What Kind of Agreement Iraqis Want?

By Aadil Haba

 The Iraqi side should take into account, before the presentation of any agreement being drafted with the American side to the Iraqi Council of Representatives, and should be committed to the document of "Declaration of Principles" signed by the Iraq Prime Minister Mr. Nouri Al-Maliki and President Bush in the White House on November 26, 2007. As stated there, “the document is issued by two fully sovereign and independent states sharing common interests”.

 This principle blows up any call for violating the Iraqi sovereignty and   independence in any convention and that any step taken for drafting the agreement should be based on this principle.

Accordingly, and judging from the content of the "Declaration of Principles" document which contains many articles that are in Iraq’s supreme national interest, we see that the Iraqi negotiator, working on the draft of the convention, must abide by the following points:

 Emphasizing what have been stated in the "Declaration of Principles" of the American side's commitment to the democratic system; respecting the Iraqi Constitution, developing the ongoing new democratic process in Iraq and the principle of coexistence between all the components of the Iraqi people, and standing against any external or internal attempts aiming to undermine this trend. Emphasis on these principles is important.

The emphasis, therefore, on the foregoing principles, binds the United States, morally and diplomatically, in front of the world and the United Nations, to respect the legitimacy of the ongoing democratic process in Iraq that it stops any attempt or practice aiming to  revive the illegal ways in the relation between the countries. 

The draft must include the obligation of respecting the Iraqi State's judicial, legislative and executive authorities and not to interfere in their affairs or practice   any pressures that would impede their work or undermine their independence. 

The Iraqi negotiator also needs to highlight the importance of the U.S role in dropping Iraq's debts; a move initiated by the U.S administration years ago, leading to dropping a lot of debts on Iraq.

 What remains however is that U.S advises its Arab allies in the Gulf and urges them to follow the example of non-Arab states that dropped or reduced their debts on Iraq, which would upgrade the Iraqi economy forward.

The Iraqi negotiator needs to guarantee the reception of the United States' comprehensive support in the revitalization of the Iraqi economy, especially the oil industry which is in an urgent need of the advanced technology.

 Helping Iraq to be free from Section VII, opening to the outside world diplomatically, politically, economically, culturally, and scientifically, abolishing all the international resolutions, which still impede and deprive Iraq of the right to blend into the international community, and prevent it from the cultural and scientific cooperation with the countries of the advanced world have been stressed. Such an emphasis will also help Iraq influence some of the dogmatic minds in our Arab world, who are depriving even the Iraqi Writers Union and other Iraq professional organizations of the right to participate in Arab professional activities.

The Iraqi negotiator needs also to emphasize the U.S. commitment to develop the capacity of our armed forces to provide them with sophisticated weapons, without leading to the recurrence of the mobilization that prevailed under the Baath ruling. 

In view of the sensitivity which Iraqis show over the presence of the foreign troops in their country, the Iraqi negotiating side should be committed to set a timetable for the presence of these troops after doing their positive role in supporting the efforts of the Iraqi forces to stabilize Iraq and liquidate the pockets of terrorism, the former regime armed remnants, suicidal bombers coming across the borders, outlaws, and the organized crime gangs.

The Iraqi side should also be committed to set restrictions on the movement of the U.S. forces inside Iraq, and that Iraq would not turn into a base for the military operations of these forces outside the Iraqi borders and a threat to the security of other States; or an arena for settling accounts between the foreign countries which would affect its security and stability.

The convention should not turn into a source of threat to other countries; contradict with Iraq's international or regional obligations, and with treaties or agreements signed by Iraq or those to-be-signed later.

The Iraqi negotiator must be bound to the Iraqi Constitution which stipulats that Iraq is a country seeking peace, and against aggression and violence in the international relations. 

The Iraqi negotiator should abide by the "Declaration of Principles", i.e. the two sides should be committed to the "joint cooperation with the regional countries based on respect, non-interference in the internal affairs, rejecting the use of violence in settling disputes, and resorting to the constructive dialogue to resolve disputed issues in order to ensure stability in the region."

 The Iraqi negotiator can not successfully achieve this task unless the Iraqi elites abandon the sectarian and ethnic debates, selfish interests, struggle for power, sharing the spoils, and they should adhere to the Iraqi supreme interest and to the Iraqi identity. By doing so, they will be an influential support for the Iraqi negotiator to depend on, particularly as we are passing through appropriate international conditions. 

Better results, thus, could be achieved for spreading security and stability in the country and for the serious start to reconstruct and breathe a new life inside Iraq. Moreover, the U.S. elections and the end of Bush's term should not impact the negotiations as to expedite the signing of the agreement, that the goal should be  achieving better results for the best of the two contracting parties and for Iraq in the first place. 

Translated by Dr. Ahmed S. Hussein al-Hameedawi