Improved Security Allowing Iraqis to Focus on Economy
Washington â€" An increase in the capabilities of Iraqi security forces is enabling Iraqi civilian leaders to focus more on their country’s economy and its regional relationships, a senior State Department official said September 8.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington — An increase in the capabilities of Iraqi security forces is enabling Iraqi civilian leaders to focus more on their country’s economy and its regional relationships, a senior State Department official said September 8.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Michael Corbin, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Iraq in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, said that although many Iraq observers have focused on the level of violence in the country as the United States withdrew the last of its combat troops in August, the Obama administration sees Iraq’s institutions as being able to withstand future attacks. Its government is also taking steps forward toward improving the rule of law and expanding economic opportunity, he said.
There is “a pattern of violence that continues” as terror groups seek to make their presence known and test the interim government, but Corbin said “their ability to maintain coordinated attacks is far diminished” and their attacks, which have often targeted Iraqi civilians, have failed to gain popular support.
“We see the fact that they have failed in the past in their attacks on economic infrastructure and their attacks on the coalition forces,” he said. “We think that the Iraqi government, even the interim government, can stand up to this type of attack and … we have declared our combat mission over because we have the seen the progress that the Iraqis have made with managing their own security.”
After months of discussions following a very close March election, Iraqi politicians “are on the way to forming a government,” Corbin said, and “have all called for a representative-inclusive government” that would include members from the country’s Shi’a, Sunni and Kurdish communities.
“This is very different from the situation in 2006, the last time they formed a government, when there was … a lot of violence … [and] ethno-sectarian warfare in some areas, and where the government that was formed was formed on the basis of strict ethnic lines rather than on the basis of an inclusive representative government,” Corbin said.
“Because of this effort to form a coalition government, there’s a lot of compromise and a lot of discussion going on that we haven’t seen in the past, so we’re encouraged by that,” he said.
For Iraq’s next government, U.S. officials see economic issues as being its key concern, he said.
“We see a big push for the economy, for jobs, [and] for services. The electricity provisions situation has gotten much better, but we still see people clamoring for better services, for water, [and] electricity,” he said.
U.S. officials are also encouraged that the two international bids that were held for companies to develop Iraq’s oil industry were free from corruption, and there is “a wide variety of international oil consortiums who are involved now in the southern oil fields in Iraq,” he said.
Iraq now has a chance to “develop as a positive force in the region,” with the re-establishment of diplomatic relations in the Middle East and beyond, and progress toward lifting the trade sanctions that were imposed by the international community in response to actions taken by Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Corbin said Iraq has been chosen to host the 2011 Arab League Summit, and there has been “tangible progress” on removing the U.N. Security Council sanctions that were related to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs.
The United States has been working closely with Iraq to get the sanctions lifted, as well as also preparing for the launch of discussions aimed at removing the sanctions that were imposed following Iraq’s 1991 invasion of Kuwait once an Iraqi government is formed, he said.
“We’re playing a supporting role,” Corbin said. “We will, as always, support Iraq in all the international organizations, including the U.N. and others, but we’ll be working cooperatively with the Iraqis” to support its reintegration into the region and the world, he said.
( This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov )
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