 So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the second part of this afternoon's discussion. We're very pleased to have two members of the Iraqi Parliament, the Council of Representatives, with us today. My colleague, Sarhan Hamasahid, will moderate and will introduce the two members. One change that we'll make from the previous session is that questions can come directly from you without having to write them down on a piece of paper. So when the time comes for the discussion, Sarhan will invite you to raise your hand, introduce yourself. We'll have mics on either side of the room, and we're looking forward to a very good discussion. So, Sarhan, over to you. Thank you all for staying. I know it's been a long afternoon and it's been raining outside. We have two distinguished members from the Iraqi Council of Representatives. One of them is Mr. Alshabandar, who is an independent member of the Council from Baghdad. He has been a former member of the State of Law. He is a two-term parliamentarian, and the first term he was a member of the debatification committee, and the second term he is a member of the members affairs. We also have Dr. Nada Al-Jiburi. She is also a two-term member of the Council of Representatives from 2005 to 2010, and then re-elected in 2010 through now. She is a physician, and she is also a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Council of Representatives, and she is affiliated with the National Dialogue Front Bill. Thank you both for being with us this afternoon. We hear very important topics from the Deputy Prime Minister in the earlier session that are key questions for the people outside Iraq and in Iraq as well. So I would try to ask you from the perspective of the Council of Representatives, an important institution in Iraq that represents the voice of the people and exercises the checks and balances on the government. So right now what happens in Anbar and the security situation in Iraq is one of the dominant topics about Iraq. So my question to you as members of parliament, what is your assessment of what is happening? Why do we have this difficult security situation in Anbar? Why the resurgence of al-Qaeda? So if I can start possibly with you, Dr. Ahmeda. Thank you so much for the audience and for your interest in the Iraqi, with the Iraqi affairs. This is the escalation of terrorism and the repercussions of that is very important in Iraq. I say this is not only in Anbar. So in 2003, if we look into the numbers that were issued on the people who were killed monthly because of the bombs that took place, so Iraq was left without any security stability and the army didn't find a concrete way to face this. And after the withdrawal of the Americans, the intelligence was not, I mean was kind of limited and also the political conflict impeded other progress and to pass important legislations that will support national reconciliation. So the Iraqi citizen wasn't really clear about what's going to happen, especially after the withdrawal, and all this climate affected also on these groups of terrorism that we'll find at the end of the day, places or incubators that ended to escalate terrorism also having these open borders and what ended up to the escalating that we are witnessing. And something else I would like to draw attention to, and you mentioned, because you only mentioned Al Qaeda, and what question was what happened to witness this escalation of violence. But there's another question, which is the public refusal to what happened in the last years that is not related to Al Qaeda, but there is a refusal in many regions when it comes to legislations or a lot of issues that are taking place in the country. And parallel to that, also the sluggish economic development affected the, on the Iraqi society as a whole. And when we listen to sectarian voices here and there, also affected on the unification of Iraq. The drivers of violence and instability exist in Iraq. But before I do that, I want to ask Mr. Shahbender about also his views and his take on the resurgence of Al Qaeda and violence in Iraq. Thank you so much for you. I thank you and I thank this good opportunity. And also thank you for every listener and for everybody who will share this participation. I would like to comment also on sectarianism before I answer this question. When we talk about sectarianism is a major problem in Iraq, but it is not a general problem. And we have to, how the sectarianism entered Iraq, this is a question, there's a story behind it. So the most Islamic movements, whether Sunnis or Shias that were dreaming where they were outside Iraq at one time to enter Iraq after the toppling of Saddam and to create Islamic state or failed when they came to Iraq, they discovered that the creation of Islamic state is non-realistic. So they had other options in front of them, either to talk about a national project that is considered to be substitute to Islamic state. And it is not possible as Islamic leaders or the leaders of the Islamic movements, they cannot during one night to establish a national project where they even wouldn't use this kind of national or the word of nationalism and they would prohibit to use these terms. So decades of prohibiting even this kind of discourse and they failed in creating Islamic projects. So they had only one option talking about sectarianism and they decided to say we are the protectors of Sunnis and saying that the Shia would like to kill Sunnis and this is not true and the Shia leaders also have witnessed some of sectarianism and they educated Shias to fear Sunnis as well. So you witnessed the picture at the end that you have a group of defenders of Sunnis and a group of defenders of Shias playing on the fear. So they created, distributed this culture of fear and today it became a fact. This domestic issue linked to a regional project to embrace a sectarian project to rattle the region as a whole. So it is a real problem in Iraq but we will overcome this problem because the Iraqis at the end of the day are not sectarian and when you look into the essence of Islam it's not sectarian and actually