 Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the United States Institute of Peace. My name is Nancy Lindborg and I am the president of USIP. Just to note, I hope everybody who needs one has a headset for simultaneous interpretation. English is on channel one, Arabic is on channel six. And it is my distinct honor today to welcome his Excellency, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Jafari, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Iraq. And I'd also like to welcome the distinguished members of the Iraqi delegation who I have also joined us today, Mr. Nazar Al-Kirullah, the Deputy Minister for Bilateral Affairs, Mr. Yarub Al-Ambaki, the Iraqi Council here in Washington, Dr. Muhammad Jawad-Mahdi, the Embassy's Charger d'affaires, and Mr. Esan Al-Awadi, the Minister's Senior Advisor. Thank you, all of you, for joining us here today. I'd also like to welcome our very hard-working colleague from the State Department, a special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to counter ISIL Ambassador Bret McGurk. For those who have not joined us before, US Institute of Peace was founded in 1984 by Congress as an independent national institute dedicated to the proposition that peace is possible, peace is practical, and it is essential for global and United States security. And we pursue a vision of a world without violent conflict by working on the ground with local partners, building peace from the ground up as well as from the top down. And we provide people, organizations, and governments with the tools, knowledge, and training to manage conflict so that it doesn't become violent and to resolve it when it does. And Iraq has been a priority for USIP for more than a decade. We've worked closely with both Iraqi and American partners. Our teams have been on the ground to see both significant challenges as well as significant progress. And then, of course, the terrible rise of Daesh that has taken territory, it's taken lives, destroyed communities, and now threatens both regional and global security. So we're gathered here today at a very significant moment for Iraq and the region as a whole. The Iraqi government forces and the US-led coalition partners have logged significant military victories in recent months against Daesh, and hopefully Mosul is on the horizon and just ahead. This makes the pledging conference tomorrow of utmost importance because overshadowing those military victories is the question of how to convert that progress into an enduring and lasting peace. The question is how do we help the Iraqi people return home? And importantly, how do the Iraqi people avoid cycles of violence that could require repeated military operations, especially as they cope with the aftermath of an occupation that has torn apart the social fabric and left communities deeply suspicious of each other? Two weeks ago, we hosted here in Washington our Iraqi partners from Sennad for Peacebuilding and the network of Iraqi facilitators who have dedicated themselves to answering just this question. And in the aftermath of the 2014 massacre by Daesh of 1700 Iraqi Kedetsa camp spiker and then the subsequent liberation of Tikrit, this network of Iraqi facilitators worked with Tribal Shakes and the Iraqi government to mediate agreements on fair trials, on accountability and reconciliation between communities, and in doing so, we're able to address the sectarian accusations of complicity with Daesh and convert the liberation of Tikrit into a sustainable peace. These results can be replicated. And Iraqi's diverse communities, they must and they can learn to live together. And we also are very hopeful that local agreements can be reached and hopefully eventually support a national reconciliation. Tomorrow's conference will be critical for gathering international support for life-saving humanitarian assistance and vital support for stabilization. And as it is important as it is to restore basic infrastructure in destroyed communities, it's as important to rebuild the social infrastructure, to rebuild the social fabric, to ensure that renewed violence doesn't break out again on the heels of these military victories. We know this is possible, peace is possible, and we're pleased to be working with so many dedicated and courageous Iraqis from civil society as well as the government Iraq, the US government, and the United Nations. And we're privileged to have with us here today the Foreign Minister, Ibrahim Al-Jafari, and Ambassador Brett McGurk to give their insights into the current situation in Iraq, the efforts to counter ISIL, and the prospects for an enduring peace. And so it's my honor now to welcome Ambassador Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to counter ISIL. Ambassador McGurk has devoted a significant amount of his career to Iraq and its citizens. He has served as the lead negotiator during bilateral talks with the Iraqi government on both the long-term strategic framework and a security agreement to govern the temporary presence of US forces. He was one of the chief architects of the surge strategy under President Bush. He's held several