 Welcome. And as we get started, I want to call your attention to the headsets on your seat. Our guest will be speaking in Arabic, so if your Arabic is rusty, you can find the English interpretation on channel one. And channel two has Arabic. So please wave your hand if you're having trouble with your headsets. Yeah? Good. And we've got people along the way, so just wave your hand. My name is Nancy Lindborg. I'm the President of the United States Institute of Peace. And for those of you who are visiting us for the first time, USIP is a congressionally created independent nonpartisan institute. And for the last 30 years, we've been working on finding practical solutions for preventing managing and recovering from conflict. It is my very distinct honor today to welcome and introduce his excellency, Dr. Salim Al-Jabouri, who is the Speaker of the Council of Representatives of the Republic of Iraq. And I'd also like to welcome the entire Iraqi delegation who has joined us here today. It includes many current and former members of the Iraq Council of Representatives. And a special shout out and welcome to Ambassador Fali, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States and a valuable partner for USIP. And as many of you know, Iraq has been a priority for USIP for over a decade. With the support of our Iraqi and American partners, we've had an office in Baghdad since 2004. And last year, we opened an office in Erbil. And none of this could have been possible without having an amazing team here at USIP. So I'd just like to acknowledge and thank Manal Omar, who's our Acting Vice President for the Middle East in Africa. Dr. Ali Abu-Alun, who's the Director of our Middle East programs. And Sahrang Hamasayid, who leads our Iraq programs. So we're all here today at a time when Iraq is confronting enormous challenges. And we are almost to a day, the year since Mosul fell. We have an ongoing violent conflict with Daesh. And the human and the community costs continue to grow. I understand there's about an average of a thousand soldiers and civilians who die every month in this continuing conflict. And we have witnessed three million men, women and children who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Communities, villages, towns are sustaining considerable damage. However, even as the battle against Daesh continues, it's also critical to lay the future for a more peaceful Iraqi future. We have recently had the honor of hosting Prime Minister Abadi and the Kurdistan region's President Barzani. Both of them have underscored the same call for looking now to the future, for emphasizing dialogue and reconciliation as critical for helping Iraq move forward. USIP teams are working with local Iraqi partners now to anticipate that joint Daesh future and to help alleviate the tensions that are arising from the massive displacements and to prevent cycles of revenge in the liberated areas. We're supporting our Iraqi partners to bridge relations between communities and police in places like Baghdad, Basra, Karbala and Kirkuk. And we're supporting the Iraqi minority communities to advance their rights, working alongside SNAD for peace-building and network for Iraqi facilitators to help address the aftermath, including of terrible events like the Spiker Massacre. And in this work, we have seen the power of Iraqi communities who are determined to build a better future. We've seen their commitment to come together to resolve differences, and we continue to be inspired by local leaders and partners who are eager to lay this groundwork for a more inclusive shared peace. Now more than ever is the time to talk about peace. Over the last several months, we've witnessed the tumultuous events that have rocked Iraq. And throughout this recent turmoil, Dr. Salim Al-Jabouri, today's distinguished speaker and guest, has served as a pragmatic voice. He has worked to engage parties on all sides. He has worked to find solutions that work. And he has been an advocate for an inclusive approach to politics that is absolutely essential towards working for reconciliation. Dr. Jabouri is a prominent leader from Diyala. He's a former law professor. And most importantly, I would say he's part of a new generation of Iraqi leadership. This is a generation with the potential to build a more engaging, a more inclusive political process. And he and others are working to position the Council of Representatives to be a key player in the reconciliation process and a more inclusive future. Dr. Al-Jabouri will deliver his opening remarks in Arabic before sitting down with our Acting Executive Vice President and Ambassador Bill Taylor for a moderated discussion. And for those of you on Twitter, please remember to use hashtag Iraqi Speaker to help us expand the conversation beyond the room today. And with that, I'm very pleased to welcome on his first visit to Washington, D.C., our speaker, Dr. Jalim Al-Jabouri, the Speaker of the Iraq Council of Representatives. And please join me in welcoming him to the podium. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me at the beginning to express my thanks and appreciation to the Institute of Peace, my colleagues and I for this important opportunity to talk about important issues during a very sensitive and difficult times. I wanted to limit my talk about peace, that my talk would be limited to peace in my country in your institute, a respectable institute that is keen to achieve peace and reducing crisis in the world. But regrettably, I will be talking to you after the passing of a year for the appearance of Daesh and its occupation of one-third of the country and the accompanying destruction and murder and killing in the governments that were attacked and what it caused to women and the destruction of churches and antiquities and taking women hostages and destruction of churches and the holy shrines, which some of these antiquities returned to thousands of years in depth of history, dear friends. Despite all of our pains for what have inflicted our people in terms of destruction, we were not surprised about this movement because I know that it is a result of the policy of exclusions and the pressing of freedoms during the past few years and a natural result to the administrative corruption and financial corruption which is spread to the military institutions and other institutions of the state. As we know and we spoke with our allies inside and outside and our friends about the catastrophic results to which these policies will lead us too. But regrettably, they did not take our advice seriously and we were dealt with as if this was going a part of the struggle between various parties. But others considered this phenomenon a normal struggle that started in 2014 and is still continuing until today. And as a result of everything that we have warned about, we have all witnessed how Iraq has been transformed into a country of displaced. Iraq has produced about 3 million displaced in the areas that are controlled by Daesh. And within the framework of the dialogue that produced our limb experiment we have become, we started tying those displaced to our files of failure. And instead of containing them and to redirect their ideas, we prevented them from reaching the shore of safety and as a result that we have created a large army of recruited people who are being targeted by Daesh. The future of the displaced has been wasted in the corners of Iraqi politics that is focusing on balances internally and externally and our fear of providing cheap oil for Daesh. And here we are, you and us working, watching the results of this which resulted from the displacement without providing anything that is decisive in this respect. We will continue to play the role of watchers. Dear friends, despite this situation that is so dark, yet I will talk to you about peace in Iraq. Peace that can be achieved from this war that is led by the children of my country in the face of this dark movement in history. Peace that we are aspiring for because we are sure that you and all the forces that love peace will stand by our side in this confrontation. It may seem more optimistic than necessary for some of you but when I say that the situation in Iraq does not call for disparity, despite the blackness of the scene. The source of my optimism is because I know that the Iraqi people do not look at the cost of this confrontation but with the values and the principles at the forefront in front of which is peace and reconciliation. But they need the help of their friends to be able to be victorious in Daesh and you are the closest friend to us. And at the time we thank you, our partners in the international coalition led by the American country which is standing by us in the middle of this battle. We believe that they have to multiply their efforts, their military efforts in our country and to increase their aid for equipping the emerging democracy through the countries that are members of the coalition to save our children from the policies of not keeping the previous agreements. Dear friends, as a speaker of the Iraqi parliament and a man specialized in law, I think that there is no other alternative to go into this battle side by side with you in all of our battles because it is a complementary and it is a valve so that we will not have any other terrorist organization on the ruins of Daesh that would threaten our security and peaceful peace and implementation of the parties of the three-party solution under the republic and the council. So the law of the national guards will be the guarantee for the security of the governments that are threatened. We must end all aspects of military outside of the military because this is a militarization of society and the militarization of society is an introduction to have a systems that are authoritarian and to a past that we do not want to come back. We must have a political reform and restructuring of the security institutions based on efficiency and away from the quota system, ethnic as well as sectarian. It is important also to approve the law of the unified federal law and to separate between the powers of the state in order to maintain the court their independence in taking decisions. Ladies and gentlemen, the method of reforming the political process in Iraq cannot be successful without getting rid from the policies of regional polarization which made Iraq a field for regional struggle on behalf of partners and the Iraqis are paying the price for it in their blood and their wealth. And we cannot get out of this policy except with this help of our friends in the United States of America and the western states that have an influence in the region through pressures on the Iraqi political forces and the decision taking centers in order to stop their intervention in the internal affairs of Iraq and support Iraq to reduce the period of confrontation with terrorism because terrorism has become a method of interference in the affairs of Iraq through Daesh with ways and the repetition of a particular model from the terrorist operations which have touched all of our children, our schools, our churches and mosques and the markets. Iraq was its natural resources and the success of its democratic process through reform and establishing confidence between the partners will be a source for a democracy in the whole area