Islam will give the Muslims to adopt any Islamic school in the interpretation of Islam and Islam doesn't call them to fight each other. So who called himself sectarian is Al Qaeda and what is and to do the acts of violence whether against Shia or others and also mercenaries that created the mechanism of revenge. But I assure you that there is no one politician that would say I am with a certain sect he just he is a real sectarian he just claiming that to claim or to protect his own interests. So and I witness that in many leaders when he gained the interest he would go away from this sectarian discourse and so and thank you. So if the question if you can repeat the question again Iraq the violence the surge of violence where does it come from? No it's not uprising in Iraq but based on my observation to Al Qaeda and its thoughts and history Al Qaeda has an objective the Levant is a path to reach Iraq and what Al Qaeda is doing in Yemen or Libya are camps of training but the main goal at the end of the day is Iraq for them so that's why I acknowledge that I recognize that the next battle between Iraq and Al Qaeda will bring all Qaeda's operatives from all over the world even from Shishan and from Yemen and from Libya and from Tunisia and from Syria because that will be a self-determination battle. Why why Iraq it is a historical reason since the Wahhabi thoughts it's an expansion to Ibn Taymiyah thoughts and battle of Khawarij there are historical roots and that Iraq was against this kind of ideology or thoughts. Get into is about the other sources of violence in Iraq and we have here we keep hearing about the political differences or the political division among the politicians and lack of certain capabilities on the part of the Iraqi security forces. Do you think that that political division or differences is either feeding the violence or impeding the development of Iraq's institution that could overcome the issue of violence? It is very important when we talk about violence and sectarianism and corruption. I think there is a relationship between the three and these three topics came together in Iraq and affected the institutions and affected the work of these institutions. I am not here pointing at one certain institution but all the institutions at the end of the day the citizen is not satisfied. This generally speaking and this is a very important issue especially at this stage. What is going on right now and during the two terms of parliament and the political blocks that are inside the parliament played many roles and played important roles. I think those two terms of the parliament considered to be very important the history of Iraq when we talk about democracy because it established in a very difficult and worked in a very difficult time there is no doubt about but on the other hand when we look into the political divisions and differences impeded to have more stability and some of the political elements and I say few and they might have a direct link to violence but they are not representing a huge sector but when you look into the political discourse that sometimes that comes out that could also end to violence on the street so I would like to say it is very important the quality of the political discourse the message inside the political course will direct the street towards a certain direction and also the terrorists of course will exploit these occasions when there is inflammatory political speech so these terrorists will exploit this chance to conduct terrorist actions everywhere and in increase and when we talk in Mosul we always talk about Ambar but in Mosul suffering a lot of killing people and journalists so when we look into 2012 it was a tragedy comparing to any place in the world so when we again the political blocks will play an indirect role to increase the violence through its political discourse so when we look into if we have a rational political discourse and supporting national reconciliation and especially after the withdrawal and where the politicians were all elected so I think again that the national reconciliation if it took place clearly and transparently will will give high assurance to the people especially at this time where we are witnessing new elections in parallel to compacting terrorism. I also know that you have been I have hearing that you've been part of the backdoor channel and negotiations representing probably the prime minister and his block in over the past year as the political gridlock in Iraq has been escalating and we've heard from the Iraqi citizens and Iraqi civil society and our partners that actually the kind of issues that Dr. Nada has touched upon is that if it's either fueling the dissatisfaction and the frustration of the public because it's coming from the politicians and why aren't the politicians engaging in the Iraqi parliament and the Iraqi institutions to address these issues why why the backdoor channels and how long do we will we sustain those backdoor channel conversations. Oops sorry thank you. Thank you but really communication between the all sides of party is very important and it was part of my my vision is for Iraq it's not possible to be unified unless there's that kind of communication and bridges between the people. Since 2010 since the second term for Al-Maliki there was a dialogue a tough dialogue taking place with those people on the other side but not publicly and sometimes we feel that it should be done or conducted in behind closed doors and then we can the outcomes we hoped that Al-Maliki's government to be accepted from the other side the Sunni side in a same level as it is accepted by the shears and that's why the second term came when Al-Maliki was accepted by both sides but as a matter of fact the Sunnis accepted the Maliki's while the shears were forced to vote for him and accept him. His Excellency Salah al-Mutluk was always postponing his problems as a leader within the Iraqi government instead he used to build bridges within the government on his account and I used to be with him on that path. I remember sometimes he would like quit or excuse himself