For the second time within a week, Iraqi President Barham Salih renewed the call for a new political pact among Iraqis, after the failure of the post-2003 government system.
“Iraq has important challenges ahead, mainly the holding of early and fair elections…” Salih said.
His remarks came during his participation in a ceremony on Tuesday to commemorate the bombing of the Baghdad International Airport in Jan. 2020.
“There are those who want the Iraqis to be preoccupied with internal conflicts that are weakening them and threatening their entity… The situation in the country will not recover unless the people regain sovereignty, away from any foreign tutelage or interference,” the Iraqi president underlined.
“There is a need for a new political pact that enables Iraqis to build a state with full sovereignty, and addresses the accumulated mistakes that led to the failure of the existing system of governance. This will not be achieved without reforms.”
Salih noted that the Iraqis were going through “extremely complex and sensitive conditions, in light of regional challenges and economic crises that require a spirit of national responsibility and restraint.”
“An independent and fully sovereign Iraq is a decision that abides by the state and the constitution, and a fundamental pillar of a regional system based on respecting peoples’ rights and rejecting conflicts. We should not accept the country to be an arena for others’ struggles or a starting point for aggression against any side,” he remarked.
Commenting on the Iraqi president’s speech, Dr. Fadel Al-Badrani, Media Professor at the Iraqi University said: “It is clear that President Barham Salih began to sense the seriousness of the Iraqi situation, its prospects, the state of political deadlock and its dangers.”
“The president openly addressed the political parties, by asking them to stop depending on external forces that underestimate Iraqi sovereignty,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
