamed for something they’re not authorised to do? And they’re responsible? You held them responsible for something they’re not authorised to do?

 

But thanks goodness we have agreed with the coalition for acceleration of assuming of command, control of the commands of ten Iraqi Army divisions in the spring; and the transfer of authority of the non-security ministries when they reach the self-reliance by middle of – by summer of – next year, they will also move to the Iraqi control; and 18 provinces will move by the fall of next year. So we will be in the driving seat, fully in the driving seat, behind the driving seat, by the fall – well before the end of next year and hopefully by summer of next year we will be in the lead. Now we’re moving from the, from supporting to be the lead, and the multinational forces to be supporting us.

 

People ask about the, what is the view of Iraq and the Government of Iraq on Baker-Hamilton. I, with all due respect to the great brains, ten brains there, I believe it was preceded by a huge marketing campaign, and I applaud the marketing industry in the US. What they say in Arabic, the elephant gave birth to a mouse? There are good ideas – I don’t want to underestimate the Report – there are good ideas in the Report we agree with. The change of mission we agree with, the change of mission from combating to supporting. And this we have been asking for – equipping; please accelerate the training of the Iraqi security forces by equipping, arming, training, supporting. And this is going to be, inshallah, by the spring next year. They’re asking for regional diplomacy. We’ve already been very active with our neighbours, very active. President Talabani has visited Iran several times, a lot of officials, Minister Zebari received the Syrian Foreign Minister recently. So we are engaged with our neighbours. Our neighbours, or the US, the US government has a problem with our neighbours. So I think they have to make a decision, and they have to be prepared to pay the price.

 

There are in the Report, in the Baker-Hamilton Report, there are half-, there are some of the recommendations which I call half-baked recommendations. Like international involvement; or the conference like UN trying to help in rewriting the constitution; like the Kirkuk issue; and so on and so forth. I would like to say something to those people who are in the US, who advocate cut-and-run. I would like to ask them what would be the perception of the world of the only hyper-power in the world, or the mightiest army in the world, pull out under duress or under pressure? What would be the effect of the cut-and-run on the moral boosting, on the psychological boosting, on the, on al-Qaeda, on Ansar al-Sunna and the like? This is, they’re already claiming victory on Baker-Hamilton Report.

 

The way forward, ladies and gentlemen is, in Iraq – this Government, Maliki Government is called the National Unity Government. The central programme, the central theme of this Government is the national reconciliation. And the national reconciliation is composed of constitutional review; of reaching out aggressively to the insurgents, and get them and include them in the political process; agreeing on hydrocarbons law and make it unifying law, not divisive law, by sharing the national revenue; reviewing of the de-Ba’athification, and the old-army personnel and officers need to be looked at and probably given a pension. The procedures of federalism as well need to be looked at properly, and we have to really seriously consider general amnesty.

 

On the regional conference, people are wondering what is the view of the Government of Iraq on the regional conference. We in the Government of Iraq have an initiative, a programme, a plan, and this is an Iraqi initiative we want to sell, if you like, to the regional countries. Those who want to subscribe to the Iraqi initiative – and if everybody in the region subscribe to this then we call, we the Iraqi Government will call for and invite people for the regional conference. What is our initiative? Our initiative is the unity of Iraq is sacred for us. No return or political, on the political process or constitutional democracy. Democracy is here to stay and that’s it. There is no trade-off with democracy and stability. Support of the national reconciliation and dialogue programme of the Prime Minister Maliki, that’s what we are asking the regional countries to do, and support to the National Unity Government, continue and completing the political process by including more in the government, and also regional support towards the security and stability of Iraq. We will talk to these countries individually and then we invite them collectively. That’s the Iraqi initiative.

 

We, as I said, the Iraqi Government has absolutely no problem in engaging with our neighbours. We have a lot of engagement with Iran and recently with Syria as well. But we don’t want to muddle the issue. We have already too much on our plate. We do not want to link the Iraqi security to Lebanon, Palestine or any part in the world. This is an isolated case, need to be treated on its own merits.

 

We fully realise that there is no military solution to the problem in Iraq and we realise that we do not have unlimited time to deal with the security issue in Iraq. But we need first the authority to deal with it. You can’t ask us to deal with things when we’re shackled.

 

As I said the way forward is reconciliation, but reconciliation on three levels. One is the national level, and that national level we have already had three important conferences – tribal sheikhs conference, religious leaders conference and NGOs leaders conference in Baghdad. And also we have a Makkah conference as well. But we’re going to have a very important conference during this month, before Christmas, and that is a political leaders, and some of those people who were rejecting the political process are going to take part in this. That’s going to be an important meeting.

 

Also we need regional reconciliation, if you like. The Iraqi regional diplomacy is in full steer and the Foreign Minister is going around in the region and the world. We need also a regional security pact. And that is, has to be against terrorism. Everybody should agree that our first enemy is terrorism – global terror. And also internationally, international, and we should not make this American project in Iraq – should be European project, should be international project. It should be an international community project, rather than an American project. And for those who wanted to settle a score with the USG then they will have a go at Iraq. This is very unfair.

 

Our international engagement is through the international compact for Iraq and through other conferences and meetings. The way forward, ladies and gentlemen, is to enhance, speed up, accelerate the process of training and equipping and arming the Iraqi security forces and transfer the authority, the control, the command control of the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Police, and Iraqi Provinces, to the Iraqis. This is the only way which will speed the departure of the coalition forces.

 

My last message is this. If there is anything I wanted to leave with you is this. If we don’t quickly join forces to fight and control the growing threat of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Takfiris in Iraq, it will spread like Hell. Not only to Saudi or to the GCC countries, but also to Syria and Iran and even further apart. If we do not help Iraq to constrain and control the sectarian violence it will land on our doorstep, on the doorstep of Saudi, Bahrain and other GCC countries, and it will go even further out, to Pakistan and India.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your kind attention

 

ENDS.