from any press conference whenever there's a huge attack against him while he's a member of Al-Maliki's government so efforts like that kept this regime and the system cohesive and I think there was no there was it was not for this kind of effort that government wouldn't be existed at 2010. The problem is if you want to put titles and name things the Iraqi the current Iraqi government failed to achieve confidence for the other side and trust that's why the other side transferred forcefully to become an incubator to terrorism it's all because of the misdealing from the other side side of the government and unfortunately the opposition also provided a kind of environment for the terrorism where they could be more active and heard the society and I really blame the leaders of the Sunni because they couldn't distinguish themselves from the terrorists because sometimes they used to resort to them so you end up that you try to distinguish with the speech of these leaders whether it's pro or against Al-Qaeda so talking about marginalization and cruelty and unfairness we don't have it believe it believe me believe me I just want to lay this out clearly we have a wealth in Iraq was the money the budget that's it to for Romadi's province was less than a Najaf no no the annual budget was distributed equally and always we asked the government local government to spend these money likewise the way we do in other regions or governorates without the interference of the local central government there was kind of fear and fairness in distributing these wealth the Sunni are in the presidency at the the minister's councils the parliament they all had their portfolios we don't have even one Sunni minister would say that or accuse Al-Maliki of interfering in his business and I've heard a lot of people including Mr. Rafiq he never complained of Maliki interfering in his business so there's no marginalization and I think the corruption and the misadministration taken place in the Romadi or Salah ad-Din is also in Najaf and Karbala in the south the lack of services to the people had in the Sunnis provinces is as equal maybe less also than the ones in the Shiite province provinces have a lot of the opportunity to ask questions that they may have and I'll interject my other questions as we go on we have microphones so if you raise your hands and if you state your name and your organization and we'll take from there we have a question here my name is my name is Nazar Jannabi my question is to Mr. Shabendar it is typical for when politician changes party or changes affiliation it there are there is one of two reasons either the politician feels that the party had departed from his ideology or the other way around the politician departs from the ideology of the party we've noticed that you had departed from prime minister Maliki's list and I was wondering of the reason is it the list departed from your own ideology or did you change your ideology and depart from the list and if you can elaborate on that reasons thank you so much thank you thank you I think I answered this question with the media when we had meeting with the media because it was a surprise that I would leave the coalition the state of law coalition and I was honored by Maliki's offer to be a member of the ministers council on and the fourth year among that coalition I felt that there's a a change in their ideology from the announced speech which was which reached the top in the last few years where Mr. and Maliki abandoned the positions and also abandoned his statements reconciling statements he declared before so I came to conclusion saying that my position is like a burden on the the low state low coalition and the reasons why I was has to do with elections I know and Maliki is not a sectarian but because of the environment and the culture of sectarianism that he found that this national kind of speech limited his popularity within his environment Shiite environment that's why he had to adjust and resort to a more Shiite speech I cannot survive with that track so it's either to be with him retreating or let the arena to him and say whatever he wants to say and then I follow my own track good afternoon my name is Muhammad Hannon I actually have two comments both of you have alluded to the differences among Iraqi politicians within the parliament or the government the question raises here is and both of you everybody says somebody else fold and blame the others the question is here do we have the wrong politicians that's one comment the other comment is about and bar in what's happening in iraq what what the rhetoric from the government basically saying we're fighting terrorists and we're trying to clean up the country and the region the other side basically saying no we don't want the army to get into the cities we want Maliki to go out and they're basically calling the Iraqi army as a sectarian army it's not a national army the question here are they calling for secession do they want to be seceded to have their own region and I think the the government should look into it from that side thank you doctor nada questions probably the first question I didn't really understand it quite well you know that the election in 2010 was open election it's repeating the question they elected the right people in 2010 but those people in the next four years they supposed to give something to the people and this is what I'm trying to refer to since I'm working within committees political committees within several fronts and also the commission the five commission of five which is touching on the legislations that's comply with the demands of the constituents and if you are as a elected person if you are not capable of complying with the demands of your people then you have a problem there is a gap and that's part of the problem these areas the Iraqis are equal no doubt there is shortage in basic services like electricity and other but when it but it is similar in Najaf and and other similar places but how we combat terrorism and to and the measurements that we're taking there so and to preserve the dignity of of each region