as the American message was after getting rid of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Dear friends, finally I put before you some principles that expresses a comprehensive project for reform and overcoming the challenges the first issue we must think about is stability after liberation of the areas captured by Daesh and to give a model that we can through it motivate those who are still living under the authority of Daesh in Nanya and Ambar so that they can do everything possible to face this challenge. The second thing if the military support is surrounded by restrictions and controls that cannot be violated by friendly countries the states must not neglect human support. The third issue there is a struggle in Iraq between the state and non-state and the constitutional institutions that were established based on elections must be maintained. There is also other institutions that work outside of the framework of the state and wants to take the authorities to itself and to impose itself on the society and to make the decisions herself. Building a stable state in Iraq is a guarantee for the protection of our minorities and the marginalized. The important legislations cannot be forgotten and we cannot violate it. Arming the tribes and their training and equipment because the local populations alone are the ones that can end Daesh by changing the role of the tribes and ignoring them will make the problem complete so we must also rehabilitate the local police in the areas controlled by Daesh and the liberating forces will remain under the one control represented by the commander-general of the armed forces. The problem of the multiplicity of leadership will lead to the collapse of the army just as happened in Ramadi. National reconciliation will prepare our way for a military victory. Our real building a modern state through the help of its friends, extremism and terrorism is a very strange phenomenon in the Iraqi society it has resulted from political circumstances that were complicated and will end with the end of this problem. Therefore eliminating Daesh will help our abilities to establish peace and the national guards is a new idea and an important one but it could not be a cover for emergency cases that threaten the security of the state and some societies sometimes resort to a miserable solution so we should not contribute to this so without hope nothing a person can take important decisions for his future. I call on you to support the just request of our people to get rid of terrorism and your efforts to spread the ideas of living in peace and understanding and I call on you and all those who love peace on the earth to support the reform and democracy in Iraq and this is why I decided to come to you here so that we can invest our partnership in this endeavor or otherwise our faith will be totally different thank you for listening to me and peace be upon you and thank you. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much for that presentation we were most impressed with your words at the outset expressing your optimism expressing your commitment to peace expressing your friendship with people here and other allies around the world so this is a very positive message that you have brought to us here today you have a difficult job as the speaker of the Council of Representatives a body that you would probably agree has sometimes had difficulties in coming to agreement and coming to compromise and coming to final conclusions that support the movement forward of the country of Iraq can the Council of Representatives under your leadership and with the other leaders in the deputies that you have can the Council of Representatives be a place in Iraq that does bring together that does bring the reconciliation that you talked to that does come with compromise to be able to move forward is this something that you see under your leadership of the Council? Thank you very much when we started in this term for the Council of Representatives we had a lot of compilations of problems the nature for example between the executive and the legislative between the Council of Representatives and the government and to the point that it have delayed the issuance of many laws the laws and also postponed the oversight role and I can say that this was the main challenge we could have been able to build a balanced relationship but at the same time we agree about the common grounds and we can differ on the details but the situation in Iraq requires cooperation so we decided to talk with the cooperation between all authorities and respect of authorities of every side so therefore today in this Council of Representatives the Presidency of the Republic and the government that is present approved the budget for 2015 in a record time and we were able to issue some principle legislations that have reached the point of voting and we are going to vote on the law of political parties which is a very important step also the media law it stayed six years in the Council and we were able now to reach voting for the federal law and this has been in the Council for eight years we also have other legislations, principle legislations the current Council came during very critical time the appearance of Daesh and the occupation of several areas yet the members of the Council are doing their job within this framework I think that the national reconciliation and it's being launched from the Council of Representatives and without serious and real reconciliation between the components of the social computer or the political powers is very necessary therefore we have a continuous dialogue with the parties in order to achieve this project