Hurdles in Iraq rapprochement

Visits of politicians opposed

“MOST politicians in brotherly Iraq are suffering from a complex, the so-called ‘Kuwaiti Complex’,” columnist, General Manager of Scope Satellite TV Channel and former MP wrote for

daily. “In other words, every Iraqi party leader or an independent official pays visit to the State of Kuwait and then gets bogged down in gossip over the visit. Not just that, the visit then becomes for most of the politicians ‘the talk of the town’.

“Some politicians say the visitor went to Kuwait to receive money or is labeled as the ‘agent’ of Kuwait. I don’t know what they mean by the term ‘agent’, because we know that the State of Kuwait is not in a state of antagonism with Iraq looking for agents in Iraq.

“What the State of Kuwait will benefit from paying money to any Iraqi? Why these people are casting doubts on the State of Kuwait even after showing goodwill and organizing and hosting the International Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq on its soil that to a vast extent was very successful and is seen as the first of its kind.

“In spite of the above, this conference during the recent parliamentary elections in Iraq became fertile material for speeches for many candidates.

“In other words, any candidate who strived to gain the support of voters in his/her constituency, attacked the State of Kuwait and the Iraqi politicians who visited Kuwait.

“This happened although Kuwait maintains good and historical ties with most of the current Iraqi politicians who have been paying visits to the country throughout the year in general and during the holy month of Ramadan in particular where most of these visits are amicable such as the visits of Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim who visited Kuwait during every Ramadan, prior to the downfall.

“As a matter of fact, Sayed Al-Hakim is a welcome visitor, particularly since we know he maintains robust relations with many senior Kuwaiti officials. Meanwhile, we say the Iraqi cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr like us knows very well the geography like many other Iraqi officials such as Bahr Al-Oloum and so on.

“But why and during the recent visit of Al-Sadr to Kuwait the relevant people started saying that Al-Sadr had come to Kuwait just to form the new Iraqi government?

“However, the question here is, is the hostility with Kuwait or with Al-Sadr himself because some people would like to attack him through the State of Kuwait, particularly, since we know that his bloc has won the recent parliamentary elections with an overwhelming majority.

“It is needless to say the policy of the State of Kuwait is obvious and overtly declared — the policy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of any country — friendly or sisterly.

“Such being the case, Kuwait holds itself above any internal differences that may occur in any country throughout the world.

“With regard to the topic of (brotherly) Iraq, we have actually no interest with any of the Iraqi parties and we have never preferred to side with any party at the expense of the other.

“Not only that, we stretch our hands to those who stretch their hands to us and this means we have never supported any specific Iraqi party, because we deal directly with Iraq as a state and not individuals on behalf of the state.

“However, if any Iraqi official has some information to the contrary, then he/she must prove it with supporting documents — if any — to prove that the State of Kuwait has interfered in the internal affairs of Iraq.

“But if any Iraqi politician wants to undermine the image of their kin and take the advantage of the respective official to the State of Kuwait, then this can be deemed as something different.

“However, it is obvious that restoring bilateral confidence between Kuwait and Iraq will take a long time, because some Iraqis are still unhappy about the convergence and normalization of ties between the two countries and as such, these people have no other means to lure the Iraqi street except by attacking Kuwait either during an occasion or even without occasion.

“Unfortunately, there are some people who praise them and follow their march although the overt Iranian intervention in the internal affairs of Iraq doesn’t mean anything for them, but looks at this intervention as something natural.”

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Al-Saeed

“It looks like Iraq will continue to live under the chaos of sectarianism, quotas and artificial democratic formation through electoral boxes that can be manipulated, falsified and changed,” columnist and director of the Al-Shahed Satellite TV channel

wrote for daily. “Not just that, in Iraq there is a Parliament that has nothing to do with the experiments of countries that deal with respectable constitutions and with people outside the influences of clerics or that of the great neighboring countries.

“Certainly, the Iraqis reserve the right to experiment something new, but it should be away from manipulations of the clerics who are striving to dominate the community through the issuance of some fatwas (edicts) which have nothing to do with the requirements of a modern state.

“As a matter of fact, Iraq has all the requirements to continue to develop education and strengthen the mechanism of work and harmony and coexistence between various Iraqi components.

“But the project to destroy Iraq began with the military coup against the monarchy and this resulted in the killing of senior Iraqi officials, but not correcting the mistakes. Not just that, the leaders of the coup killed the then monarch who had never exceeded any of the red lines did and they also killed the prime minister who was one of the most experienced Iraqi politicians throughout the British rule in Iraq.

“Returning to the current situation in Iraq, it actually has no relationship to democracy, openness to the world, the rule of law, the independence of national decision or sovereignty.

“Moreover, the percentage of illiteracy and ignorance is the highest associated with the history of this country which even the enemies of Iraq will not underestimate it.

