- The Egyptian, Iraqi, Jordanian agreements establish a new economic project similar to the European Union, and our doors are open to those wishing to join the new alliance.
Iraq is now leaving the recovery room and needs support and benefit from the experiences of Egypt and Jordan
- All countries are now looking for an opportunity for peace, development, and the instability of the region, something that bothers everyone
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi affirmed that the instability of the region has become a matter that disturbs everyone, and the future has become indicative of Egyptian-Turkish understandings, and Iraq has had a very important role in bridging the point of view, and we have always protected and supported the Egyptian front, and we are working to calm in many files in the region. He expressed his belief that it is in the interest of all parties to dialogue and calm, and to return to the dialogue table in order to search for better opportunities for the future, expressing his optimism about this, and that it is possible for us to have a new bright spot, the nucleus of which will be Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.
Al-Kazemi pointed out that the facts say that the world has changed, and we have leaders in the region, who possess a lot of courage, wisdom and patience, and are looking for opportunities to build their countries, pointing out that the Egyptian experience is the best example, as Egypt has gone through difficult circumstances in the last five or six years, but with wisdom. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has succeeded in sending strong messages, and inspired by that experience, I say that we are able to send strong messages to the peoples of the region, according to which dialogue and economic integration is the solution, for countries suffering from economic crises and civil wars, and the truth is that we no longer have a choice but opportunities. Dialogue, encounter and peace.
Regarding Al-Kazemi's statements regarding Iraq's inspiration of the spirit of the Egyptian experience, and the features that can be conveyed from that experience, especially in the file of reform, Al-Kazemi explained in an interview with Al-Ahram newspaper that the conditions of Iraq in the recent period are similar to those of Egypt, and that Egypt has succeeded in fighting corruption. Reducing the Egyptian citizen's dependence on the state, by relying on the private sector, and Egypt has achieved great success in providing education and in the reconstruction file, despite the difficult economic conditions, but with wisdom and patience it succeeded, and Iraq can benefit from Egyptian expertise and competencies in many fields.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi affirmed that the tripartite summit with Egypt and Jordan, which was postponed in the last hours, due to the painful conditions of the Upper Egypt trains accident that Egypt was subjected to, is part of the policy of the Iraqi government that is striving to restore Iraq to its pioneering role in the Arab region, after years of absence. He pointed to the great challenges that Iraq is going through, and today it plays an important role in restoring its internal, regional, Arab and international situation, after it went through difficult and complicated conditions for a long time, due to the wrong policies in the past, which unfortunately produced blood and wars, and an environment that is not Stable, and we strive with full force to treat all these effects, by providing embodied images of hope that address the Iraqi citizen.
Al-Kazemi added that since 2003, the Iraqis have lived on hope, in the demise of a dictatorial regime that dealt with the Iraqis with iron and fire. Who can forget that tragic experience that we lived in what was known as "mass graves", and who forgot the genocide that took place in the Anfal operation, Which killed 180 thousand of our people in one region, as well as thousands of our youth in prisons and executions.
"The Iraqis were waiting for the political system that emerged after 2003 to be an opportunity for hope, but this long legacy was a major reason for the instability of the country, starting with the 1975 war in Iraqi Kurdistan, then the Iraq-Iran war that lasted eight years," Al-Kazemi said. And it was a very cruel war, and then the attack on neighboring Kuwait, and the truth is that all of these wars played a big role in the collapse of the concept of Arab unity, and the national concept, especially after Saddam Hussein's invasion of a neighboring and peaceful country like Kuwait, and this invasion produced dangerous repercussions on Iraqi society. Unfair sanctions on the Iraqi people resulted in a complete breakdown of the social structure and a major breakdown of the middle class that constituted the majority of Iraqi society, before the matter ended with the US occupation of Iraq in 2003, the establishment of the new political system, and the consequent repercussions of this change.
He pointed out that the US occupation of Iraq was a major earthquake, which led to a complete collapse, not only of Saddam Hussein's regime, but of the Iraqi state, so the Iraqi army was subjected to injustice, and it was charged with the consequences of actions for which it was not responsible, and the collapse of the state produced a complex political situation, and a conflict between Political blocs looking for participation in a young democratic experience, so the conflict turned from state-building to a power struggle, which in turn produced a complex situation, which was evident in the last elections in 2018, so the elections produced results that did not create hope or succeed in spreading reassurance to the Iraqi citizen, and among its results This popular movement that began on the first of October 2019 and ended in a dangerous phase on December 25 of the same year, with the presence of many victims and martyrs of the Iraqi people, under true demands to preserve dignity and search for an opportunity for hope.