positions in the Obama administration, including Senior Advisor in the Bureau for Near Eastern Affairs and a Senior Advisor to Ambassadors Ryan Crocker, Christopher Hill, and James Jeffrey in Baghdad. In short, he is one of our most knowledgeable and experienced diplomats who is ably leading us forward on this important issue. Please join me in welcoming Ambassador McGurk to the podium. Thank you very much. I want to thank Nancy, I want to thank my former boss Steve Hadley, Ambassador Taylor, USIP for everything that you do to try to make the world a better place, and in particular for all the very hard, difficult work you do in Iraq. And I associate myself very much with Nancy's remarks. We're determined, as everybody knows, to do all we can to defeat ISIL or Daesh, and we will defeat them. I can talk a little bit about where we are in this campaign, but we're also not just focused on defeating Daesh, we're focused on what comes after Daesh. So before introducing our foreign minister, Joffrey, I'd like to just kind of put in context of why the foreign minister is here in Washington, and we're very honored to have him here in our capital city, about what's happening this week. We are bringing together over 40 members of our international coalition in a campaign to defeat Daesh to look ahead over the next six months. And in many ways, our campaign is now ahead of where we thought it would be at this time. We do check-ins within the coalition every couple months, and we thought, you know, Mosul is going to be a very, very difficult challenge. Mosul, of course, is where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his phony caliphate two years ago this month. It is where we will put one of the nails into the coffin of that phony caliphate, and we knew we have to get Mosul back. But Mosul is one of the most complex challenges ahead of us. There's about a million people still in Mosul. It's a very diverse city. We have issues of local governance. We have a number of issues of resources to make sure that what comes after Daesh, that the people can return to their homes and have a and restore life to their streets. This will be one of the most complex challenges imaginable. I'm encouraged because the military side of this campaign is now coming together. The Iraqis just completed a very impressive offensive move. We've got 100 kilometers to capture and liberate. It's called Qiyar air base, a major air base just south of Mosul, which is now a major staging area in the process of isolating Daesh inside Mosul. The Iraqi security forces from two years ago this summer, in which they were losing battles, have not lost a battle in over a year. They are showing increasing confidence, increasing professionalism, increasing capacity, and they're liberating towns in Anbar province through the Euphrates Valley and now moving up the Tigris River Valley and setting the stage for the Mosul campaign. But every time we work with the Iraqis to launch a military offensive, we ask all the very hard questions, a process that goes on for months. What's going to come after the military operation? Who is going to hold the ground? What will the resources be for the humanitarian response? What is the program for stabilization to get people back into their homes? Through the coalition, we've established a really innovative program of post-conflict stabilization. We have two funding mechanisms. The first one is called the Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilization, getting people back into their homes as soon as possible and a second funding facility for expanded enhanced stabilization for the kind of longer term reconstruction. And we've had some real success and we've had success because of the governments that Foreign Minister Joffrey is here representing. The government led by Prime Minister Badi has a governing philosophy of more decentralization, of more empowering local people at the grassroots to take hold of their affairs. So in Tikrit, Tikrit was a city that two years ago, this month, was a scene of massive atrocities. Thousands of young Iraqi military recruits were slaughtered. It was put on YouTube. I was in Iraq at the time speaking with the Foreign Minister and other Iraqi leaders as they were undergoing this incredibly difficult, horrible, horrific advance of dash towards Baghdad. Tikrit was liberated by Iraqi security forces. The entire population had almost been, had almost left the city. And through the work of the Iraqi government, empowering local leaders, getting local Tikritis back into the streets, local police back into the streets, and through the global coalition, which contributed tens of millions of dollars for stabilization projects, almost the entire population, 95 percent of the population, returned to the streets of Tikrit. If you look historically of returning populations to their homes after a conflict like this, that is totally unprecedented. We've now had total in Iraq, over 700,000 Iraqis have returned to their homes in areas that had been controlled by Daesh. And the Iraqi security forces have now liberated about 50 percent of the