Interview with Dr. Nada ALJUBORI
Three years after the occupation of Mosul, the Iraqi city, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced on July 2017, the liberation of the city and the extension of the Iraqi forces control. In the meantime, fears of the political future of the country are growing more uncertain after the elimination of a preacher, especially as the talk is about the possibility of dividing Mosul to several new provinces or administrative areas, including the Christians and the Yazidis who have been subjected to great persecution.
The political data also indicate the possibility of new political conflicts involving the whole of the country after the completion of the elimination of the Daesh, where the armed militias (militias) formed by orders of clerics in Najaf, some of which refuses to disband those militias and leave the arms. Some of the leaders of these armed militias have strong ties with Iran.
About the political scene of Iraq, tell us Dr. Nada ALJUBORI – a former deputy in the Iraqi parliament, Leader of the Union of National Forces Party, President of the Iraqi Organization for Women and the Future.
Mohammed AL-NASSERY: Your Excellency,
What do you think will dominate on the political scene in Iraq after ISIS?
Nada ALJUBORI: The political scene after Isis will be completely different, because the old political parties has collapsed and couldn’t achieve any plan to protect their voters in Anbar, Salah Al Den, Mosul and Haweja. All the parties divided and the new political generation started to play role in the parliament and outside, the big refusal of the religious extremism parties, the effect of the Al Hashed armies groups in Iraq, gives a chance for new leaders who support displaced populations. The Kurdish referendum on the 25 of September also will change many things after Isis, new political map and new leaders.
Mohammed AL-NASSERY: How do you see the political future of Mosul after its liberation from the occupation of ISIS?
Nada ALJUBORI: The right side of Mosul was completely destroyed and there was mass killing of people by Isis group, also many has being killed by wrong by the army and as mistakes. You can smell the bad odour of dead bodies and bombs and there is no infrastructure, no water, no electricity. The left side is a little better but there is still no delivery of services to the people, no housing. It is very difficult for Mosul to be one unit city back again, it is very clear it will be not divided, but under control of different powers. Also there are a lot of demographic changes.
Mohammed AL-NASSERY: Do you think the central system is better than the federal government?
Nada Aljubori: The central system is difficult to be implanted now after Isis. Areas are severely affected and damaged and this central government alone is not able to support those areas, there is also high corruption. The geographical federal system is much better, but not a sectarian federal system.
Mohammed AL-NASSERY: Do you think civil and secular parties will have a bigger role after the next elections, or are the Iraqi people more inclined to Islamic parties?
Nada ALJUBORI: There is a big hate towards the Islamic parties from Iraqis who were not sectarian or ethnic before the nineties. But the Islamic parties from both side Sunni and Shia are trying to develop new faces. High corruption among some of those Islamic parties makes many people refuse to join those parties. Moderate groups from all parties should be supported in the election of 2018 because sectarism and corruption make big failure. We also need measures against excessiveness, against Islamic terrorist groups, for peace building in all areas of Iraq and to disarm the groups outside the army and police. Historical resettlement between all oppositions in Iraq can create some stability especially because all the political parties are losers after Isis and big refusal to them from Iraqis. We need big Iraqi Marshall plan with Arab and international community help.
Interview with Dr. Muhanad Al-AZAWI
And about the military issue tell us Dr. Muhanad AL-AZAWI – Military Expert, Head of Saqr Center for Strategic Studies and Research (Think Tank):
Mohammed AL-NASSERY: How do you assess the military operations against ISIS in Mosul?
Muhanad AL-AZAWI: My perspective as a military and operational expert is I find that the military operations were difficult and complicated. Additionally, there was no proper cumulative planning that to achieve the accomplishment with minimal losses. The investigations that took place about the fall of Mosul, where it is supposed to announce or declare a national emergency to restore and structure, it is well known that the armed forces are formed on the basis of national and not armed groups of sects and races or belong to the parties, militias and politicians and thus lost the most important principle of war. The purpose of unity, the morale, the economy, the effort, especially since this war with its composite reputation is totally different from the pattern of regular wars and guerrilla warfare. As tracer for the events it seems to be, ISIS is nothing more than an unseen gathering of terrorist murderers and mercenaries who belong to this terrorist entity which controls as much territory as England, while the world was watching without serious action for political reasons and cross-cutting interests. In any case, I think that the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) commonly known as the Golden Division, Iraqi Special Forces Unit were literal in operations and managed to break up this terrorist organization, but the cost was very high, especially infrastructure, monuments and society.
Mohammed AL-NASSERY: Strategically, do you think the risk of ISIS is over?
Muhanad AL-AZAWI: The emergence of a favorable atmosphere in Syria and Iraq is still standing, as a cautious emergence in a turbulent atmosphere appears to be an intelligence industry to achieve regional and international strategic goals through the promotion of sectarian abuses and the transformation of the state into the governance of the United Nations and the international community.
Therefore, the phenomenon of terrorism was manufactured in order to maintain power and the continuation of the system of partisan and individual corruption of power and camouflaged by the industry of terrorism, and before the emergence of Iraq, Iraq was passing through the crises of a complex government created by theocratic rule of former Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki for eight years. The problem in Iraq lies in the hybrid political system internationally, which adopts theocracy and sectarian and partisan confessionals.
The problem is also in the political tools governing and parliamentary. Which did not exercise the function of institutional and political and looking for personal benefits through a system of professional corruption, which made the remaining of the Iraqi state sink in the sea of chronic compound failure did not meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people seeking freedom and democracy.
Thus, in order to eliminate the oppressor and not just expel it, there must be a flexible liberal political system that represents the Iraqi community unity. Iraq’s leadership must be led by professional elite capable of dealing with the rubble of war and the consequences of sectarian theocratic rule in order to eliminate ISIS in Iraq defiantly.
Interview by Mohammed AL-NASSERY