US Renews Commitment to Support Iraq Stability

Part of the preparations to host the second Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership in Amman, Jordan. (AFP)
Part of the preparations to host the second Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership in Amman, Jordan. (AFP)
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US Renews Commitment to Support Iraq Stability

Part of the preparations to host the second Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership in Amman, Jordan. (AFP)
Part of the preparations to host the second Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership in Amman, Jordan. (AFP)

The United States has renewed its commitment to support Iraq’s stability ahead of the second Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership, which will kick off its activities in Jordan’s capital Amman on Tuesday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s media office said in a statement on Sunday that the PM received a phone call from White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk.

McGurk congratulated Sudani on taking office and expressed the US continued support for Iraq’s stability, security and sovereignty.

He echoed President Joe Biden’s willingness to bolster strategic bilateral ties.

Sudani, for his part, stressed that Iraq is a unified, independent and a sovereign country, noting that the priority of his government is to maintain balanced relations and create economic partnerships across the region and the world.

According to the statement, both officials agreed on the importance of continuing efforts to ensure the permanent defeat of ISIS and supporting Iraq’s role to build bridges among regional countries.

Sudani said he plans to send a delegation headed by the Foreign Minister to Washington to promote both countries’ common interests in line with the Strategic Framework Agreement.

Discussions will tackle energy investment in Iraq and the fight against the effects of climate change.

US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski has met with Sudani about six times since he took office in October. The PM has been keen to underscore the importance of building balanced relations with everyone based on common interests.

Last week, the Premier participated in the China-Arab summit, which was hosted by Saudi Arabia and attended by Arab leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The first Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership was held in the Iraqi capital in August 2021.

Media Professor at Iraq University Dr. Fadhel al-Badrani told Asharq Al-Awsat that the second edition of the conference aims to mitigate the external challenges facing Iraq at the security, political and economic levels and ease the food, medicine and energy security challenges.

He underlined the importance of the upcoming event in supporting Iraq's sovereignty from Iranian and Turkish regional threats.

Badrani said both countries have launched attacks against rebel organizations that hide in various areas in Iraq, stressing that the bombing violates Iraq's sovereignty.

He pointed out that the US and France are coordinating with Arab countries that were alarmed by Iraq’s inability to protect itself from external violations and decided to hold this conference, which will be attended by Iran and Türkiye, in an attempt to impose diplomatic resolutions and highlight their violations of Iraq’s sovereignty.

“The US does not want regional countries to control Iraq and is keen to maintain understanding, coordination and cooperation with Sudani’s government.”

Head of the Political Thinking Center Dr. Ihsan al-Shammari told Asharq Al-Awsat that Washington’s continued support for Baghdad reflects its priority for the Biden administration.

He asserted that this support is part of a US plan to prevent Sudani and his government from resorting to Iran like the former PM, Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

He added that the US has a strategic interest in securing energy sources for Europe, and even for its allies in Asia, prompting more communication, in addition to security and terrorism challenges.

“This communication is a clear message to Iran that Iraq's affairs are not left to it to expand its influence, as it did with the previous governments.”

In addition, Shammari said that Sudani and supporters of his government, especially the Coordination Framework forces, are aware that the era of anti-US rhetoric is over.

Therefore, the PM decided to send a delegation to Washington to kick off talks in line with the Strategic Framework Agreement signed by the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and then-US President Barack Obama and assess the presence of US forces in Iraq.



Shiny and Deadly, Unexploded Munitions a Threat to Gaza Children

Many casualties are children desperate for something to do or searching through the rubble. Eyad BABA / AFP/File
Many casualties are children desperate for something to do or searching through the rubble. Eyad BABA / AFP/File
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Shiny and Deadly, Unexploded Munitions a Threat to Gaza Children

Many casualties are children desperate for something to do or searching through the rubble. Eyad BABA / AFP/File
Many casualties are children desperate for something to do or searching through the rubble. Eyad BABA / AFP/File

War has left Gaza littered with unexploded bombs that will take years to clear, with children drawn to metal casings maimed or even killed when they try to pick them up, a demining expert said.

Nicholas Orr, a former UK military deminer, told AFP after a mission to the war-battered Palestinian territory that "we're losing two people a day to UXO (unexploded ordnance) at the moment."

According to Orr, most of the casualties are children out of school desperate for something to do, searching through the rubble of bombed-out buildings sometimes for lack of better playthings.

"They're bored, they're running around, they find something curious, they play with it, and that's the end," he said.

Among the victims was 15-year-old Ahmed Azzam, who lost his leg to an explosive left in the rubble as he returned to his home in the southern city of Rafah after months of displacement.

"We were inspecting the remains of our home and there was a suspicious object in the rubble," Azzam told AFP.

"I didn't know it was explosive, but suddenly it detonated," he said, causing "severe wounds to both my legs, which led to the amputation of one of them."

He was one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning home during a truce that brought short-lived calm to Gaza after more than 15 months of war, before Israel resumed its bombardment and military operations last month.

For Azzam and other children, the return was marred by the dangers of leftover explosives.

'Attractive to kids'

Demining expert Orr, who was in Gaza for charity Handicap International, said that while no one is safe from the threat posed by unexploded munitions, children are especially vulnerable.

Some ordnance is like "gold to look at, so they're quite attractive to kids", he said.

"You pick that up and that detonates. That's you and your family gone, and the rest of your building."

Another common scenario involved people back from displacement, said Orr, giving an example of "a father of a family who's moved back to his home to reclaim his life, and finds that there's UXO in his garden".

"So he tries to help himself and help his family by moving the UXO, and there's an accident."

With fighting ongoing and humanitarian access limited, little data is available, but in January the UN Mine Action Service said that "between five and 10 percent" of weapons fired into Gaza failed to detonate.

It could take 14 years to make the coastal territory safe from unexploded bombs, the UN agency said.

Alexandra Saieh, head of advocacy for Save The Children, said unexploded ordnance is a common sight in the Gaza Strip, where her charity operates.

"When our teams go on field they see UXOs all the time. Gaza is littered with them," she said.

'Numbers game'

For children who lose limbs from blasts, "the situation is catastrophic", said Saieh, because "child amputees require specialized long-term care... that's just not available in Gaza".

In early March, just before the ceasefire collapsed, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza. That included prosthetics that could have helped avoid long-term mobility loss, Saieh said.

Unexploded ordnance comes in various forms, Orr said. In Gaza's north, where ground battles raged for months, there are things like "mortars, grenades, and a lot of bullets".

In Rafah, where air strikes were more intense than ground combat, "it's artillery projectiles, it's airdrop projectiles", which can often weigh dozens of kilograms, he added.

Orr said he was unable to obtain permission to conduct bomb disposal in Gaza, as Israeli aerial surveillance could have mistaken him for a militant attempting to repurpose unexploded ordnance into weapons.

He also said that while awareness-raising could help Gazans manage the threat, the message doesn't always travel fast enough.

"People see each other moving it and think, 'Oh, they've done it, I can get away with it,'" Orr said, warning that it was difficult for a layperson to know which bombs might still explode, insisting it was not worth the risk.

"You're just playing against the odds, it's a numbers game."