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Kadhimi Urges Dialogue to Overcome Iraq's 'Most Difficult Crises'

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi (dpa)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi (dpa)
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Kadhimi Urges Dialogue to Overcome Iraq's 'Most Difficult Crises'

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi (dpa)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi (dpa)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi was relieved by the success of the largest Arbaeen march to Karbala city in decades amid exacerbating political challenges and crises. However, the PM expressed his concern about the political escalation that could follow the end of the long Ashura season, saying Iraq is witnessing one of the most difficult political crises since 2003.

Kadhimi asserted in a statement commemorating the Arbaeen: "We have hope and determination to find solutions to overcome this crisis to move towards a safe and stable Iraq."

He urged all political forces to focus on the country's interest and people, saying they "deserve to sacrifice for them."

Meanwhile, two prominent Coordination Framework leaders called on parties to find common ground for dialogue, warning of a confrontation between the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr and the Framework Forces affiliated with Iran.

The head of the National Wisdom Movement, Ammar al-Hakim, called on the parties to unify ranks and make efforts to reach a consensus.

In a statement issued Saturday, Hakim reiterated the importance of the country's political partners investing in this occasion to unify efforts to meet the country and people's needs and overcome obstacles that hinder providing services to citizens due to the ongoing political stalemate.

Head of the al-Fatah Alliance Hadi al-Amiri confirmed that the occasion of the Arbaeen this year "was a unique manifestation of the unity" of Shiites, calling on "politicians to learn lessons" from this.

Amiri is concerned about the repercussions that could happen if politicians do not benefit from the "altruism and generosity of Iraqis."

The Framework and the Kurdish and Sunni forces are in talks to establish a common ground for cabinet formation without the participation of the Sadrist Movement.

The Iraqi forces that participated in the second conference of the National Dialogue under the auspices of the Prime Minister formed a tripartite committee of Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish forces that will visit al-Hanana to meet Muqtada al-Sadr after the end of the Arbaeen.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, headed by Bafel Talabani, began negotiations, confirmed bipartisan sources.

According to Kurdish sources, the two parties discuss various outstanding issues, including the presidential and legislative elections.

They believe this could lead to the possibility of the two Kurdish parties agreeing on various issues within the region, seeking a unified front before heading to Baghdad. They held joint meetings resulting in a unified Kurdish paper with the Framework forces to form the next cabinet.

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US Arranges Flights to Bring Americans Out of Lebanon as Others Seek Escape

Passengers arriving on a charter flight from Beirut are welcomed by their families at the baggage claim at Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, Fiumicino, Italy, 04 October 2024. EPA/VALENTINA FIORDALICE / TELENEWS via ANSA
Passengers arriving on a charter flight from Beirut are welcomed by their families at the baggage claim at Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, Fiumicino, Italy, 04 October 2024. EPA/VALENTINA FIORDALICE / TELENEWS via ANSA
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US Arranges Flights to Bring Americans Out of Lebanon as Others Seek Escape

Passengers arriving on a charter flight from Beirut are welcomed by their families at the baggage claim at Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, Fiumicino, Italy, 04 October 2024. EPA/VALENTINA FIORDALICE / TELENEWS via ANSA
Passengers arriving on a charter flight from Beirut are welcomed by their families at the baggage claim at Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, Fiumicino, Italy, 04 October 2024. EPA/VALENTINA FIORDALICE / TELENEWS via ANSA

US-arranged flights have brought about 250 Americans and their relatives out of Lebanon this week during escalated fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, while thousands of others still there face airstrikes and diminishing commercial flights.
In Washington, senior State Department and White House officials met Thursday with two top Arab American officials to discuss US efforts to help American citizens leave Lebanon. The two leaders also separately met with officials from the Department of Homeland Security, The Associated Press said.
Michigan state Rep. Alabas Farhat and Abed Ayoub, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, used the White House meeting to "really drive home a lot of important points about the issues our community members are facing on the ground and a lot of the logistical problems that they’re encountering with it when it comes to this evacuation,” Ayoub said.
Some officials and community leaders in Michigan, home to the nation’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, are calling on the US to start an evacuation. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said that was not being considered right now.
“The US military is, of course, on the ready and has a whole wide range of plans. Should we need to evacuate American citizens out of Lebanon, we absolutely can,” Singh told reporters. She added, “We haven’t been called to do that.”
Israel has stepped up airstrikes and launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant leaders. Iran on Tuesday fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles toward Israel, stoking fears that the escalating attacks, including an Israeli response, will explode into an all-out regional war.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas, another Iranian-backed militant group, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering the war in Gaza.
Other countries, from Greece to the United Kingdom, Japan and Colombia, have arranged flights or sent military planes to ferry out their citizens.
A US family was mourning Kamel Ahmad Jawad, a resident of metro Detroit’s Dearborn area, who was killed in southern Lebanon on Tuesday after they say he stayed to help civilians too old, infirm or poor to flee.
He had been on the phone with his daughter Tuesday when the impact of a strike knocked him off his feet, his daughter, Nadine Kamel Jawad, said in a statement.
“He simply got up, found his phone, and told me he needed to finish praying in case another strike hit him,” she said.
The State Department has been telling Americans for almost a year not to travel to Lebanon and advising Americans to leave the country on commercial flights for months. It also has made clear that government-run evacuations are rare, while offering emergency loans to aid travel out of Lebanon.
Some Americans said their relatives who are US citizens or green-card holders have been struggling for days or weeks to get seats on flights out of Lebanon. They say limits on withdrawing money from banks due to Lebanon’s longstanding economic collapse and intermittent electricity and internet have made it difficult.
Rebecca Abou-Chedid, a lawyer based in Washington, said she paid $5,000 to get a female relative on the last seat of a flight out of Beirut on Saturday.
“She was on her way to the airport” when Israel began one of its first days of intensified bombing, Abou-Chedid said Thursday.
Jenna Shami, a Lebanese American in Dearborn, Michigan, described American citizens and green-card holders in her family struggling to contact the US Embassy after airstrikes forced some from their lodgings in Lebanon.
The family had tried for weeks to get seats on commercial flights out, facing increasing ticket prices and cancellations, she said.
The US Embassy offered loans for charter flights, but Americans on their own could find no planes to hire, she said.
Shami and another family, of a Lebanese American military veteran from Texas, said their loved ones had just gotten tickets for upcoming flights and that they were hopeful.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US would continue to organize flights as long the security situation in Lebanon is dire and there is demand.
Miller said Lebanon’s flag carrier, Middle East Airlines, also had set aside about 1,400 seats on flights for Americans over the past week. Several hundred had taken them, he said.
Miller could not speak to the cost of the airline's flights, over which the US government has no regulatory oversight, but said the maximum fare that would be charged for a US-organized contract flight would be $283 per person.
More than 6,000 American citizens have contacted the US Embassy in Beirut seeking information about departing the country over the past week.
Not all of those have actually sought assistance in leaving, and Miller said the department understood that some Americans, many of them dual US-Lebanese nationals and longtime residents of the country, may choose to stay.
Miller said the embassy is prepared to offer temporary loans to Americans who choose to remain in Lebanon but want to relocate to a potentially safer area of the country. The embassy also would provide emergency loans to Americans who wish to leave on the US-contracted flights.