Your Highness Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa
Crown Prince, Commander- in-Chief of the BDF
Your Highnesses, Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Peace be upon you
I would like to start with extending my deepest thanks and appreciation to His Highness Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa for honouring me with his kind invitation to attend this important forum.
Your Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is our destiny to live in this very important region for the whole world which possesses most of the world oil reserve, in addition to its political and geographical location as a significant link between East and West. In a world where all barriers no longer exist it became like a small village thanks to the revolution of communication and media.
In Iraq, we found ourselves amidst a media storm during events which were broadcast live to the whole world and to the people of Iraq. In many times media dealt with these events in a way that jeopardised the unity and solidarity of the Iraqi Society.
We currently face unstable and difficult conditions and work hard to activate the political process to be truly open for all the Iraqis and to get rid of the outcome of the abnormal conditions and first of all terrorism, enemy of the humanity, then the influence of regional states, etc. In addition to the heavy heritage which we have inherited from former regime as well as the outcome of the occupation period and mistakes committed. There was also injustice towards certain segments and ethnic groups by the former regime, but now there is injustice to all segments and groups. Middle class, the basis of the society is vanishing, as well as the immigration of doctors and engineers and other technocrats, in addition to those who immigrated during the era of the former regime. We have multi-national forces, and we are still in need for those forces provided that we should reach an agreement to regulate their work, in order to avoid any negative effects on the performance of our government and sentiments of our people. We have the armed forces and security bodies that should be activated and built in a sound professional manner in order not to be just a continuation of the parties and militias of the past. This would also enable us to avoid dependency on multi national forces. Frankly speaking, what happened during the past two years was just building of influence of certain characters and political entities but not building of a state. Perhaps the very short periods of time including the temporary six months, the transitional six months and the other three months for writing down the Constitution were the reason behind not having enough time for the maturity of the political forum and emergence of entities based on national concepts according to political principles, visions and initiatives.
We hope that next elections on 15th December would create a balanced parliament and that the 4 years period would be enough to activate the political momentum of the political process.
Dear brothers,
We think that each state should try to develop itself and its political and economic life according to its own standards and to ensure the human right in a decent life and respect of citizens opinions and will.
If we want a good example to follow, we should take Bahrain as our guide for the real political and social reform adopted by His Majesty the King Shaikh Hamad bin Esa Al Khalifa. Such courageous initiatives in addition to a well studied and planned economic programmes would make the state stronger. Democracy is the product of the practices of communities which live in a strong state according to the standards mentioned above. It is not the product of a strong army or security bodies.
In conclusion, I hope that this meeting would be beneficial for our region and our communities in order to boost integration among civilizations and international peace.
