The Iraqi-American Discussion

In the shadow of the state of instability experienced by many countries in the region and the difficult conditions they have endured, the forthcoming visit to Washington of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been under the media and political spotlight. The visit — on one hand — will affirm the ongoing Iraqi-American partnership. But on the other hand, and more importantly, it confirms Iraq’s position in the international community and its role in aiding security and stability, as the Iraqi initiative to solve the Syrian issue has an important place on the agenda of the Iraqi-American talks.

Al-Maliki will carry a number of files, most of them complex ones, especially with the presence of the Syrian issue being high on the agenda of talks that confirms Iraq’s steadfast role in seeking to resolve the crisis. The prominent Iraqi initiative has become visible among the international community especially after the decline of interest in a war in Syria, and given its propensity toward dialogue and negotiations.

Due to these developments we will find that the Iraqi-U.S. talks will take on more than just one dimension. Certainly, first it will be to develop their relations on several fronts; secondly, to discuss the issues in the region lead by the Syrian issue, and the initialization of Geneva; thirdly, the Iraqi stance most definitely has the interests of the Syrian people at the forefront. The process of change, however, must be a realistic one. There must be no vague ideas that the political system must change but without creating a solid ground for the birth of a democratic political system that differs completely from the existing one. All this is with the knowledge that change through military force and foreign intervention now has an extremely high cost and that starting wars is very easy. But after the war, sparks will continue to fly and burn for many years and cannot be stopped as easily as some might think.

The Iraqi initiative focuses on the immediate need to halt the war and the flow of arms to all parties involved in Syria, together with the withdrawal of all foreign fighters and Arabs. The presence of fighters from several countries especially highlights the essence of the Syrian troubles as many of these fighters are on terrorist lists. Their withdrawal would put the Syrian issue on the path to aiding the Syrian people’s interests rather than the interests of those countries supporting the Syrian forces and abroad.

The important aspect of the Iraqi initiative is that Syria now is not in need of a war as much as it is in need of reconstruction of what was destroyed during daily battles.

Our position on this issue as fellow Arabs must be focused on our awareness of the dangers brought on by war and the transition into reconstructing the country, instead of spending billions on a new war. We therefore find that the visit of the prime minister to Washington comes at the right time and will certainly reflect on a number of facts, starting with the positive role Iraq can play in aiding security and stability; secondly, the improvement of Iraqi relations with countries of the world — particularly America — to ensure the interests of the Iraqi people; lastly, to send a strong message that Iraq is assuming a leadership role again in the region after falling back in the past decades.