In response to a question about the most prominent challenges that the Kazemi government faces today after it came as a result of this popular movement, he said that this government really came as a result of this movement, and the search for an opportunity for hope, in a people of which young people constitute a large majority, and in a country that has a lot of wealth and goodness, but The mismanagement of these wealth was reflected in the state of the country’s management, as there was absolute dependence on oil, at the expense of excluding the private sector, agriculture, trade and the economy. Job opportunities for the Iraqi citizen became scarce, in front of the people whose annual population growth rate reached about one million people, and the percentage of graduates from The university annually has more than 250 thousand young people, all of them looking for a job opportunity, and this situation has produced a government, which is required, in agreement with the political blocs and the popular forces, to establish fair early and fair elections, and to fulfill its duty to provide the appropriate conditions, at the forefront of which is a security situation that guarantees fair and fair elections. And an economic situation that protects and provides the conditions for these elections, and we came at a time when some were betting on the failure of this government, or trying to hinder any work it does, but we took bold decisions, and we presented a set of reforms that start with the white paper, which is a piece of paper. An administrative and economic reform in the course of the Iraqi state. Iraq has not undertaken any processes to modernize its system for decades, and the reform plan included the administrative and economic sides.
"The government has succeeded, during the last short period, in providing additional reserves to the Central Bank, and within a month we managed to save four billion dollars, in addition to the above, there are continuous attempts to restore confidence to the heroic Iraqi army, which fought ISIS and fought terrorism, and has kept its identity," Al-Kazemi added. Patriotism, after Iraq was exposed during the crisis of the past years to a crack in the national identity, and unfortunately there are those who tried to take Iraq into sectarian and sectarian alignments that distract us from the concept of citizenship and the homeland. For this reason, we took a decision to strictly prohibit sectarian and sectarian classifications in the security institutions, as well as in all of our institutions.
Regarding the steps already taken by the government towards restoring the role of Iraq in its regional and international surroundings, the Prime Minister clarified that "there was a great openness for Iraq with our brothers and our people in the Arab world, as well as our brothers in the Gulf, and we have presented the new Mashreq project for integration and economic cooperation, between Iraq and Egypt under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, as well as King Abdullah II, and there was a group of meetings, and the tripartite summit will be held at the earliest time to announce the details of the project, stressing that we will work very hard to make Iraq an arena for meeting and peace, especially since some have tried to drag Iraq into an arena for regional and international disputes. , But we fought it with full force, and as a result we still suffer from the phenomenon of uncontrolled weapons, so we will work diligently towards launching an Iraqi national dialogue aimed at resolving all these problems, especially since some want this government to clash and take Iraq to the arena of confrontation and war, but we will not We allow this. We have to benefit and learn from the experience of what happened in Yemen, so I say that Iraq will never be another Yemen.
"The Iraqis have shed a lot of blood, and when you go anywhere in Baghdad, or in the beloved cities of the south, or in dear Kurdistan, you will find the martyrs a general phenomenon, so we have to look for a new Iraqi dream that establishes the concept of the state and the concept of citizenship," he said. And that the Iraqis are completely equal before the law, and I say that we have a chance to achieve this. I am optimistic about the future of Iraq because there is an elite group of educated youth who are searching for themselves and looking for an opportunity to succeed. "
On the mechanisms that Iraq has in order to achieve the project of expanded economic integration that Iraq is adopting in the region, and that it will include parts of Asia, Africa and Europe, in an experiment that may simulate the experience of the European Union, Al-Kazemi explained that Europe succeeded when it presented the economic option at the expense of politics, and we believe That if we start our project with politics, we will disagree, while the economy is close to the points of view, because it represents the interests of the people, and the integration project is the beginning or the nucleus of a large project that will be embodied by the upcoming tripartite summit between Iraq, Egypt and Jordan, indicating that the three countries have the elements of success, ranging from Between geography, wealth and the human element, which is the most important.
He stressed that we were born on the concept of Arab unity, but we used to see the Arab nation torn apart, while today, when economic interests are the main element in the strategy of cooperation, we will see that our problems are less, and I am optimistic about success. Egypt, for example, has succeeded in getting rid of difficult and complex circumstances, and we see Today in Cairo is a new administrative capital, real development, and in Jordan there are industries on a global level, and Iraq is now emerging from the recovery room because of wars, and it needs support and benefit from the experiences of Egypt and Jordan, and we will certainly succeed.