and so so that the so nobody is ignoring that there is terrorism and those who are committing that they are outlawed people so terrorism has no identity nor any religion but the but these regions being attacked by terrorism and then on the other hand the their citizen being arrested looked at so they I mean they might be incubators in certain areas or they come from Syria but at the end of the day who pays the price here it is the Iraqis and the Iraqi families and I've been working on my organization for nine years seeing the suffer of the people if you would like to arrest five people in this process you detain hundreds what's going to happen to those people when they walk out from the detention centers and despair they feel and so so as you know the process we have I mean there has to be a due process for example you have to arrest and then detain and then being trial but at the end of the day this is affecting the lives of the families the second point is the legislation process and how to write the bills that is affecting all the regions and there are legal procedures that has to be followed where there's a certain code and law that come to an end for example there are families and they're related to the codes and they are they are looking also for pensions and also to provide to get positions or jobs and so this is we there is so I lost and cause they we will not be able to pass although the the council of ministers were pushing for it but there was a political difference in the parliament hence it couldn't be passed so there these are things that are related or impact the different places Salah-e-Dinu-Diala and other and creating a gap between the constituencies and their representatives at the end of the day the citizen will ask did I vote for the right representative here or not and also when we talk about some of the political parties here that are is considered to be religiously extreme I think also when they have a candidate they will at the end of the day those candidates will not serve the the Iraqi society as a whole as you know there are so many religions so many groups in Iraq as a whole so again the national project is the only project that will be able to represent all Iraqis and bring them to a safe side so so the so when the elections as at the end of the day there is always a percentage of unfairness maybe but it was conducted and there was a huge outcome in the elections the previous elections and now we are facing a new elections as Mr Asad Shabandem talked or discussed that we we don't want to repeat the mistakes that was taken it's not about I mean calling our constituents to vote to Shia or to Sunni or no this is and also the the media is playing a major role here to witness fair elections where the Iraqi citizen can know who is running and where to vote so I focus here I would say that also not being we have to work more on legislations we have to also work on amnesty in a wider fashion you cannot punish a huge segment or certain group when and the the prison at the end of the day is not the solution you have other solutions through the civil society organizations through the different departments each one has a role and and I played it already but it wasn't kind of a comprehensive approach and it needs more efforts Mr. Shabandem about the same question if he has a different view if not then my question follow-up on your point do you think there is I mean the accountability and justice law has been quoted a number of times as as is one of the key problems of Iraq in addition to the the terror law and other things is there the political will in Iraq now or in the near future for ending that law or changing it and especially in the or backdoor communications is that is that topic being raised is there political will to do it if you may I will just answer the first question first and the elections in 2005 and 2020 and 2010 was sectarian 100 percent the voter was not looking to vote for whoever candidate based on his or her merits credentials so so they were voting for Shia who would you know talk against Sunnis and vice versa but and and in 2005 2010 the Sunni didn't see any improvement in their lives and the Shias as well they were living in houses made of mud and they don't have tap water and they will be able to walk to sacred places freely but the Shia didn't have a quality education and how a quality housing and the Sunnis as well so the elections the the outcome of the elections was 35% and and and this is terrifying percentage so that means in other words that 65 percent of the one who can vote they stayed at home because why because of mistrust and the ones who voted for before and today we are witnessing the new elections in 2014 and I'm afraid I'm afraid that this percentage here I'm talking about the 65 percent instead of going out and vote for better candidates they prefer to stay home and leave the space to the same failures and I say failures the same people and do the same thing so we are we're witnessing this kind of peril 65 percent were they were they were they were not they didn't vote and if we witness the same percentage that means again those people who are in the same political post will will continue the work what is kind of hopeful for me that the the Shia block that was elected and voted for on sectarian basis was dismantled what we call the national coalition because actually it's a Shia coalition not the national coalition and on the other hand the Sunni what we call the Sunni coalition also was dismantled and actually this is a good sign and a healthy sign and because this is not the national coalition this is a Sunni coalition so I speculate that the elections will will end up to to create alliances among Sunnis and she has to serve the national platform at the end not to each one protect each each denomination when you talk about justice and accountability and debauchification this was the biggest mistake we committed for I mean at the Iraqi society and the constitution committed a dire mistake even if you look into the words using the words that and how to deal with the remnants of this party because the constitution actually says talk about debauchification how can you debauch how can you root out a certain ideology ideology you cannot do that and with all these numbers of bathists were and majority of them they were actually forced to be bathists and to find you know for to find a job or others so in when I was working on this committee committee debauchification I always called to change this word of debauchification no we no no to to root out the repercussions of the bath party it had dire implications on on the ethics etc so and to have a new a new experience um to to how to improve these negative impacts of the party rule in the past and so all the bathists actually came and visited us and and the apologists and they and they told me we I mean we were forced to join the bath party because for for to find a job or others so and we were forced I mean there's no we can only choose between the prison or be part or be a member of the bath party so to and but to to deal them in this kind of oppression sometimes they were forced also to to to you know to be extreme sometimes and or to join al qaeda or other groups so the mistreatment with the bathies or the remnants of the previous regime turned turned some of them to be enemies because they were deprived from their work so there is no other choice in front of them it changed that from your conversations from your internal conversations or backdoor channel conversations with the other political parties ahead of the elections and for the next election do you think there is I mean I I remember seeing a state of law politician saying that they have lost seats in the provincial elections because they softened up on on on changing or easing up the accountability and justice law but in the backdoor conversation is is there another will to to to change that in my estimation I would say yes I be and there are some enthusiasts who said 10 years of punishment is enough 10 years of punishment is enough especially that to them it was tangible that to implement this kind of laws and codes had a negative impact on the unification of the iraqi society in in in fact the committee of five will resume its work to discuss bills and among them is this among the laws is this code or law where to we will be determined to working on this law to protect the families at least of the iraqi society honaka I know that you are the founder and the head of the iraqi women and future organization and NGO that works to empower women what what is the effect of the violence and the and the political I would say probably this function in iraq that installing the political process on the iraqi women and their livelihoods and when you look into the history of the 10 years we struggled a lot in the past 10 years and the struggle or the conflict of course between the politicians also shadowed us as women politicians and I talk here on behalf of a group or on behalf of the iraqi political women's especially our struggle in the constitution also that the representation of women has to be no less than 25 percent in the parliament and we had to struggle for that and there was also welcoming to that from the united states about that and other so that was initiative by a group of iraqi women in the parliament and the provision councils and and and the level of crafting laws that is related to elections that we have to preserve this and but but we don't see a huge woman block in the parliament because of the partisan direction that the the the woman parliamentarian so the previous parliament or today we are about 20 we run again and we win based on open lists and we also we provide with proposals or bills and also we preserve everything related to women but this is not an easy path especially when we there has to be representation to women everywhere inside the parliament and there is 88 women out of 325 total parliamentarians and and we don't there is kind of a kind of a ministry of foreign women affairs but we believe that women can produce on the same level of men and we we would not allow to the men politicians to compose the government on their own because there was a delay and and the previous elections and and we were not we we will not enter the new parliament unless there is a complete representation that is not less than 25 percent in the government on the level of the society yes the Iraqi woman suffered a lot and it's the main victim here and and harmed paramountly when her son is being killed or her husband also so will live in dire circumstances and one of the members of her family members could be a member to a certain group she could be ending up suffering in one way the other and the prime minister decided to release all women from the prisons because of the clashes that took place in the society so again the Iraqi woman suffered a lot since the since the days of this the boycott or the siege in the around 13 years but it's a very active it's well respected in the Iraqi society represented in the defense in the police in education in the universities so the woman or the feminism is active or the feminism movement is active in Iraq and yes I would say we were excluded from represent to be represented in the government but we're working on that and and there are challenges we don't ignore but nobody can reach his or her goal without sacrifices and work hard on that I believe that women is not the 25 percent of the society but it's a half of the society so I actually call for women to be represented by 50 percent thank you this is a have Haiti I'm independent I have three questions two of them for Mr. Shabander and the third one for Ms. Nader I would like to learn more about the similarity between Assad using his army against his people and Mr. Malik and what he's doing against any region in Iraq where there's terrorism and why we why there was no journey for Iraq as it's now happening with Syria second question is related is Iraq is now ready to give birth to a new kind of dictatorship the third question is the Iraqi army ready up to the level to fight such a fight with people have nothing or goal in life but to kill humanity is Mr. Malik does Mr. Malik has consultants that would really tell him honestly about the readiness of the army and the way he's supposed to fight I think comparison between it's unfair to compare between Assad and Maliki Assad used his army and we know the circumstances and the opposition in Syria is quite different from us the regime in Syria is different from completely different from the Iraq a government and Maliki was cursed by the citizens and those people there for almost 14 months and he didn't do anything there's a quite big difference between the two Assad is ready to set aside all the money all the budget of Syrian government to kill his people Maliki cannot even control a smallest amount of money to unless the you know the legislators and the council of ministers and so on and Maliki is suffering to import helicopters there was opposition against him everywhere by the council of ministers and the legislators and so on there's no way to compare the two are there any council or advisors that would tell the Maliki what to do what to do what not to do by constitutions he is like an administrator in the ministers councils and he can only follow the system the constitution gave him enough authority to be general chief of the Iraqi forces he's not like Montgomery or any of these famous military names but this is what we have now and whatever is being said that the Iraqi army is killing the people is not correct but imprisoning or detaining people yes maybe yes we know the Americans really dismantled the whole country and the state collapsed with all of his establishments and now Iraq is facing all of these challenges without having these establishments especially the security apparatus we were till 2009 there was a lot of kidnapping and explosions taken place imprisonment and everything would be done against an unknown party the party the government could not really claim that they could apprehend one of the those wrong doer but after 2010 they changed their path and the results was as my colleague just mentioned that in order for them to apprehend five people they would imprison or detain a hundred people which affected the whole society in a way so the security apparatus is not efficient and capable to face this capable and efficient challenge from the other side the terrorists they are really those terrorists are capable of facing the most an advanced country in the world like the United States well what about Iraq it just came out of all of these problems and it's not really in a state to fight back I think there's no way to compare between the two systems between Syria and Iraq we have the parliament and political France they would really reject any anything any wrong doing of that level there is a problem in the measurements on how the most how to use the most effective ways to fight terrorism probably they're not like the martyre Muhammad Kirwi he was a leader a very respectful one and a friend of us he went with a good will to fight terrorism but he he he was not a Shiite he got killed there were Sinni's all of them as you know I tried to just mention something probably never mentioned before Iraq is a big market and the free market in Iraq is the first loser in that equation we the merchant the people conduct the business they are the one who mostly hurt because we know all of these terrorist groups they threaten and they impose like fines on all of these businesses and merchants so they you know for any economy or business in order for them to flourish they should be a kind of stability talking about different kind of uh pioneer world leaders in the country uh traders in the country they need this kind of stability so we are demanding the for the people to be capable of protecting the people and protect themselves so that we don't lose uh our uh officers renounce ones we have a lot of border areas and jazeera between Syria and Iraq in Mosul there are a lot of sacrifices that being given but uh within the cities I would say the local police forces are more effective and the people the tribes leaders and the people citizens themselves they are more effective than the army I remember doing this in several regions including Baghdad as we would go and sit with the people where people would sit together that they are together and trying to face the same enemy and I think everywhere in Iraq the people and the role of the the security apparatus or the military has to be clear and they has to be a unified kind of goal and they all work in a cohesive and unified way to fight terrorism this is the only frame we could work within army is to protect Iraq the borders of Iraq but not to get involved in internal problems and conflicts we know from history that the tribes in Ambar are the one who were the most effective in fighting uh terrorism uh even though also also in Baghdad we have the same thing when there was the awakening groups they are the ones who were succeeded in fighting terrorism Dr Abbas Wattan uh head of the uh uh Iraqi Union for Peace Mr Shah Bander you're one of the distinguished Iraqi distinguished politicians do you think the next elections will witness change in the these political groups and would there be a ground for the secular kind of a group among those politicians and do you see any of those nominees for the next elections so that we all could succeed working together where there's a place for everybody under the flag of plurality uh I just have a a a comet on the role of the Iraqi woman Dr Neda Jaburi talked about the Iraqi woman I wished and every other Iraqi woman would wish to see a list for Iraqi woman within the coming elections we have a lot of women that are capable of being so they should be a special electoral list for the Iraqis and as Mr Shambardar said that women represent half of the society and I would say women is half of the equation my question is now we see a lot of uh political uh fronts participating in elections we also on the other hand saw that some of the bigger uh fronts or coalitions are dismantled as Mr Shambardar just mentioned that he left the uh state of flow coalition and went to