this is of the pieces of legislation that you have laid out as your agenda you also mentioned in your remarks a piece of legislation on you mentioned your remarks legislation having to do with the National Guard many people here will know you know all too well there are many military formations in Iraq the National Guard law would bring some order to this how would the National Guard law work with the Shia militia or the forces under those control with the Peshmerga with the Sunni National Guard you mentioned that these should all be under the control the command of the commander in chief how would the new law and these three or more military formations work together Frank with you first why did the idea of the National Guards came out why it was put into the political agreement and considered a condition for the formation of government there was a feeling at the time that some governments are not represented in the security and military aspect and this lack of representation led to the presence of Daesh in their areas because the population of these areas were not able to confront Daesh because they are not partners in taking the security decisions so the idea of the National Guards were emerged to deal with this problem the problem is that to have all the Iraqi communities communicate in the military apparatus and to improve the to defend the areas so they will not need any Daesh so particularly when we agreed to establish a National Guard at that time the agreement was to do it locally under the orders from the governor and in larger issue he will take the role of the commander in chief of the army forces after we established the law now it is being put to vote but part of the political forces so that the project of the national forces have deviated from the main track that it was put for it it will be just another military establishment that will be added to the other ones such as army or intelligence or police and that is not really the purpose of it also the National Guards in the eyes of some is a cover for the militias that work outside of the official circles in our constitution anybody who is not in the army forces cannot carry any one who carries army he is a militia and according to Article 9 these militias are prohibited so consequently we must find an official way we can rely on to prevent this multiplicity of loyalty because this is not going to lead us to any progress the law of the National Guards is now being discussed what do we need from this law some say that if this is going to be a new case it's going to be like the rest it's not going to do what it's supposed to do others say no, it's not going to be like that if this unified national command and the military effort is successful in certain areas when the military in these various components does liberate areas and areas are liberated from Daesh you mentioned in your remarks that reconciliation that stabilization would be important we had some experience you had some experience some Americans had some experience in this effort how would this time be different from the previous times and stabilization, reconciliation to avoid the problems that could come if we make the mistakes again Of course this is an important matter it is a comprehensive project some areas in which Daesh have committed heinous crimes and was liberated the local population in several areas need some kind of harmony to be able to coexist there are some who support Daesh and some who are against it so there is a control from groups that were allowed to carry weapons and others that were not allowed to carry weapons consequently some parties became more stronger than others the models are there for example there are those who used to carry weapons even if he supports the military forces against Daesh but when Daesh was moved out from the government those who have weapons are in a much more powerful situation than others how can we create an equal situation we know that anybody who carries weapons has an ability to impose his will on others and we have several examples in Salah-e-Din and other governments so I call for the international community to focus on a project for stability after the liberation of the areas from Daesh this project for stability is not assistance in kind and food and others it is to achieve stability and to build a new democracy and work on the minds of people and trying to spread the spirit of participation and reconciliation and this is not a human project it is a human project but it is also a security project so it is important that Daesh does not come to us under a new name how can we can it come if we achieve justice and stability it will return if there is marginalization and exclusion and if there was a feeling that people are not allowed to participate so the important message we must send to the inhabitants of Vietnam who are not less than two and a half million people under the rule of Daesh some of them are afraid some of them doesn't have any financial power and some are women and children the most important message to them that the models that we established after the liberation of Daesh from Daesh are now in much better condition but if these models are bad they will not think of venturing with their life against Daesh why would they defeat Daesh so we should have a project for establishing stability takes into account the security and the continuity and democracy on your first visit to the United States you will be able to join us here you will find a group of very interested people here very interested in your country in the direction that your country and in the piece that you've just described let me open the floor to questions I'm