territory that Daesh had once controlled. The success we're having in Anbar province in Ramadi, all the way out to Al-Hit, all the way down to Rutba in the Baghdad-Aman corridor, is attributable to the Iraqi security forces, which are showing tremendous proficiency, but also organizing and mobilizing local tribal fighters. In Anbar province, we have about 20,000 local tribal fighters working with Iraqi security forces being paid by the government of Iraq, because of the policy of the government of Iraq to empower local people at the grassroots. So Mosul is now upon us, and we're not going to put a timeline on the Mosul campaign, but we will pursue it deliberately, and we will check every box to make sure we're doing all we possibly can to prepare. Not everything will go right. This is one of the most complex, difficult things imaginable. But the reason we were all here in Washington this week with over 40 members of the coalition is to make sure we do all we can to support Iraqi partners to get this right. So tomorrow we'll have a pledging conference, in which we hope to raise a significant amount of funds to help with the humanitarian response and the stabilization plan. And then on Thursday at the State Department, we'll have a joint ministerial of foreign ministers and defense ministers to come together to talk about the next six months of the campaign. And of course, it's not just Iraq. It's a very important work we're doing in Syria. It's the important work we're doing in Libya. And it's the global campaign against Ash to dry up their foreign fighter networks, their financing networks, and their propaganda networks. But without a strong partner in Iraq, it really is a centerpiece of the campaign. And that is why I want to introduce my good friend, Foreign Minister Joffrey. Again, Foreign Minister Joffrey has been there at every single moment of the last 10 years at very difficult times in which Iraq has gone through. And I saw him this morning and express my deepest condolences, of course, to the horrific attack that Iraq faced in Baghdad in Karadah just about 10 days ago. We're 300 very young Iraqis. Kind of the spirit of the future of Iraq was wiped out in this horrible crime by Daesh terrorists. It was a horrible crime. I think it shocked all of us. But having gone back and forth to Iraq now, but every two weeks over the last last year or so, we tend to forget what happened just a few months ago, where a terrorist, a suicide bomber, came into Iraq and blew himself up in a soccer game, a children's soccer game where young kids were getting trophies after winning a soccer game. And not only do they do that, it's on YouTube. Everybody can see it. The most horrific, horrible crimes imaginable. In Iraq for month to month, we have sometimes 50 suicide bombers coming into Iraq to blow themselves up and to commit acts of mass murder. And we've of course faced Daesh-inspired terrorism here in the United States. We've seen the horrific crimes recently in Istanbul, in Nice. So I think we all have to empathize a little bit with what the Iraqis are going through, these horrible crimes. And you have to imagine if suicide bombers from around the world were coming in to blow up our playgrounds, our churches, our supermarkets, our mosques, because that's what is happening in Iraq. And it's been happening now for years, frankly. But the number of suicide bombers has really began to kick up in 2013 and reached a peak some months ago. So we have to do all we can to support our Iraqi partners, our Iraqi friends, not just to defeat Daesh, but to do the very hard work of what comes after Daesh. Not just the restoration of electricity and getting police back in the streets, but the psychological trauma that the society has gone through. They're really going to need all of our help. And so that I want to welcome Foreign Minister Joffrey. I want to say what a terrific job he's doing as Foreign Minister. As with all of the members of our coalition, we don't always agree on everything. We had a very good meeting this morning to talk about some very difficult issues. But we are a very strong partner of Iraq. We have a strategic framework agreement, a permanent agreement with Iraq, and that will continue. And we couldn't do it without the leadership of people like Foreign Minister Joffrey. So again, I want to welcome you and look forward to your remarks. In the name of God, peace may be upon you all. We met a year ago in this very place, in these institutions, and the session was moderated by former Ambassador Negropanti. Today we meet again and this is something important and we need to do to see each other from time to time and exchange ideas, opinions. And because Iraq is the front line in the confrontation between terrorism and Iraq, but Iraq is not defending itself only by defending the whole world and the whole international community. Iraq is facing three challenges. These challenges are the security challenge and it's not a secret that terrorism has spread its shadows in Iraq and in many parts of Iraq in the world. The second challenge is the economic economy. Challenge and the third