Foreign Minister: Our Relationship With Washington Is strategic, And We Hope It Plays A Role In Building Iraq

Baghdad, (NINA) - Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein expressed Iraq's vision in praising its relations with the countries of the world, stating: We are working to create balanced relations based on the principle of mutual interests, without allowing anyone to interfere in our internal affairs, and we will not have a relationship with one neighbor against the other, or ignore the other. Hussein stated in a lecture he gave at a seminar at the American Institute of Peace in Washington: Our relations with the United States of America are strategic, and are based on bilateral cooperation in various fields, and we hope that it will play a role in building and stabilizing Iraq. The minister expressed Iraq's willingness to apply the experience of the strategic dialogue that its second round is currently conducting with Washington, in order to conduct it with neighboring countries to solve the outstanding problems, because our policy is to establish good relations with neighboring countries. He pointed out that a number of Iraq’s problems related to its security are due to policies and interventions from some neighboring countries, and these interventions must stop, and the problems must be solved through dialogue. He affirmed that “security is important in achieving any directions to improve the economy,” explaining “It will be difficult to protect the economic sector if there is no security.” Noting that Iraq has very important economic relations with Iran and Turkey that should be preserved, and problems that may affect the consolidation of bilateral cooperation with both countries should be resolved. He called for the importance of building security cooperation paths to ensure stability in Iraq by building our security forces, and fighting the terrorist organization ISIS, which still poses a threat to the security of the region, adding: ISIS was not a threat to Iraq, but rather a threat to the region, European countries, and the international community, and we received assistance from the international coalition, from the United States of America, from Russia, and from neighboring countries. In the economic file, the minister explained: The Iraqi economy suffers from problems in its infrastructure, and relies on oil only to build its annual budget, indicating: Iraq depends on the oil sector, and other sectors have not been built, and many sectors have been destroyed, including: Agriculture, lack of development of tourism, and this contributes to creating more opportunities and jobs. Regarding the strategic dialogue that the Iraqi government is conducting with the American side, and the talks that both sides have held, the minister stated: We reached understandings with the American side, and we dealt with economic issues, investment, oil, energy, and electricity, and we signed memoranda of understanding in various fields, and in our talks, we covered education, culture, health, and the fight against Coronavirus, considering “the strategic dialogue is the process of discussing major comprehensive and important topics. With regard to the elections that Iraq intends to hold, the Minister explained: We are approaching the elections, and we need a clear program for the future and solving problems. He added: What we need internally is putting the final touches to the election law and it is the responsibility of the parliament, and there are some shortcomings related to organization, financial funds, building confidence in the election process, and the presence of organizations and international observers./ End