International support for Iraq is conditional on deterring militias

Iraqi officials travel around the world, seeking financial, economic, military and political support, after the corrupt emptied the state’s treasury, the militants exhausted its forces, and the politicians tore it apart, and at the same time they said that they wanted "balanced relations" with the countries of the whole world, and to spare Iraq from being an arena for settling scores between Iran and the United States. .

But Iran, which is internationally besieged, continues to violate the sovereignty of Iraq and push its militia to strike Iraqi, American and Western interests and to use the land of Iraq to attack regional countries, and at the same time it interferes in the internal affairs of Iraq, and uses its proxies to kill and kidnap Iraqi activists, who are against Iranian subordination, who demand a modern democratic state, and control With everything in Iraq through its open and secret agents

Is it actually possible to establish "normal and balanced" relations with such a state? Can the world continue to support Iraq at a time when the Iraqi government is silent about this Iranian disregard for Iraq's interests and sovereignty? And hesitate to uncover the murderers and the corrupt and refer them to the judiciary? How can the world reassure that Iraq is a country that seeks stability and is serious about supporting regional and global peace and stability, if its government is silent about Iranian violations and unable to defend its interests, protect its citizens and its permissible resources, and apply its laws on its soil?

There is no doubt that there is a real international desire to help Iraq overcome its crises, especially in the United States, Britain and the European Union countries, but how can friendly countries help Iraq while its government hesitates in the face of Iranian-backed militias, which have made Iraq a totally insecure country, as no Can an Iraqi, not to mention a foreigner, be reassured of his life and money?

The government has not yet taken clear and serious steps to combat the rampant corruption in state institutions, which consumes its resources, disrupts business and exacerbates deterioration in all public facilities? Yes, there have been arrests and prosecutions of people accused of corruption, but the heads of corruption have not been held accountable, and they have not yet been charged. No one was held accountable in the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi, which exacerbated this devastation that befell Iraq, and allowed militias to control state institutions, and none of the senior officials from previous governments were held accountable. 

The international financial institutions, which are associated with the United States and Western countries in general, are calling for real and fast measures to restructure the Iraqi economy, so that it is a real economy and not a rentier one that depends only on oil revenues. Specifically, to combat political corruption, which made most Iraqis state employees, as the number of those receiving salaries from the state approached 8 million, in a country of no more than forty million, and turned the private sector into a machine for smuggling, collecting commissions and paying bribes.
 
In addition to restructuring the economy, streamlining the number of employees, encouraging the private sector, and limiting the government's work to the legal and structural organization of the economy, and to intervene only when crises arise, to remove distortions and support the poor and needy so that they can live like the rest of the people, international institutions demand to achieve security, activate the law, and establish justice that means starting Arresting murderers, kidnappers and thieves and bringing them to justice, especially those who practiced sniping and kidnapping against the protesting youth, and this is the most important demand of the Iraqi people's uprising against the corrupt political class.

Despite the increasing incidence of the Coronavirus, due to the instability in the country, the failure of government measures to curb the pandemic and the failure of people to adhere to health directives, the Iraqi uprising, which demanded real measures to reform the political system, is still continuing, and it will increase in strength and breadth if the government hesitates to disclose Killers and kidnappers and held accountable.

Corrupt political groups in Iraq insist on describing the protests as a "demand," and the truth is that they are not a demand but an uprising to reform the corrupt political system, which has corrupted the economy, spread corruption in society, undermined people's confidence in the state, and paralyzed its institutions. The protesters, on the first anniversary of the start of their uprising, are very clear in their demands, and it is not only related to the deterioration of services and the exacerbation of unemployment, which is a direct result of the failure of the ruling political class, but rather related to the corruption of the political system that forged the will of the Iraqi people and installed a group of thieves and killers of a hostile state .

On the first anniversary of the start of the uprising, the revolutionaries renew their demand and insistence on establishing a new regime that belongs to Iraq and the civilized world, a system in harmony with the international community and the developed world countries, a system that serves all Iraqis without discrimination. They want a system befitting the civilization and history of Iraq, in which the law prevails and where forgery, deception and fraud disappear, and the corrupt will be forever absent from it, and political and administrative positions are occupied by sincere and courageous people, a system in which the plunder of public money stops, and is based on the principle of putting the right person in the right place, and there is no existence It is for those who lend themselves to religion and those who claim to be virtue, and they are far from them, and in it there is no subordination to any state. Rather, the Iraqi people are the only source of authority and laws.