going to do I think two at a time he'll answer one at a time but let me do two at a time so that a microphone can be in your hands and we'll save some time that way so why don't we start up here right here yes and then up here as well for the second question there you go very good name and affiliation for the speaker my name is Abdul Halim Rijal I work for the counter violence extremism on Somalia thank you for hosting this very important forum and I would like to welcome Dr. Salim Al-Jabouri and his delegation for years I worked with many Iraqi groups between 2004 to 2011 on the IVLB program so I have very interest in what's going on in Iraq like in Somalia I have a question that's I cannot find an answer for it which is now specifically with the popular mobilization forces that's taken in Iraq many of the Sunni area they are complaining that this is a Shia-led forces that are doing a lot of atrocities in the region so I would like to know your your intake into that and very quickly many blame Bush administration for what's going on in Iraq today because of in 2003 what's called the Ambassador Bremer number two plan or whatever the dismantling of the Iraqi army it's what we are gaining today in Iraq and I would like to know your insight into that as well thank you with regard to the mobilization popular mobilization I'm going to speak very clearly about that when Daesh controlled several areas in Iraq and the Iraqi army collapsed we found ourselves in a big problem how could we confront Daesh so directives were issued from religious leaderships to mobilize the people to support the army and to stand by the army in the liberating areas there is a positive aspect to this and a negative one the positive and when I look to the population of the governorate in Basra or for the Amara or the south for them to have their bloodshed in Salah al-Din, Audiala because of their presence with the army forces this is a kind of support and we should not deny the great effort that were exerted and the important role was played by these people this is a very positive aspect supporting the popular forces and to the Iraqi army in the liberation what happened during the liberation and afterwards which gave this negative picture they were in actions burning and theft and there were some practices that showed that these forces are not regular forces and they are not disciplined some of their misdemeanors were bad and as a result we cannot say who is responsible and should be punished and held accountable for this and frankly speaking even the idea of mobilization as an idea which means participation of all people Sunni and Shi'a and the Kurds the Kurds have of course the Beshmerga and they are stable the Shi'a has the popular mobilization and clearly in response to the religious authorities but the Sunni how can we contain them and what is the framework they are going to be working through so they perform their duties in confronting terrorism they have a previous experience in the tribes they confronted Al Qada and many of the children of the tribes have the desire to confront Daesh but they don't have the weapons and do not have the capabilities to allow them to enter into confrontation so they were using forces that come out of their governments to defend their areas now the number of those mobilization forces reaches 100,000 individuals but from the population of the governments that were occupied by Daesh alone and we have 17,000 only that belong to Al-Hajd or the mobilization so we must also take into consideration that because we need training or equipping to these forces and Dan had the question you will follow this gentleman right here so if the mic can get to this person right here Michael Gordon, New York Times Mr. Speaker Adi became Prime Minister of Iraq have there been any significant steps towards political reconciliation and are you satisfied with the pace of political reconciliation in your country there seems to have been no progress on an amnesty law you mentioned the National Guard the National Guard doesn't exist because your council of representatives can't pass legislation on that a case can be made that the international community should do more but the perception here is that Iraqis haven't done enough on political reconciliation do you share that and what do you think needs to be done thank you Al-Abadi, we look at him as partners and he needs support and he also he must take initiative to implementing agreements that were concluded in the past because waiting or delaying will create a kind of feeling of no commitment to agreements that were neutral and the project of reconciliation we are partners with him in it and we will continue to operate to achieve it it is not an easy project it is not slogans it's a practical project with commitments on both sides so my evaluation to this project is not at up to the required level the reconciliation project is not really convincing yet for me but there are many challenges that are facing us all and definitely the matter requires efforts from everybody in order to be able to achieve it we cannot blame one side alone the truth is that those who are committed have fallen upon them the greatest burden but we are all partners in the results that is achieved so this will be the next one here but before you madam right here I'm Nisabe Eunice director of research at the project on Middle East democracy you made a very compelling point that in order to inspire Iraqi Sunnis who are living under Daesh control territory to take up arms and to fight against Daesh that we have to offer those Sunnis a vision of the future that they can hope to have in Iraq and a vision of Iraq