The official Iraqi campaign against the networks of financial and administrative corruption — launched by the government marks a serious shift that has closed vast distances in a single step. It is the first serious indication of the policies and priorities we can expect from Iraq's new prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi.
The campaign has led to the arrest of pillars of Iraqi politics: members of parliament, former senior government officials, and even members of the judiciary.
Where did Ali al-Zaidi find such audacity? What is he betting on? Will the campaign stop here, or will it encompass bigger and more dangerous figures?
One thing we can be sure of is that al-Zaidi's campaign has earned him credibility and created a wave of optimism about a brighter Iraqi future.
Our colleague the editor-in-chief, Ghassan Charbel, conducted an interview with al-Zaidi recently. He has described the climate of his interview like this: "I joked with him that whoever has money seeks power, and whoever has power seeks money. He replied by stressing that his own finances are more than comfortable, that he will not run in the next parliamentary elections, and that he will not seek a second term as prime minister."
In Iraq, corruption is not confined to a small elite plundering the country's wealth, at times brazenly. It has gone further: its ringleaders have become active players in the political machine serving Iran and its militias in the region, helping them evade international sanctions.
It is a culture and a web of networks that al-Zaidi, in his interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, characterizes as "a deviant system of thought... centered on competing to loot and steal. We are in the process of ending this system, writing a new page for Iraq and closing that chapter.”
One major issue remains, and it is just as problematic as corruption, if not even more so: the question of bringing weapons under state control, reclaiming the decision of war and peace, and preventing Iran from using Iraqi territory to attack neighboring countries, especially the Gulf states and Jordan.
Al-Zaidi acknowledged the problem. He said he had asked neighboring countries to provide conclusive evidence, and that he had instructed his security chiefs to be firm on this matter. But he closed with a telling statement: “I urge, however, that the present not be judged through the lens of the past. We found this situation already in place when we assumed responsibility.”
Iraq is a great country, in the present, the past and, God willing, in the future as well.
“It is in our people’s interest to build distinguished relations with the international community, neighboring countries, and the Arab Gulf states. Iraq is a state, not a village,” al-Zaidi stressed. If he succeeds in purging Iraq of the major figures of corruption and their networks, and in freeing it from the militias loyal to Iran's Revolutionary Guard that prey on Iraq's sovereignty and its ties with its neighbors, then the people of Iraq - indeed, the people of the region - will carve his name alongside the noble immortals.
