Al Maliki Saved Us the Trouble of a Reply

Author: Tariq Alhomayed
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat
Date: 2009-04-27

Iraqi President Nuri Al Maliki has had enough of the taxing rebuttals stemming from of the barrage of insults, defamations, and accusations of treachery after we disapproved of the threatening manner that he used against the so-called "neighboring countries." Last week in front of a tribal gathering in Baghdad President Al Maliki addressed these "neighboring countries" saying "[you must] stop those that cause harm to Iraq until Iraq no longer needs to defend itself."

However the day before yesterday, Mr. Al Maliki issued a statement retracting, or correcting [his comments on] the neighboring countries, in which he said "We are keen to strengthen our relations with neighboring countries, and Iraq has recently witnessed a number of countries opening their embassies [in Baghdad] and announced their desire to participate in the process of reconstruction and development." Al Maliki added that Iraq's policy "is to increase positive relations with all nations, and work to solve the problems caused by the previous regime, establishing good relations with them [the nations] on the basis of common interests."

This is what is required, and hoped for, and is the difference between Iraq today and Iraq under the previous regime, for threatening language does not move anything forward or change anybody's position, it only serves to make things more complicated.

The machinery of insults that were issued last week on known websites commenting on my previous article "Al Maliki: Who are These Neighboring Countries" were fueled by sectarianism and extremism, and were not in the language of reason and [did not] understand the common interests between the countries in the region.

Safeguarding Baghdad is in the interest of all the surrounding countries that do not have ambitious designs on the lands of Mesopotamia. It is not reasonable for the surrounding Arab countries to mobilize their entire capabilities – specifically the Gulf states- in order to combat terrorism, which has cost them much economically, politically and with regards to security, while allowing terrorism [to continue] in Iraq. For if your neighbor has settled down [and is in safety], then you too are in safety. This is the logic of the Arab states that are eager for Arab solidarity and pursue reconciliation with Iraq to ensure that Iraq does not become a marginal or divided state that exports terrorism and problems.

Mr. Al Maliki's statement is important and should be respected because politics is the language of logic and [mutual] interests, not the language of threats, and Iraq is an Arab country no matter what is said. The significance of Iraq does not lie in any one [single] sect; but rather in its Sunni, Shiite, Kurdish, and Christian communities, indeed in every single Iraqi citizen regardless of religion.

There is no doubt that there are some outstanding problems between Iraq and many of its surrounding countries, but more important than this is that there is communication [between them] for the sake of building trust between all parties for problem solving is based upon [mutual] respect, and aims at safeguarding our region. If this occurs, and in the spirit of Mr. Al Maliki's statement, we can be certain that the threat is behind us, and that as Mr. Al Maliki said in his statement, that Iraq "is working to solve the problems caused by the previous regime."

As for those that rushed to insult and accuse, we say to them, would that your jealousy of Iraq be the size of your jealousy of Iran.

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Who is Responsible for the Safety of Iraq?

Author: Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat
Date: 2009-04-26

There is serious concern regarding the return of violence in Iraq. Last Thursday, two explosions shook Iraq and 180 people were killed and injured. One of the bombings targeted civilians whilst the other was carried out by a female suicide bomber who killed ten policemen who were distributing aid to displaced families in south-east Baghdad. It is as if the incidents of the past are repeating themselves only less frequently.

It is assumed that the years of bloodshed since 2004 have taught the Iraqis some basic facts, enough to counter the renewal of the plot to set Iraq alight once more. The Iraqis have realised that the majority of bombings are carried out against civilians rather than military bodies, whether American or Iraqi; this contradicts the claim that it is resistance. Many of these explosions sought to cause sectarian violence by targeting Sunni mosques and Shia Husseiniyas. They would be followed by statements and recordings that openly call for sectarian war. Moreover, a number of those who were arrested gave a clear picture of the nature of terrorism, arguing that it not like how the Arab media portrays it - as insurgence and national resistance - and evidence of this is the fact that the most violent insurgents were [non-Iraqi] Arabs and non-Arabs. Furthermore, weapons and explosives were brought into Iraq from abroad in an organized manner, which indicated that regional governments had a hand in this procedure.

At a later stage, through political interaction and commitment of these governments to cooperate regarding security, the violence came to an abrupt stop. Moreover, information revealed that most of the activists abroad - Iraqis in opposition who were involved in terror acts - were actually linked to foreign parties. In short, many of the incidents that occurred in Iraq were not acts of innocent resistance. The fact of the matter is that most of the bombings have targeted Iraqi civilians, which means that the purpose of all this was to stipulate conditions upon the Americans and the new Iraqi regime in the interests of foreign powers and not for the liberation of the country.

Despite that stability in Iraq is still young and cannot be regarded as a permanent feature, a slight taste of it has served as enough to convince the Iraqis that the experience of the past four years was more of a conspiracy against the Iraqi citizen than a war against the existing regime. The Iraqi government is right to launch this ongoing campaign to convince Iraqi citizens that they will be the first to benefit from stability, and that they are primarily responsible for protecting this stability by rejecting acts of terror regardless of their opinions on other matters. The opposition in Iraq enjoy a wider margin of expression than many other Arab countries to bring about change through the media and the elections.

Iraqis, including those who live in relatively safe areas such as the Kurdish north, have learnt that stability is a necessity that must be upheld by everybody regardless of their differences regarding government, resources and territories. Chaos would only lead to prolonging the presence of foreign troops on their land and would offer regional powers the opportunity to contribute to the sabotage and disintegration of the country. The Iraqis have realized that the proposals of division, such as dividing the country based on sectarian differences, fail to unite even the people of the same sect. On the contrary, such proposals sow seeds of conflict amongst people of the same doctrine. Evidence of this is the fighting that has erupted amongst members of the Shia sect and also amongst the Sunnis.

If the years of violence fail to convince Iraqi citizens to denounce bloodshed and terrorism in all its forms then no power, no matter how great it might be, will be able to protect them.

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New Karbala Governor Calls for Return of Regions Annexed by Saddam

Author: Qassim al-Kaabi
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat
Date: 2009-04-29

Karbala

The new Governor of Karbala demanded the return of the regions that were annexed by the Saddam Hussein regime from the Karbala province to the neighboring Al-Anbar province.

Amal Al Din Al Hir, the new Governor of Karbala who belongs to the State of Law Coalition that is headed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki informed Asharq Al-Awsat that "amongst the Iraqi people, each [single] Iraqi belongs to all [Iraqi] cities, but there is a problem that we are suffering from which is the annexation of the Al-Nukhaib and Al Sahrawiyah areas to the Al-Anbar province but they were [historically] part of the Karbala province, and our demand is the return of these areas under [Iraqi] law and administrative customs. It is worth noting that these areas belonged to this province until 1974.

Al Hir added "We will make use of Article 40 of the constitution to solve this dispute, which is not a big issue, but is legal and so the decision makers will take action."
Al Hir also informed Asharq Al-Awsat that "the [Karbala] province will experience an increase in quality at all levels due to the fact that Karbala is by its nature a city of tourism, agriculture and religion.

The new Karbala Governor went on to say that "there are many plans to serve the interests of visitors [to Karbala] and we believe that the number of visitors for the forthcoming Arba'een [an important Shiite religious event] will reach 20 million, double last year's number." Al-Hir added to Asharq Al-Awsat that "we have more than 1000 hotels in Karbala, although only a few are [of these] are up to international standards."


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