And whether it is possible for these economic understandings to include other parties in the future, to turn into a large and enlarged project, Al-Kazemi said that in the current stage we are looking for establishment, and the doors of this project are open, and the future will distinguish those who love to belong to it, stressing that our doors are definitely open to everyone. And in the future, there will be calls for other countries to join this nascent economic cooperation.
And on how to achieve the equation of openness to the outside in light of the presence of loose forces at home that are exporting a different image to Iraq, Al-Kazemi stressed that any beginning faces many problems, and we are working hard to restore the state, and we are resisting for this until the last breath, based on a policy that depends on Patience and decisiveness, and a re-evaluation of the security services, to stop these groups, and we have already taken very important measures and succeeded in them, and there is no room in Iraq now for parties that want to be outside the framework of the state.
In response to a question about the term "no field", whether he meant the language of diplomacy or the reality of polarizing the state components, Al-Kazemi clarified that loyalty should be to Iraq only, and we have already taken a series of steps and procedures that were evident in the widespread spread of the security services in Baghdad, and we will continue to Imposing the prestige of the state, and we are certainly aware that there are challenges in front of the reform paper, and that there are many obstacles, especially since the reform paper fights corruption, while Iraq suffers from a very serious corruption phenomenon, and we recently formed a committee to combat corruption, which is subjected to criticism and accusations that reach the point of transgression. In human rights, the purpose of these accusations, as everyone knows, is to discredit this committee, because it has taken measures and put some adult whales in prison now.
In response to a question about whether Iraq would be able in the event of the withdrawal of American forces to secure the Iraqi airspace, Al-Kadhimi said that Iraq does indeed need international support, but it does not need combat forces to be present on its soil, indicating that we have the Iraqi army and our security forces of all kinds. And we have the necessary preparedness to fight ISIS, and therefore we do not need American forces to fight on the land of Iraq.
He added, "We may need security coordination, and we may need air forces, but despite this we succeeded in implementing a strong campaign that included areas in southern Kirkuk, and it lasted for ten days, during which we carried out 320 sorties, which eliminated dozens of terrorists, takfiris, and ISIS militants. These flights were carried out in coordination between Iraq and the international coalition, and this coordination will continue, but without the presence of combat forces on the ground, we do not need them, and our role is to transform this relationship into an American-Iraqi interest in the security, intelligence and economic fields, in addition to the fields of education, culture and health. "
Regarding preparations for the early Iraqi elections, and whether they will actually take place before the end of this year, he said, "I was hoping that we would complete these elections as announced last year, on next June 6, but for certain circumstances I asked for a postponement for a few months, and we reached an agreement on the date of 10." Next October is the date for the elections, and we support the Election Commission with great preparations, including voter records and updating them, despite the challenges of Corona, and despite the difficult conditions to reach the farthest regions of Iraq, to encourage citizens to participate in the elections, "expressing his belief that these elections will be pivotal and important, and we need Certainly, with the participation of all Iraqis, so that we send messages of reassurance to all.
On the details of the tripartite cooperation project between Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, and whether the political will is available to actually implement it on the ground, and which projects will have priority in this cooperation, Al-Kazemi stressed that the economic files will have a leading position, whether in the fields of oil, energy and transportation, and all of them will have priority. Besides the agricultural file, the housing file, and there is real interest already from the leaders of the three countries, to partner in some projects that are being implemented on the land of Iraq, and it was already a group of Egyptian companies that arrived in Baghdad, and went to some areas to establish or choose certain areas for The implementation of this partnership, and in the housing sector, there are projects in Iraq that were suspended 16 years ago, and the Ministry of Housing will play a major role in bringing them back to life again.
Regarding the level of coordination that the talks recently reached to establish an Egyptian-Iraqi agricultural technical committee to cooperate in the field of scientific and agricultural research, Al-Kazemi confirmed that there is an investment group that the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture provided to Egyptian investors for reclamation and development, and to benefit from Egypt's experience in modern villages, and there is a working team that will arrive Baghdad will soon follow up the establishment of modern villages in agricultural areas in the south and central Iraq, and there are also consulting companies that will provide advice to the Iraqi and Egyptian team.
And whether it is possible for the land line to transport passengers between Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, to play a major role in the new economic project between the three countries, Al-Kazemi explained that we have an Egyptian-Iraqi road transport company, and an Iraqi-Jordanian one, and we are working to unify these two companies under the Iraqi Transport Company. Egyptian Jordanian, to complete the transport process, and we also have a project regarding connecting roads between the three countries.
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