that treats them better than they were treated before the Abadi government and some of the key things that need to happen have been very clearly stated by people such as yourself a national guard, an entity bathification reform in a number of different areas that have just been stonewalled by the Iraqi parliament what are the main obstacles to these reforms taking place what is the source of the objections that your fellow parliamentarians are mounting against these reforms that have been floated for close to a year now and how can we begin to overcome those objections with regard to the legislations in this framework and most prominent of course is the law of the national guards it was decided that on the 30th of May we will put it to vote after the committee provided its final report on the law but as I said in its final language some of the political parties thought that this subject requires discussion is this the formula that we agreed upon or because if we work in voting to decide the matter there will be large blocks that can settle the situation according to its own interests but we do not want this is a very important issue to Harish consensus this is the method that we are following now so the issue of consensus is very important in the aspect that we consider very crucial the law of the national guards may require a simple discussion and at the beginning of the next term in July we may in fact adopt it but as I said the approval of this law of national guards which deals with the problems that it was created for and not just the process of having a new system that is not different from what is present in the army or in the interior or intelligence and security practices in general so this gentleman right here will need the next mic but before you Yes, please Sorry, actually I need to ask my colleague and my dear brother whom I work with him at the Iraqi parliament one simple question what is the definition of the reconciliation Sorry, I didn't say I am judge Zaki Hakki the first female judge in the history of Iraq and Middle East and I am proud to be that because this is something in the favor of my country Iraq Judge, we are very honored to have you here, welcome and the person who works for his country those misguided people who are now with whom should we make reconciliation with the Ba'athists, the murderers the ISIS and killing we must we are all Iraqis she keeps switching from English into Arabic it's very confusing please tell her to speak in one language my Iraq all of the people in Iraq thank you for the words that were given by the lady the deputy she was a judge and became a deputy and we worked with her in human rights in various areas frankly speaking there are two classes in the Iraqi society the society and the politicians for ten years they raised the motto of reconciliation and they mean reconciliation of society I would like to say clearly that the Iraqi society not as a political class does not have what distinguishes it with regard to sectarianism I believe that I am from the largest tribe in Iraq, Al-Jaboor which is in the north and the south Sunnah and Shi'a and they all have relationships our problem with regard to the project of reconciliation when people start to use it for the politicians for their own advantages when they want to get sympathy of the people by speaking in sectarian terms he tries to use what he thinks is suitable to face his opposition this is something that should be that we should deal with and we can overcome as a matter of fact Bob here and then the next one will be in the back here there was a question further up, yes, right here so you'll be next so I will speak in only one language thank you my name is Bob Kelly I'm the councillor with Jefferson Waterman a Washington consulting firm as an Iraqi how do you feel about Iranian influence in Iraq and secondly was there any irregularities in the vote to discharge the governor of Nineveh province under our constitution the congress cannot take away discharge Jerry Brown from the governor of California so I wonder if you thought you thought there were irregularities in that vote but first about Iran we in our law there are two methods to remove a governor first through the council of the governorate through voting in the council of governorate and the second through the council of representatives based on a request by the prime minister in accordance to the law and yet if there is something wrong with the procedures the law gave the right to appeal the procedures and the decision by the council can be vetoed any decision by the council can be vetoed and looked by the federal court and it is on the decide whether the procedures are correct or incorrect one of our problems in Iraq if our neighboring countries the regional countries have influence in Iraq and they have presence in Iraq not only coordination of positions they sometimes go beyond that to achieve a priority on one interest on the other and I mentioned in my statement that the Iraqi field has become a field for struggle of influence between states but we are paying the price for it in our blood Iraqi blood and Iraqi wealth consequently yes sometimes some countries think that part of its national security is to intervene in the Iraqi affairs and this is rejected by us we reject any intervention in the same way we reject to intervening in the affairs of others no states should intervene in our affairs except for the amount that lead us to achieve common interest which is allowed by law who is here in the back yes thank you sir hi my name is Namo Abdullah I am with Roudao news network from Iraqi Kurdistan I have two questions Mr. Speaker the first one