“For the time being this country has no agriculture, no industry, and no real jobs for its citizens and the rate of ignorance and illiteracy is too high.

“Given the above, nobody should ask about the forgery of elections or why the Parliament has been turned into a Husseiniya or Umayyad mosque or the headquarters of Kurdish parties or a scene of sectarian and ethnic conflict.”

“We witnessed the existence of armed militia groups in our era, during conflicts with which the Arab world infested itself and others. Information about the affiliations of these groups and their objectives is contradictory, but noticeably, the impact of these groups are far reaching than that of the military forces of those countries,” columnist

wrote for daily. “These armed militias won in Mosul, North Iraq. They occupied the city for one full year, after defeating the State army which was armed and trained by the Americans. The same applies in Libya where these militias are in hit-and-run with the State army. In Lebanon, the militia group Hezbollah has the say, whereas in Yemen, the Houthi militias are in control.

“One pressing question is: Why do these militia groups don’t fight against Israel — the sworn and common enemy of the region? What does it really mean when several thousand militias defeat the wellequipped and funded military forces? Why are they killing their own people in the region, not your enemy who is illegally occupying your brethren’s land?

“Other countries and their people have passed through this stage of life, but for us, we continue living it due to our discriminatory and sectarian tendencies. This means we are still wallowing in our traditional and cultural assumptions which have not been updated so far.

“Once that update is done, the militias will disappear in the era of freedom, civil and democratic community, but all these will not happen as long as militias continue to defeat our armies.”

“Arabism is not a political regime that is developing in accordance with time and place. Arabism is not a philosophical theory that is capable of upgrading based on individual imagination,” wrote for daily.

“Arabism is just a lofty human product like a blessed tree with deep roots in history. That tree was watered by Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) in Iraq during the ancient era and the tree flourished and provided shade to the entire Arab land from the Arab peninsula and extending to the west to reach the Atlantic Ocean.

“Arabism is not applicable to every Arabic speaker, as the eligible person should be loyal to the Arab world and should have mastered the Arabic language. That feeling of loyalty and devotion for the safety of the Arab land without allowing any tiny piece of it to be captured is the essence of Arabism. This is how real patriotism should be regardless of the changes in time and place. Those who lack such a feeling cannot be called Arab even if they were born and raised on the Arab land.

“I am saying this in order to remind those who justify their weakness in confronting the Zionist expansion scheme aimed at demolishing our identity and engaging us in internal conflicts that destroy the relations among us and increase our weakness. It is our duty to ring the warning bell, and confirm that whenever the right becomes wrong and the wrong becomes right, it is a sign that the end is near.

“It is our duty to enhance Arab unity and dissolve disputes in order to stay strong in confronting foreign occupation and international Zionism. Holding allies against any of the Arab countries under the pretext of maintaining the state’s security is 100 percent against Arabism. The consequences will be dangerous and the negative impacts of such behaviors will be devastating.

“The United States of America was just a number of small disjointed states but now it is the most outstanding global power, thanks to the unity and cohesiveness among the states.”

“The incident of an African illegal immigrant in France saving a toddler from falling from the fourth floor of a residential building was the most prominent event of last week in the international media, newspapers and various media platforms as well as on social media,” wrote for daily.

“The media’s interest was not on the heroic act of the illegal immigrant but the repercussions of the event itself, which happened very quickly. The French President Macron received the paperless youth to thank him personally and grant him French nationality as well as provide him with a job in the Department of Fire and Rescue in gratitude for his heroic role.

“The whole event was the subject of controversy and long discussions across social media especially in Arab countries. The event was like a beautiful dream, which Arabs wished would have happened in their countries.

“In the Kuwait level, this incident causes us to recall the heroes among the Kuwaiti Bedoun men and women who sacrificed their blood and lives in various fields from the wars of 1967, 1973 and the Iraqi invasion in 1990 and then the Liberation war in 1991 up to this day.

“Decades have passed but these people, their children and their grandchildren have still not obtained their rights. In contrast, it only took 30 seconds of heroism for the young African illegal immigrant to be recognized and gain the honor of French citizenship.”

“It seems the recent decisions of the Ministry of Education to take strict measures against those caught cheating during examinations have revealed a nest of wasps and agitated the cheaters especially thugs such that they resort to using the language of threat against some teachers and heads of examination committees and even the MPs in their residential areas,”

wrote for daily. “It is unacceptable that some schools have become battlegrounds. It is unbelievable that the threats of students against teachers and principals have reached the extent of “Either you turn a blind eye and allow me to cheat or I break your head”.

“Some schools in Jahra area witnessed such unacceptable acts by some students who are thugs and attacked teachers who have not showed any leniency towards cheaters. It is unbelievable that this has happened at a time when security presence is noticeably high.

“The matter has gone so far that it cannot be tolerated anymore. It is necessary to act and bring an end to this strange kind of bullying over our customs and traditions.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb