 Good afternoon. My name is Mona Yacoubian. I'm the vice president for the Middle East in North Africa here at the US Institute of Peace. It's my great pleasure to welcome you this afternoon to our discussion on developments in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. It is our great pleasure and honor to welcome his Excellency Rebar Ahmed, the KRG's Minister of Interior, who is visiting Washington. I want to extend a warm welcome to you Minister Ahmed. We're very honored to have you with us and very much look forward to your insights on developments in the KRG in Iraq and more broadly in the region. I also want to take this moment to extend a very warm welcome to the Kurdistan Regional Government Representative to the US, Bayan Sami Abdel Rahman. Thank you so much for our long-standing partnership for your cooperation with USIP. Let me also in particular express our gratitude to the American University of Kurdistan with whom we are co-hosting today's event. We've had the great pleasure of partnering with the UK on a number of events, including a key conference that address the issues of security and climate change. This was part of the Middle East peace and security forum, which was held in Dohuk earlier this year. A special thanks to Dr. Honar Aisa, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees at AUK, whose efforts have made this collaboration possible. Let me just take a moment to speak briefly about USIP's work in Iraq. This year marks the 20th anniversary of USIP's work in Iraq. It is, I believe, the longest continuous presence we've had in any country globally. Our partnership with the Government of Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Iraqi people has not only helped mitigate conflict and build peace in Iraq, but it has enabled sharing analysis and lessons to inform policy and policymaking both in Iraq and here in Washington. And it is in that light that I think we are particularly grateful for today's discussion. This event really underscores the power of the partnerships that USIP has, both for our work on the ground and in enhancing our understanding here in Washington of developments in this complex region. After brief welcoming remarks from Dr. Aisa and Representative Abdel Rahman, USIP's Director of Middle East Program, Sarhang Hama Said, will moderate a discussion with Minister Ahmed. With that, I'm delighted to hand it over and welcome to the podium Dr. Aisa, who has, as I said, served as the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the UK since 2017, not that long. Dr. Aisa, welcome. Okay, thank you, Mona. Your Excellency Minister Reba Rahmat steamed diplomats, scholars, distinguished guests. I extend a warm welcome on behalf of the Middle East Peace and Security Forum and the American University of Kurdistan. Today, we gather here in Washington, D.C., for our AUK-USIP event, and it is an honor to have you all with us. The MIPS Forum, hosted by the American University of Kurdistan, serves as a vital platform for fostering dialogue and collaboration among academics, intellectuals, and decision-makers through inclusive discussions and academic research. Our aim is to promote understanding, resolve conflicts, and enabling stability, enabling enhancing stability in the Middle East. We encourage innovative ideas and initiatives that will contribute to achieving lasting peace and security in the region. Today's event is one of several initiatives, leading up to our annual MIPS Forum, where we will delve into topics such as peace, security, climate change, and reform in Kurdistan Region of Iraq. I would also like to express my gratitude to His Excellency Minister Reba Rahmat for accepting our invitation to participate in our panel discussion. I would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the U.S. Institute of Peace, particularly Ms. Mona and Kaiser Hang and Yomna, for their unwavering dedication to our partnership. Additionally, I want to acknowledge the continuous support of KRG representative, Ms. Bayan Sami, and her incredible team, as well as the generous backing of the AUK Foundation, who have been instrumental in supporting the Middle East Peace and Security Forum since its inception in 2019. Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation to each and every one of you for your presence and active participation. I hope that you will find today's conversation with His Excellency Minister of the Interior, enlightening and engaging. Now I would like to ask Ms. Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman to deliver a few words from the podium. Thank you. Good afternoon. A very warm welcome to all of you who are joining us here at this auspicious occasion, and also those of you who are joining us virtually. I believe we have a very large audience online. It's a great honor to have His Excellency Minister Reba Rahmat here in Washington, D.C. As you all know, he is the minister for our homeland security. His ministry deals with border protection, policing, the well-being of refugees and IDPs, countering drug trafficking, terrorism financing. So this gentleman has enormous responsibilities, and we in Kurdistan are extremely confident in his leadership and we're delighted that he is here in Washington this week. I would like to extend our thanks to Ms. Lisa Grande, the president of USIP. Mona Jakubyan, thank you very much, and of course, Khaqzarhang Hamasaheed. I have been here in Washington for eight years, and USIP was one of the first institutes to welcome me here, and I'm delighted that our partnership has continued and has strengthened over that time. USIP plays a critical role in extending peace, dialogue and reconciliation, and as I remarked earlier on today, it's an institution in Washington that does not suffer Iraq fatigue, and I think we should all be grateful for that, and we should all appreciate USIP's leadership in this field. I would also like to thank Dr. Hunar Issa and the American University of Kurdistan. The American University of Kurdistan is one of the trailblazers in higher education in Kurdistan and Iraq, and there is no better champion for the university than Dr. Hunar Issa. I'm delighted to be here today at this joint event between USIP and the American University of Kurdistan, and to welcome again his excellency to Washington. Thank you all very much. Well, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ban Rahman. Welcome, everyone. My name is Sarang Hamasaheed, director of Middle East programs here at USIP. I have the pleasure and honor to be on stage with His Excellency Minister Rebbar Ahmad, and I would like to also express my appreciation for the partnership between USIP and the KRG over the years on projects of conflict resolution and peacebuilding, and for the partnership of the KRG representative office here in Washington and the American University of Kurdistan. So thank you, Keal Kunar, and thank you, Bayan Khan. So for those who are joining us here and those who are watching online, we will be delving directly into questions. I'll start with some questions to the minister, and then we will welcome Keal questions here through question cards and those who are watching us online through the chat box on the USIP website under the event page to send your questions that way, or tag us on Twitter with the hashtag Rebbar Ahmad at USIP, as you can see on the screen for those who are here. We would like to make this an interactive discussion as much as possible. So in terms of obviously there are three domains that we can think of for this discussion, Your Excellency. The developments inside the Kurdistan region, developments in Iraq, developments in the Middle East, and developments at the global stage. And obviously there are probably four or five categories of themes we can talk to, such as democracy and governance, security, economic reforms, and climate change, regional dynamics and global dynamics in addition to then the role and the partnership with the United States between the Kurdistan region and the United States, the KRG and the United States. So hopefully we will be able to cover as much ground. And I cannot think of a better person from the Kurdistan region really at this particular moment to come and talk to us about the security dynamics. His excellence is the heart of the security and the political dynamics. And he was one of the top contenders for becoming the president of Iraq. So he is in the thick of the dynamics. Your Excellency, welcome again. If we can start with a big picture question. This year marks 20 years since the fall of Saddam Hussein and Iraq's efforts to transition towards democracy. So in that, and then we are now about seven months into the most recent, the most recent government that has been formed as a result of the 2021 elections. So if we look at democracy and governance from your perspective, where do you assess Iraq's democracy and governance to be after 20 years and seven months into the Sudan government? Well, thank you very much. First of all, I am so privileged to be here. And thank you very much for USIP and the American University of Kurdistan to invite me to these important events and this to be among our friends in Washington. I am so grateful to be here. And thank you very much for all of our friends who are here attending this interview. Regarding the democracy and progress in our country in Iraq, everybody knows about the change happened after 2003. And we passed a very good constitution and everybody accepted that constitution, at least the modern 80% of Iraqi people voted for this new constitution. So I, we believe in Kurdistan that it's a very good initiative to have a new democracy in the region and should be an example to the Middle East. If you look to the last two decades, just to following the process regarding the implementation of the constitution and how we run the country together with our partners in Baghdad, I believe it's a new process and maybe it will take more time to understand the change because Iraqi is not contained just when sect or nation or religion. Iraq is containing different components, which is the Arabs, Kurds, Christian, ZDs, Turkmen, different components and Shia and Sunni are part of the process. So to look at the history of Iraq, it's not easy to turn just by changing the regime from a dictatorship to a democracy and a democratic ship. It means that we have to change the mentality of the decision makers, even the population itself because within the new mentality and to give up that centralism of thinking is the main way to accept each other and to accept the change happened after 2003. Unfortunately we are suffering from unimplementing the constitution. Regarding the problems between Erbil and Baghdad, they are highlighted in the constitution within the Article 140, the disputed area, nothing had been achieved on the ground. On the other hand, in the daily best we are receiving some pressure in around Kerkuk province itself that some Shavinese peoples who are trying to repeat the same policy and the same process more specifically against the Kurds and Turkmen around the city. So we are facing more pressure in different issues in that within the Peshmerga there is no support from the federal government to our forces. Still we are suffering because there is no good equipment to Peshmerga, no training, no releasing salaries, even the budgets are one of the main problems between Erbil and Baghdad but when it comes to the democracy and the process itself we are very frequently we are holding our elections in Baghdad and there is changing the the cabinets in different occasions but the problem is what can those cabinet achieve and where is the stability, where is the prosperity of the country with all of those large numbers of revenue and the financial support and with that biggest budget in the country no service is still taking place in in different province in Iraq accepting our region in Kurdistan so the progress had been made in our region within our that small portion of budget which came from Baghdad and according to our ability with our selling the gas and oil we did a very good job in our region and we tried to transfer our experience from our province to other parts of Iraq and we are totally supporting the democracy and the delivering services to other parts of Iraq and regarding the new cabinet in Baghdad as you know it formed after a struggle between all the partners in Baghdad we are part of this and still we are supporting the new cabinet after we signed a new agreement between all the partners regarding the political agreement and even the cabinet program which passed by the parliament and we are somehow optimistic to the future that the new prime minister will be able to implement the political agreement and implementing the constitution itself because some of the political agreement and the cabinet program is linked to this constitution for example still the federalism is not implemented in in Iraq only we have just the Kurdistan region as a federal region so we have to have a new assembly which is the federal assembly which is mentioned inside the constitution so inside the political agreement there is an article that within the six months we have to have some new laws one of them is the hydrocarbon laws and the other is to amend the federal court law and the third one and the most important is the federal assembly which till now nothing had been achieved however we together with our partner in Baghdad we worked on a draft regarding the hydrocarbon law but unfortunately nothing had been achieved because of the competition inside the parliament within the new law of budget so we are very supportive and we are very close to the prime minister in Baghdad the relation between our cabinet with the federal government is so good and the prime minister himself as Excellency Masr al-Barsani is very supportive and support the prime minister in Baghdad to let him act as a prime minister for everybody in Iran and we believe that this new prime minister he has that ability if others will let him to act as a prime minister for everyone so I would like to ask my next question and exactly where you where you ended with prime minister Abadi with prime minister Adl Abdel Mahdi with prime minister Caldemy they all had positive relations with the Kurdistan region but then it is the broader political actors that then in parliament outside parliament then the direction changes so looking at the budget experience looking at the conversations about the hydrocarbon law or the energy law or the oil and gas law many people in Iraq use the term last opportunity this was the last the government of the last opportunity because for the past 20 years yes there has been progress in your constitution as you mentioned elections but you also mentioned some of the challenges that made governance difficult Iraq is a diverse country as you mentioned governing in that diversity has been difficult so when the Iraqis talk about this is the last opportunity what and the leadership talk about this what do they mean this is the last opportunity and what could be done so that this does not become the last opportunity and the political agreement actually is implemented well I don't like to say that it will be the last opportunity but I would like to say that we are facing the same problem but in different time and in different shape why someone is calling and telling this process that it will be a last opportunity because we are signing good agreement we provide a good constitution and there's all participating in this cabinet Shia would different accept the al-sad with different blocks Sunni with different blocks Kurds with different representatives we are our representatives in this cabinet so if all of us together we will not be able to implement the political agreement and the cabinet program so what will be the result the fall of the state and the chaos in the in the country so therefore someone are trying to to tell that and to making pressure that this will be the last opportunity otherwise we lost many opportunities and I believe there is good opportunity within all of threats and challenge there is vacuum for opportunities if as I mentioned if all of partners will support the president the prime minister in this position and in in this very specific time I believe there is a good opportunity for successful but otherwise we will repeat the same mistakes and we will have the same problem but maybe in different shape maybe another chaos in the country but for how long the Iraqi citizens the Iraqi poor people will accept all of these caves and support the politics politicians election after elections earlier election and sometimes changing the prime ministers in between two elections so we used to have every kind of experience people need more services more stability and dignity so just look at the last election people were not participating and that's large numbers the participation was not so helpful so it will if the situation will be like this no delivering services no hopes to the future and the loyalty to the country will not be on that level that protect the security and the safety of people so it will be last opportunity in it but again I am I am I am talking about the the future and I'm talking about the prime minister who is on this position he is a reliable prime minister so therefore we are continuously supporting the prime minister on his effort to implement the agreement and somehow in different way to try to implement the constitution itself because we all gave him six month with all of these problems maybe there will be another six month but it will not be to the end right so we are looking forward what will be the achievement of the cabinet were supported by everybody but again there is a lot of pressure on the prime minister in different sites and trying to stop him to be a prime minister for everybody thank you definitely I think that sense of optimistic optimism about the prime minister and his cabinet is something that I have seen and witnessed when I visited Baghdad a couple of times this year and it's at the level of the people you see that growing so hopefully the government his government will be able now it has a strong parliamentary backing so there is an opportunity for legislation to look at the lessons of the past 20 years and try to prevent some of those challenges so your excellency if I shift gears and focus on the Kurdistan region the journey of the Kurdistan region on democracy started earlier in 1992 when the KRG was formed elections after the the uprisings where do you assess the democracy and government in the Kurdistan region especially as you know there are areas of progress but also there are areas where most recently people got concerned about some of the internal Kurdish dynamics what is your assessment well as you mentioned we started our democracy much earlier than Baghdad we started after 1991 after the uprising all our people in Kurdistan and we started to have election to have our parliament to have our government and it wasn't easy for us to have that kind of progress regarding the democracy again we are part of the middle east and there is a lot of pressures and intra-conflict in between our communities and because of the sensitivity of the Kurdish issue in the middle east we are receiving more pressure in in different sides but thanks Gert and thanks our people and thanks again to our political parties we are we passed that hard time to facing each other but then now nowadays the more competition between the political parties is to have a new election in our region so I believe within the new election to be held in our region the future will be much better than now and all of this that those problems will be solved to have a new election and I am asking for all of the political parties to support the effort in Kurdistan to as soon as possible to determine a new date of the election and to have a new election very earlier so on elections there talks about two elections in Iraq one for the Kurdistan region parliament and as of which will come a new government but also talk about provincial elections in Iraq so now you're saying that there and a date has not been set for the Kurdistan regional government that is being worked on but is there a date for the provincial elections in Iraq yes the provincial election is in Iraq is determined in November okay but our election supposed to be in November too but because of that problems happened inside the parliament where some were not so happy within the progress with the forward to have a new election somehow it had been postponed it and there is no any new exact time for have a new election and they complicated the situation within the new decision by the federal court in Baghdad again nothing will stop us in Kurdistan to have a new election because we have no alternative without to go back to the people and ask them who will be able to run the country better than before so we are ready to have an election the prime minister himself the prime his excellency Masroor Balzani is very strongly pushed forward to have a new election and we already know but it's somehow the the high commission of the election in Erbil or in Baghdad who will be able to run this new election this is the question otherwise we have no any alternative for not having an election even if what it will happen this year or the next year we should have an election and we have to accept the results so people will determine and decide who will be the majority and minority inside the parliament we are respecting the decisions by the people but provincial elections it it's belong to Iraq we are not participating as a region we have our own law for the our for the province election in our region so we hope that that that election will be succeed and will be held in in the same same time however there's some problems on the way because the high commission of election in Baghdad maybe for the next month will not be there anymore so I believe there is a lot of problems and obstacles on the way to have that election even in Iraq okay yeah I mean even my visits I have been hearing that it may be pushed to early next year because the preparations may not be ready so if I may just follow up I mean the Kurdistan regional government and you made some references to it that takes pride in starting elections and embarking on a journey of democracy before Iraq started in 2003 and there are achievements that the KRG leadership point to with pride but in recent years there has also been some criticism directed at the Kurdistan regional government for some areas of human rights and some areas of freedom of expression how would you respond to those criticism well first of all there is no any perfect area regarding the human rights and the democracy even globally but we started within the new cabinet when the prime minister Mr. Barzani started the new cabinet he dedicated and committed to the democracy and to the human rights protection and to provide better situation and environment for the freedom of express and this is our program and this is our strategy and this excellence is committed and everybody inside the cabinet is committed to protect better human rights and provide that situation for the freedom of express but there have to be a reality and we have to look at the reality on the ground maybe someone are talking some about some issues where it's not the reality just allocated some points just to show that there are some concerns even if there are some concerns we as government we are very open to tackle these issues if there are some wrong issues and some policies are running in some districts or some province it's not our strategy as a as a cabinet and totally we are opposite to this process and the prime minister is ordering everybody especially the minister of interior to following all of these issues and we are open to any kind of negotiation exchanging views with our partners in locals and the international partners to tackling this issue and even I am asking our partner here in Washington that maybe we need in different areas more training and more support because we have to take benefit from other experience very specifically in Washington and from our friends in the United States so we are very open to tackle every single point there which is concerned by anyone if it's locally or from our friends in internationally again I am repeating that our commitment and dedicated to the democracy and the human rights and just to if to look at the media in our region you can find everything everyone has the right to talk about everything politically socially economically if they are tackling everything they are talking about everyone and no one inside the cabinet are targeting anyone of those who are talking about their political issues and we are very proudly we don't have anyone in jail regarding their political views so this is the situation in our region again we are open to any kind of cooperation coordination receiving consultants and cooperating with our friends but I believe we are providing one of the best environment for everybody in our region just an example for that that we are hosting about one million refugees and IDPs from different areas of Iraq and different countries around the region and the majority of refugees are living in our country in our region and those people who were suffered when ISIS came and still who are suffering any kind of pressure in different province in Baghdad in south of Iraq in different province in Iraq the only area to think about and to live in peace and security and dignity is our region we are providing that environment for everybody in our region so how will be the case for our citizens in our origin in our region therefore we are very proud of that of coexistence and accepting each other I believe that democracy started from to accept the differences we are very proud of this point we don't care who is belong to what religion who is belong to what ethnic group or sect you can find out in in every single city in our region that everybody is living in a peace which is one of your main goals as an US IP so we are so proud for this process and this coexistence as I mentioned for our our friends that it's not just for media or the for politics these are values we believe in if the international community will support or not we as a community we grow up with this culture we grow up with the values to accept each other therefore the less number of fundamentalists in our region affiliated with ISIS even at the the top time of the ISIS we are controlling every area in in Sunni province so this is that values I always ask my our friends that it's not just our duty to protect these values to protect this region I believe it's the international community responsibility to protect Kurdistan within these values at least we have this small region in Middle East that accept everyone without asking who who are you and where are you come from just to give you a small example why we are accepting each other and why it's it becomes a value in my small village in Barzan there were mosque church and knist these different religious and these different temples were in a small village and the distance between all of these temples was just meters so this was a culture in in my small village and it's expanded to all of the region all of our people living in coexistence therefore they opened the gate first of all the their heart and then the the gate to all of the people who were in need in Iraq and even in Syria this is the situation therefore we are committed to the democracy to the human rights to the freedom of express and this is our culture thank you I think that's one of the welcome elements that I have seen in Erbil and also now you are reiterating is that with KRG is welcoming to collaborate work on improving things even where where things may not be at the desired objective level so that's that's a welcome and so I have a question on some of the things you said from the audience you talked about internally displaced persons and for context the fight against ISIS displaced about six million people and the Kurdistan region received close to I think at some point two million people between Iraqi displaced persons and Syrian refugees so the one question from the audience is what is the current KRG plan to immerse internally displaced persons like Yazidis Turkmen and others into local communities somehow integrated them yeah well our strategy regarding the displaced people IDPs who are living in our region more specifically the Yazidis and Christian we are supporting the strategy to return those people to their areas of origin voluntary and indignity and we believe that the integration with our local people is not the right way because it create a vacuum in name of a plane in Senja and indirectly there will be a demographic change which is totally we are against the any kind of demographic change we've suffered for that demographic change for the last decades when the dictatorship were ruling Baghdad they started an Arabization process in different area and we believe that the implementation of Article 140 will be the main roadway to give more opportunity to those people who are living in this area and Turkmen Christian Yazidis are from this area it's not the fair way to integrate them in other areas it's the wrong we believe it's a wrong policy we have to provide a security safety services and hops to these people to go back to their homeland this is the right way therefore we signed an agreement as you know with the federal government regarding the normalizing situation in Senja and the aim of the agreement is to convince Yazidis to go back to their homeland otherwise who will fill the gap a large number of Yazidis are living in our camps and in between our cities more than 350 000 still they are in the camps in everywhere but if you ask how you are I agree on the situation inside the camps totally not because it's not the best way but they are preferring to stay in camps not to go back to their homeland and there is many of factors but totally we in KRG are opposing this idea that integrating people Turkmen Christian Yazidis they are welcome in our region for long term but to integrate them so what will be the alternative for the homeland for the disputed area right it will it will make a disaster for this area therefore it's not the right policy clear so I before I move to ask you about security we have another question from the from the audience from Julia I think it relates to some of the things we talked about elections and so the the question is does the gender quota system in place and the KRG encourage the inclusion of more women in the government yes exactly and we hope that we will reach a point that without quota the women will be that large number represented in the institutions like parliaments like governments like inside the political parties leadership and there's a good progress regarding this issue large number of women's they win the elections even for the Iraqi parliament and for our parliament in Kurdistan without quota and they were gaining more votes and more than men so there's a very good progress regarding the women rule inside the institutions and by the way the prime minister is very supportive in this regard in this cabinet we have three women ministers and in different positions when there will be a replaced by a new members we are insisting to have a woman and I am the head of the committee to implement the UN Security Council resolution 1325 so we are working very closely with the high council of the women and development we have inside our ministry a very active general director which is dealing with the violence against women and children and we passed a very good law in our parliament to protect the women from any kind of violence and we just tried recently to have a new bill of the law to modify the the the recent law to the better condition to provide better condition for women inside the workplace so I believe there is a huge effort is going on in our region regarding the women participating in ruling the region and being a leadership thank you so if I may transition to security as representative Rahman talked about that part of your portfolio is homeland security it has several components so Iraq the Kurdistan region has dealt with the threat of al-Qaeda threat of ISIS you have the the pkk you have Turkish operations you have Iranian operations as minister what are how do you how do you assess the biggest threats to the Kurdistan region right now and what help or assistance are you getting from Baghdad and the United States to deal with them well we are living in a very complicated geography and we are receiving multi pressures yes as you mentioned pkk is one of the challenge and again pkk is one of the main challenge in senjo and the main restriction on the way to implementing the agreement because they are controlling many facilities inside the district and they are not helpful to leave to let people to go back ISIS still is one of the main threats to the to Iraq and to the region in in the Middle East not just in Iraq and even to our region unfortunately still there is a big gap between peshmerga forces within the iran security forces still there is two front line who are facing each other in different areas but there's good understanding between Baghdad and al-bil to have joint operations and to create to have establish a joint brigades there is good effort to after the new budget to pay salaries for those two brigades and it takes a lot of time so regarding the militias who are threatening the situation and the security in iraq in general and especially in disputed area again it's one of the main threats and challenge and in general in iraq in in in the middle east even in the in the world the drone attacks became one of the main threats to everybody so we had our share in this regard so we are seeking how to protect our region within the this kind of threats and therefore that support coming from united states to the peshmerga forces it's crucial and it started when the isis came and till now they are involving in reform with our peshmerga forces and financially supporting the peshmerga it's very important to continue and to have a unified peshmerga forces it's one of the main goals by the by his excellency prime minister he started a very good initiative with the reform inside peshmerga and nowadays we are in in a very good position regarding the reform it has been achieved a lot within the MOU signed by our government with the united states government so we are very optimistic regarding the unification of peshmerga forces and i believe within our security and intelligence services within our police forces we will be able to face all of this challenge of course within the cooperation by with the iraq federal governments and again getting support with the by the coalition forces who are still in the region fighting against terrorist group so if i may follow up on the assistance and relationship with the united states and the relationship historically moved from protection when saddam was in power there was attack the no fly zones to assistance to rebuild the region to partnership in the fight against saddam or the northern front to remove saddam was established and then in the fight against isis today and looking into the future where do you see the areas of collaboration partnership between the Kurdistan region and the united states well as i mentioned there was a lot of challenge in in the in the region we believe that we in iraq in general and more specifically in Kurdistan we're still in need to have united states as a partner as a main partner to support our security and our peshmerga forces even the iraq military forces to stand up with and to face all of that challenge because believe me we be able together to defeat isis militarily but still there is a high potential for this group to reorganize themselves and even they are targeting peshmerga forces iraqi security forces and the main part of the fundamentalist organization is the ideology itself so we have to work together very closely with iraqi federal governments with the united states and even with other partners international partners to face these fundamentalist people because the ideology is not not being tackled by by anyone it will take more time maybe decades to normalize the situation i always said that to win the the war it's much easier than to build a peace so now we are in in the in the post war position we have to continue the mission and to finish the mission and to try to build that peace in in our country in around the region because otherwise any kind of fail will be a disaster to all of that effort and those sacrificed those people who sacrificed to provide this situation for everybody in iraq so thank you if i may combine a question from the audience about climate change in the kurdistan region and it's my understanding that's another area especially under the by the administration where iraq and the kurdistan region are focusing on what can you tell us about cooperation on climate change and how do you see the challenge of climate change in the kurdistan region well we in iraq in general and in kurdistan we are suffering from the climate change more specifically we are facing in winter we are facing floods in different areas and in summer lack of water resources so both axels are acting in our region and to talk about the other part of iraq there is lack of water resources in south of iraq and it will be iraq will be one of the main countries who will suffer from the climate change naturally but again with our neighbors we are facing some challenge they are stopping flow of waters to the supply rivers to the tiger and ifrit and tigers so iraq will be one of the main countries and i believe for the next years we in kurdistan we will face that wave of displaced people because of the climate change in south of iraq and within the kurdistan itself specifically in erbil if you look at the level of the groundwater it went more deep before if if a couple of years it was from 200 meters now it becomes 600 to 700 meters so we tackle this issue and the prime minister master of barzani is very taking care about the climate change in kurdistan and we started to have more reservation of water resources and we started to build that small ponds that provide rainfall from the winter for the agriculture issues and even for the water ground table and we started to use other resources for the energy production the solar energy is one of the film that the prime minister is very interested and he started a very good initiative regarding the to have a new projects even with the private sector and within the public service itself so we are suffering from this but the consequence will be appeared for the next years thank you so i uh we have only a few minutes and i have two important questions raised here i want to make sure so we may run a little bit a few minutes over so i have one question two questions from the audience one is uh how do you deal with iranian military threats regarding the iranian kurdish opposition and other issues so that's one question the other question is fighting corruption was the most important slogan raised by masroor barzani's government and at the beginning has any prominent figures been prosecuted for corruption well if i start from the corruption it's one of the main film that the prime minister started a reform of course everybody knows that reform has a large number of enemies those who will lose their interest they will turn to an enemy for their reform and we are facing this kind of pressure but the prime minister is very committed and dedicated to continue the mission and the main articles within the new cabinet was the reform in different sector he started a very good initiative and everybody is of course who are taking benefit from the reform are very interested and supportive uh but there is a high commission of the anti-corruption high council of anti-corruption in in in the region they are dealing with those people who are guilty and they are involved in the corruption process and the cabinet and the prime minister is supporting their effort and admitting everybody who is involved in the corruption so it's one of the main goals but i believe it will take more time and maybe for the new cabinet the consequence and the result will be more clear for everybody what had been done from that point where the prime minister started that initiative regarding the pressure from our neighbors and military threaten to our region unfortunately in different occasion we are receiving statements in about this threaten and challenge but we believe in Iraq and in Kurdistan that we can solve all of this problem by exchanging views and exchanging delegations and information and i believe there is better ways to deal with this all of these concerns mutual concerns on the border issues between iraq and iran but we are understanding what the sensitivities are for our neighbors we are suffering because of a lot of things around the region but i believe that the cooperation between carer g and federal government regarding all of these threats and the coordination with our neighbors it will be the best way to deal with all of these threats and concerns for both sides thank you so we are actually at exactly at the end of our time but i would like to ask you about the region one last question i was in in i think i was in Baghdad at the time when the announced the the iran-saudi deal brokered by china was announced you are at the heart of the middle east Kurdistan region iraq is from your perspective i heard two two different views even from the Kurdistan region those who believe that de-escalation in the region is good for Kurdistan for the region and for the Kurdistan region for the Middle East region and the Kurdistan region but there were those who are concerned that said actually if the bigger powers of the region de-escalate the Kurdistan and the Kurdistan region is the weakest link in the area the Kurds are the weakest link so therefore they may turn their attention and and it may end badly for the Kurds how do you and the increased role of china and the impact of that agreement well middle east historically is one of the main strategic geography for every super powers in around the world the competition between those super powers through the history it was there and it will continue but the main part of what will affect our situation is the regional powers competition on middle east but we as a small region we are supporting any kind of normalizing situation in middle east and we are supporting more stability more security and it will conduct more prosperity and more integration between the different nations in respecting each other and respecting mutual interest in the region i believe to normalize the situation between any different countries it should not be on other interests so we will do our best to be able to be partner a good partner a good supporter to the normalizing the situation and providing more safety and stability because within the stability within the security we believe that there will be an economic progress and better opportunities for everybody to exchange and to have better interest in the region so i believe in every single threat and challenge there's an opportunity there's an opportunity well i think that's a good positive note to end on i would like to thank you so very much for taking the time to be with us i would like to thank our participants here in the in the room and those who are watching online i appreciate your time so please join me in a round of applause for the minister for his his remarking time i apologize for those who ask questions there were plenty of them and we were short on time i apologize that i couldn't get to all your questions but i hope that we've covered as many of them as possible thank you thank you very much