about you seem to agree that in order to liberate the areas under Daesh we would need to have the participation of the Sunni forces and that's also essential for the long term stability of those areas but I would like to know your assessment of Prime Minister Abadi's reach out to the Sunnis hasn't been slow too slow so far and whether the United States can do more to make sure there is a Sunni force being forward quicker than it has taken so far and do you believe the United States should arm directly the Sunni forces or should go through Baghdad and the second question is about the there have been a lot of talk about creating autonomous zones like Kurdistan region which has been basically a model of stability in Iraq do you believe the Sunnis want that the Sunnis initially when Iraq was invaded they were opposed to that idea outright but are they more in favor of that idea now because they believe that they are marginalized in the Shia-led government in Iraq thank you the first question gives me a chance to speak about the accusation Daesh wanted the Shia to blame Shia and to say that the Sunni has connection with the Shia I am a Sunni myself and I am proud of that but I have nothing to do with Daesh and Daesh does not represent the Sunni or the Shia or the Kurds or any component of the Iraqi society because it has a project that is we can have a track limited to killing and blood and this is not an Iraqi but how can we deal with this Sunnis so that we can incite them to we can encourage them to confront Daesh when the people of Ambar fought against Al-Qaeda in 2005 and were able to defeat it after eliminating Al-Qaeda all those who were carrying weapons for confronting Al-Qaeda was charged of carrying weapons against Allah many of them were chased and were tried and detained now when Daesh came many of them need guarantees if they confront Daesh who is going to protect them from the state afterwards who is going to protect them from Allah if there is no mechanism of respect and therefore they are looking for someone that can stand by them and the most the party they need most is the prime minister and to interact with them and he is responding to their desire there is economic problems and problems related to weapons but the fact of the matter is that in my own conviction that the situation is not good is not complete and the question is can we equip them directly there are three points that I mentioned and I mentioned always we must arm the tribes we cannot eliminate Daesh except with the local population through coordination with the federal government to have guarantees so that these weapons the local population to confront Daesh three matters that are very important and for the elimination of Daesh with regard to the regions between Kurdistan and the other areas the fact of the matter is that some of it is under the control of Daesh now some of the oil wells also are under the control of Daesh and they are engaged in commerce Daesh is investing these areas economically and is benefiting from the weapons that were left by the Iraqi army during the battles and so we have to go on the road of joint interest and exchange of relationships not struggle what is the value of the land if its inhabitants are not protected and they are not taking the rights so consequently the more we save the lives the more we will be able to build partnership between the region and the other government good we have a holding question just one second and there is a gentleman here we'll do the next one thank you sir thank you Abbas Kaldam senior fellow at SAIS the Foreign Policy Institute Johns Hopkins and the director of the Institute of Shia Studies thank you Mr. Speaker for coming and your statement you mentioned that there was a need for or there is a need to dismantle and disarm the fighting groups that currently exist but also in the same sentence you ask for arming the tribes I'm interested in knowing how you view any reconciliation between these two demands and wouldn't be better since that there are no other alternatives to fighting and defeating ISIS on the ground in the south of Kurdistan area than the current groups that you want to dismantle shouldn't be the call that there should be more control of government over them until a better alternative is available thanks again and thanks for the question we have two options militarily to confront Daesh the first is to rely on the official military forces only to strengthen it and to build it and to restructure it and to go in the direction of this direction and don't give anybody else to have the authority to carry weapons and this is a preferred option I think it is idealistic and it is consistent with the idea of the state and its stability but the problem is that we are in exceptional circumstances the morale in the army is not at the level required the official forces other official forces don't have this efficiency so we resorted to something other than the army so if we armed groups armed groups and the Sunni tribes the fear is that we eliminate Daesh will there be a struggle in the future yes the answer is yes they will be therefore we must contain the situation within the official framework and within a unified command but the multiplicity of command and the victory of those who are armed will create a society that is in dispute with itself if we want to take the second approach there are dangers but we must be cautious about establishing a system that we can distribute through the weapons and collect it after the end I think it was in 2011 are you okay right here but we are not getting interpretation repeat please I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I