Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki assures the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that U.S. troops are no longer needed in Iraq. “Iraqi troops were able to maintain security and law and order, and this is a result of joint efforts,” he says. (0:30)
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki expresses his “strong desire” for the removal of UN Chapter 7 sanctions imposed on Iraq. “Iraq now does not represent any threat to peace and security,” he says. (0:23)
By Mariko Lamb – Talk Radio News Service
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Thursday to discuss bilateral efforts to pursue a healthy new relationship between the two nations.
Chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) expressed hope for future relations with Iraq. “All of us are very very hopeful that the path that we are on today marks a new relationship with Iraq, one where we are the United States and Iraq, two countries operating as we do with countries all around the world.”
Maliki expressed gratitude for efforts and sacrifices made by the U.S. in the past, and he ensured the committee that U.S. troops are no longer needed in Iraq. “Iraqi troops were able to maintain security and law and order, and this is a result of joint efforts,” he said.
Maliki also expressed Iraq’s strong desire for the removal of UN sanctions imposed on Iraq. “Iraq now does not represent any threat to peace and security,” he explained. “We are full of confidence that the United States as well as all countries in the international community…will help us to get out of Chapter 7 [sanctions].”
Kerry and Maliki assured together that U.S. and Iraq will work together in the spirit of mutual interests to implement both the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement and the Strategic Framework Agreement between the two nations.
By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service
America must invest more time, money, and human resources to help those displaced by the ongoing Iraq War, according to human rights advocates from the Washington, D.C.-based Refugees International.
The presence of 2.6 million displaced Iraqis persons is overwhelming to neighboring Middle East countries and is “undermining” to the social fabric of Iraq, said Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International, at a speech made today at the National Press Club.
President Barack Obama talked about displacement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday.
Bacon is happy at what is being seen as a distinct change from the “little attention” that the Bush Administration paid to Iraqi displacement.
It is estimated that since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, 2.6 million Iraqi’s have lost their homes and have fled other parts of the country. An additional 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
Bacon said that greater American and international support in receiving refugees and providing financial-aid can help stop the crisis.
Displacement of that many people “affects the whole region”, said Bacon, which results in educated citizens and specialized workers fleeing the country.
There are only 18,000 practicing doctors in Iraq, down from 32,000 doctors in 2002. There are more Iraqi doctors in Jordan than in Iraq’s capitol city of Baghdad, Bacon said.
Last year Democratic Senators Robert Casey (PA) and Benjamin Cardin (MD) introduced a bill to increase aid to Iraqi refugees and allow more of them to enter the United States. Since the FY2010 Budget has been approved by Congress, any appropriated funds to help Iraqi citizens would have to come through additional legislation, Bacon said.
A spokesman for Senator Cardin said it has not been decided yet if similar legislation would be introduced in this Congress.
Refugee International’s Field Report on the Iraqi refugee situation said that the Iraqi government is trying to keep more of its citizens from fleeing their homeland. It is feared by the Iraqi government that the existence of so many refugees tarnishes the image of overall security within the country.
The report also said Iraq violated international refugee laws in 2007 by asking Syria not to accept any more Iraqi refugees.
Many refugees have fears of returning home, the report says, because many of those that returned already have been killed.
Kristele Younes, an advocate with Refugees International, says that security is a major issue in Iraqi neighborhoods, with each little borough acting as its own walled off “fiefdom”.
Younes said that the United Nations is trying to place a tourniquet on the flow of persons out of the country by the end of the year, but significant challenges remain in Iraq, including budgetary shortcomings due to low oil prices, corruption within the government and sectarianism.
The Refugees International’s report on Iraq can be found here.
The National Security Network held a conference call to discuss American troop presence in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki’s new opinion on the situation. Colin Kahl, a professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, explained that back in November, 2007, the Bush Administration and Maliki signed a declaration of principles which outlined a long term partnership of the U.S. with Iraq. Around the same time, the governments also embarked on bilateral negotiations, hopefully to be completed by July 31st, in an effort to codify a relationship and replace the current UN mandate with a bilateral arrangement. (more…)
Colin Kahl, a professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, explains that there is likely not going to be a long term Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq, or a renewal of the UN mandate. He says that the Iraqi government is “kicking the can down the road” to the next administration to negotiate a long term agreement. Kahl also says that in the last few weeks comments have been made by Nouri al-Maliki’s spokesperson that suggest he’s looking for some definitive sense that the U.S. will make a transition to a new role and substantially reduced presence in Iraq. (1:18)
Marc Lynch, a professor of International Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs, says that Nouri al-Maliki is in a very unusual political position in Iraq. Lynch says that the word being “bandied about” in the Iraqi and Arab press is the idea of a new mandate over Iraq, something Maliki “cannot live with.” Lynch says that Maliki has gotten a better understanding of what Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) position really is, and has become very comfortable with it. (1:45)