a unified uh list which is representing a lot of secular and pronounced uh Iraqi personality and uh also Mr Saleh did this similar thing so all of these big names of the Iraqi France and coalitions uh what would be their destination are they going to be unified this is mine this is used here aren't sinners or what's gonna happen are we gonna are they gonna distance themselves from sectarianism uh that being conducted as a speech for the last elections and we are are we gonna see in this parliament the a real Iraqi citizen representing the interest of the Iraqis uh I wish and I hope that the results of the uh coming elections to be different the first sign we'll see that as we just said the dismantling of the uh those big fronts the political fronts there's a great efforts to activate those 65 percent who refused to vote for those uh in the last two elections and we hope to see the 65 percent voting and participating in the vote to elect a better people and and uh there's a slogan we know whoever you elect is the one who's gonna be uh uh running uh and your country if you're good someone good will run you so you have to elect the right people so Dr Salih Muttakbeen asked about the role of the foreign funds in the elections in Iraq it being uh uh as a matter of fact decreased but unfortunately there was uh an ill gained uh funds that played role within the elections and these money now are available to affect the negatively the coming elections uh all of the good fronts probably would not be capable or able to face that uh force with the people with the uh money uh ill earned but now what we're trying to say to the people if to the people tell them if someone will come to buy your vote take the money but vote for someone else that's the only way to go around that just a comment about the election law it does not really uh the recently passed law does not uh support the uh uh greater and bigger fronts coalition uh gonna they are if they want to go into the coming elections so the new law would serve the middle-sized kind of fronts and uh coalitions so uh we don't have any kind of animosity now among the list uh i want to answer the question about the woman's electoral list we need to have a woman that would win elections out of the list the electoral list it's not impossible but kind of hard at this time also we would like to see uh list under the name uh head uh of a woman that want to hit that list it's this is kind of this is kind of hard at this time we try to prove ourselves by being like number four and within the political list which uh especially among those people with long history in the political work but to have a list just strictly of women we from the practical side it does not serve us very well even if you go to europe and other countries you don't see this kind of list have there's no quota even uh there are a lot of politicians female politicians who have interests in the political work they go and work within a political party and they play the role we think that we are doing the same and doing the role we're playing the role we're supposed to play within the political uh action question to mr. schabander you referred to that there was a mistake on the accountability uh on uh applying the law of accountability and the especially i had questions about the uh uh the deputy the sunni deputy to the maliki whether it has a part of that or related to anyway to that law i have four uh like images about the iraqi like uh government the sistani electricity and then uh the heroic acts of al-ahmed al-maliki and mohmoud al-mashhadani the head of the parliament i have a question if mr. schabander or miss neda had the opportunity to become a prime minister okay for what kind of a state and how would they work to achieve that kind of goals they have in mind to answer the first part of your question accountability and fairness it was uh kind of uh the the law was legally speaking was wrong as i said it was just put in a goal to eradicate bad things also when they applied the law they had a lot of problems and discrepancies so there were some criminals uh who were not really uh uh dealt with so there were a lot of bathies of high-level bathies were one of the best people uh and they got that rank within the uh bath party because of their position and their uh a job within the government your question is very important the eradication uh went the wrong way not because of the shia also the islamic party and which is sunni was the most enthusiastic party to create and activate that law so the law was not shia kind of law it was a political mistake and so now i would say committed by all shahrestani is the one who had this power or electricity problem i never dreamed to become a prime minister i'm not working in that direction but i say we need uh forgiving uh and uh reconciling prime minister that's what we need for our society we need a man capable of making peace and uh confidence among people and trust we think that shia as sunni need to come together in the coming period to choose a prime minister who is capable of giving peace and trust to people not to create crisis or to lengthen the crisis we wish for iraq that because iraq deserve this i'm quite uh convinced and i know i'm not going to be a prime minister because i'm a female which is but if i had the opportunity i would say i would work to build a civil state and everybody keep his or her sikt away from the state if i live in iraq i will start today in fire in a system very serious and a system to go after terrorism and eradicate corruption because corruption is the one who the one who brought uh uh terrorism and everything to us because if you want to build a civil state you need to fight corruption firstly and uh iraq here's a lot of you i'll give our guests a chance to give closing remarks and then we'll have the opportunity and time for you to come down and ask your questions here and in closing i wanted to see if you have any closing observations that you want to share with us and if you have any specific advice for the next term of the parliament that will be elected in the april elections