Saying that the protests are a "demand" is not innocent, but rather a deliberate attempt by the corrupt to throw ash in the eyes, troll in troubled waters, and delude the protesters and the rest of the Iraqis that taking temporary and cosmetic measures can silence them and keep the corrupt in their positions. So that the corrupt people know that the time of deception and deception has passed forever, and they have to learn and disappear from the lives of Iraqis who have long suffered because of them.

The Iraqi options are clear, and the transitional government cannot postpone them or evade making the urgent decisions that Iraq needs, and it must not continue to wish that the problem with Iran and its militias could disappear without taking deterrent, decisive and swift measures against the armed groups supported by Iran and pushing them to destabilize Iraq and the region. The claim that armed groups are stronger than the state will not be believed by anyone, as they cannot be criminal armed groups, outcast and rejected on the Iraqi and international levels, stronger than Iraq and its people determined to get rid of dependency and corruption, especially with the availability of international and popular support to strike these groups and eliminate them. Appeasement of the outlawed militants is not a decent option for any government, and if the current government resorts to it, it risks losing international support and popular support, and in the end it will become a prisoner of militias as the government of Abdul Mahdi was before it.

The interest of Iraq lies in strengthening relations with the international and regional community, and Iran stands in contrast to the Iraqi interest. Rather, it seeks to use Iraq in its war against the countries of the region and the international community, which demands it to stop supporting terrorism, destabilizing regional countries and developing offensive weapons and long-range missiles for use against The countries of the region, which were forced to arm and enter into international alliances to protect their interests and independence as a direct result of Iranian threats.

The United States has threatened to close its embassies in Baghdad and deal militarily with the forces that attack their forces and interests, and it is completely delusional for those who underestimate the strength of the United States or its determination to implement its decisions and protect its citizens and interests. He is delusional to think that the United States is alone in this endeavor, but that all its allies will stand by it. Iraq has been forced to mediate with European countries to persuade the United States to reverse this threat, while the United States is supposed to be a strategic ally of Iraq, according to the agreements signed between them, but the US-Iraqi alliance did not like Iran, which has been hostile to Iraq from eternity, so it worked to undermine it with religious and sectarian arguments. Wahi, and pushed its agents to sabotage Iraq's international relations, after it sought to sabotage its national relations.

It seems that the strategy pursued by the transitional government is to evade providing solutions, or to postpone them now. Postponing the confrontation with the militias, postponing dealing decisively with Iran, postponing the response to the demands of the people and the international community to deter the militias, and pretending that it is currently unable to solve the security problem, and that it has other more urgent problems, which are the provision of funds needed to run state affairs, and early elections on June 6 Next.

But both problems cannot be solved by postponing urgent decisions. The financial problem was generated as a result of the armed groups' control of state resources, whether by employing their followers in fake jobs, stealing revenues from border outlets, smuggling oil and currency, taking bribes, extortion and other unethical and illegal practices. Therefore, the solution to the financial problem begins with hitting the armed groups and their corrupt proxies through the effective use of state apparatus. This is also an opportunity to remove the corrupt elements, who hesitate to perform their duties, from the state apparatus.

As for early elections, they also lose their meaning and value if armed groups remain in possession of their weapons, attack embassies, camps and neighboring countries, control ministries and institutions, tamper with state security, terrorize people, kill opponents, kidnap women and activists, imprison them, torture them, and assault them in secret prisons, using the state’s capabilities, weapons and facilities. . In addition, there are real obstacles hindering the conduct of elections, including the failure to pass the new election law due to disagreements over the number of electoral districts and other legal and constitutional complexities, the persistence of objections from various political groups on the boundaries of electoral districts, the failure to complete the administrative capabilities of the Electoral Commission and the continuing political doubts about its neutrality.

And if all of these problems are resolved, the biggest obstacle will remain, which is the Federal Court’s law that stipulates that it be held with all nine members, while the court is currently deficient due to the retirement or death of three of its members. Unless the law is amended to allow for a smaller number of members to take place, elections cannot actually be held, because it is the court that certifies the results, and it is the court that examines the appeals submitted by the parties participating in it.

The countries of the world cannot trust Iraq if the government does not achieve security first, and fight corruption secondly, and activate the law third, so that investors and businessmen, Iraqis and foreigners, can work in Iraq with complete assurance of their lives and their money, and if it does not put the competent and loyal in charge, Instead of following the corrupt groups, who came through quotas, corruption and bribery. The prosthetic measures taken by the government so far are insufficient and unacceptable, and they will not satisfy the Iraqi people or the international community. Neglecting the problems that require urgent solutions will complicate them further. If the armed groups associated with Iran feel that the state, with all its capabilities and the international support available to it, is afraid to confront it, it will go further in tampering with security, the economy and society.

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