Sayyid Al-Hakeem: Ending International Coalition’s Missions Recovery Message for Iraq; Diversifying Economy, Oil Export Outlets Necessary to Face Crises
His Eminence Sayyid Al-Hakeem, Head of the National State Powers’ Alliance, received a delegation of the International Crisis Group and discussed with them the latest political, economic, and security developments in Iraq and the region. H.E. considered the end of the International Coalition’s missions to defeat ISIS in Iraq, achieved through dialogue and understanding, a message of recovery for Iraq’s reality and an international recognition of it.
H.E. affirmed that Iraq faces a security challenge after the end of the International Coalition’s missions, which requires full readiness and confronting any threat that could enable terrorism to reproduce itself, in addition to the need to send reassuring messages among the Iraqi components, unity of ranks, and rejection of any racist or sectarian rhetoric. H.E. stressed proceeding with addressing the problem of weapons outside the framework of the state according to the agreed timelines, provided that the treatment covers any weapon to which the description “outside the framework of the state” applies.
On the economic front, H.E. said Iraq was directly harmed by regional events as a result of the decline in oil production and in regular exports, stressing the need to draw on the lessons of this crisis by diversifying the economy and freeing it from its rentier nature, diversifying oil export outlets through a pipeline network toward the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and targeting new markets and consumers for Iraqi oil, thereby strengthening economic partnerships between Iraq and countries around the world.