i would like to thank you again and i like i would like to convey uh also your your voices in fact all the problems we faced in politics and worth whether we talk about shortage of services or security it is also it represents a real battle in iraq which is the battle between iraq and terrorism and we would like here to ask our friends in the united states to stand by iraq iraq will enter this battle on behalf of everyone so this is it so this is it iraq will go into this battle on behalf of everyone hence everyone has to stand by iraq some what you may hear here as americans from iraqi leaders they to warn the united states to provide more weapons that be because the weapons might be used politically i hope they don't you don't hear or don't hear to this because this is a national battle and there is no reason that will make the commander-in-chief to use the weapons against his people and he did not use he didn't that did that in the past and if he tried even tried he will he will fail so that will be the end of his post so so let's put all our disagreements aside and mr and sheikh ahmed abrisha here i remember him we all met ahmed abrisha he is one of the leaders at the sit-in square why why he he is a leader because he's talking about legitimate requests for his people but when and and they became captives to the isis he and and the witness whiteness he said let's postpone our demands because we have now a priority another priority which is fighting terrorism in ambar this is a role model we should follow this is a role model that to everyone else the to the other political leaders that if you have a disagreement with malik or other somebody else to drop the the major battle and and i i i see this coming and i have a comment about iraq a position towards syria it is unjust to call on iraq that they are we are supporting the syrian regime this is this is not happening and i i believe that the the new iraq suffered from the syrian regime uh unprecedented and those terrorists who are now in syria or trained in syria they are targeting iraq and the independence of iraq under the pretext that they are fighting the occupation but when there is weapons and train and going inside iraq they don't differentiate between terrorists and iraqi citizens and so there is a vision of iraq or iraq's vision towards syria and the that the solution in syria is not a military solution and we and i swear here that iraq actually did not vote when it okay voting on arming the opposition because we said if we armed the opposition and and it even to the level to the syrian regime army what do you expect the results of that they will kill each other and no party will settle any scores so and here what we're seeing happening in syria so what is the solution in iraq's vision and where others looked at this solution as to be a far away solution and iraq until today we can intervene in the syrians and more than even russia or more even to iran to find a solution iraq and take the other's words from me that we can convince bashar asad to conduct a fair elections under absolute international observation and to to also so we need and we look into the libanese experience they killed each other but at the end they couldn't exclude any one of them today we have two or three parties that are are fighting against each other in syria and in the future we cannot say that we can exclude any of them so bashar asad we're not except to to to certain conditions and bashar asad also cannot put conditions on the opposition so the so what is the only solution here to witness free elections under international observation and if if their election will bring bashar so and and and and yes so that's that's what i'm and and when you look the amel movement or libanon experience experiments so they are the solution and that and that could be imposed by iraq an bashar and i'm confident about what i'm saying that this man is ready to run into real elections under international observation nothing to do with the iraq is syrian government and look witness to the outcome of these elections and thank you very much i would like to thank you all and i would thank you for your patience hearing us and i think that the united states can play a role in in the future in something very important especially the iraqi elections and when you look into the strategic frame agreement and where the united states has to support democracy in iraq in terms of providing advices and observations and also in other spheres in building the institutions and establishments in iraq and this is very important to bring this american experience especially when it comes to combat corruption combating terrorism we need this american experience in these fields i mean when it comes to arming the the army there's nobody who will disagree about that but what we are missing is the institutions and in in different directions again combating corruption combating terrorism providing transparent elections stimulate people to participate in the elections the united states and many other organizations can bring advice to us about that so i believe today that you standing with iraq is is very important to to bring iraq out of this struggle and of course we are with a peaceful solution in syria and and that we witness elections in syria so we are with a political solution not within a military solution but when we are at the same token also we we talk about the importance of accountability and justice and and to and to be a honesty in dealing with each other and with the different segments with this we're actually we're especially with the people who suffered in iraq and thank you very much i would like to thank you again this afternoon thank you so ladies and gentlemen let me also add my thanks to all of you who've participated in this who have asked good questions uh want to thank the deputy prime minister who is at root to the capitol hill we want to thank uh both uh dr gibory and mr shundan bar for his and um so hung for your moderating great job thank you for the interpreter up there did a great job thank you all very much for coming thank you