is the security and administration challenge. Iraq yet is determined to defeat terrorism and achieve accomplishments. Last year we had a bad security situation comparing to what is now. Prime Minister Abadi applied his plan whether on security or on the economical reforms or in management reforms as well, which started. It is a heavy legacy but the Iraqi government has worked hard and achieved good results. The Iraqi government after the elections was formed. It was a pluralistic government, inclusive one representing all the people. Today the political experience in Iraq is advancing. We have difficulties yet we are determined to commit to its main objective, which is establishing a democratic system in Iraq and since it is committed to establishing this system, yet Iraq must respect all the different opinions in Iraq, the different political attitudes. This is the very principle for which Iraqi democratic system is formed to give the liberty and the freedom of all Iraqis. The confrontation against terrorism continues and will not stop. From time to time you will see that we face sub-radic battles inside the country. But these same attacks happened outside Iraq in different parts of the world in Egypt, in France and in different parts in the Middle East. Terrorism cannot be divided. Terrorism is the same and it tries to extend into new areas. Standing beside Iraq and the success that Iraq achieved is not a success for Iraqi people only but although the Iraqis are paying the most precious price which is Iraqis blood and Iraq achieved the victory and it's achieving this for the whole world and it is the right of the whole international community and the whole world to feel proud and happy for the achievements that Iraq is achieving. In the meantime the calamities that happens in Iraq and the attacks that happens in different parts in Iraq like the terrorist attack in Al-Qarade we should all take and express our condolences to the whole world because civilians were attacked and every one of you has children, has a mother and a father. The new this war that terrorism brought to the world is to target civilian targets, to bomb markets, to bomb kids, hospitals and the Karade attack people were rejoicing the Eid festival and they were shopping for the Eid festival buying gifts for their children but they were suddenly blown away with this terror attacks. I'm quite sure that this wave of sympathy that we received from different officials around the world expressed a humanitarian reaction and approved that when Iraqi forces achieve victories of the ground they might expect such reactions from the terrorists. Mosul will be after Fallujah is the next target. Terrorism tried to deepen its roots in the city of Fallujah but with the assistance of the Iraqi army and the citizens of Fallujah they managed to defeat terrorists in this city. In a short period of time and in a few casualties Fallujah was liberated and something the world was not anticipating and this proves the true desire and the will of the Iraqi people that are determined to liberate Iraq. For sure Mosul requires a momentum of the efforts that are continuing. Mosul is a huge city is the second largest city after the capital. The range of time that the Mosul was under the control of Daesh is more than two years it's almost three years it requires a plan. The people of Mosul are victories they are heroes they were threatened and attacked across the history so many times and they were always achieving victory and operating their city. The last battle would be in Mosul city it is the last hideout of Daesh in Iraq. Achieving victory for the Iraqi people is not a national victory it is an international and global victory for the world because terrorism and Daesh is a global challenge to the world. Iraq is proud in defending itself and defending the whole world. The Iraqi government is determined and is proceeding in following and defeating Daesh in all Iraqi areas. In 2014 September I stated that I was addressing the international community saying telling them that we are not asking the United Nations and the member states to send their own sons to to Iraq and lose their lives there. The Iraqi people it is the responsibility of the Iraqi people to defend themselves but I appealed the United Nation to provide assistance in three levels the security level and the assistance levels as you know Iraqis were leaving the country, displacing outside the country and I asked the United Nations to provide assistance for the Iraqis and thanking the countries which welcomed and housed the Iraqi refugees. The second type of assistance that I mentioned is the assistance on the military level logistics equipment and providing air strikes for Iraq in supporting for Iraq forces. Today is the time for the third type of assistance that we require which is assisting Iraq in the post liberation area and I may always mention the the Marshall project in Europe where the United States assisted Germany and helped Germany to rebuild itself as a country and the German people reacted to this. Iraqi government is suffering as you know from an exceptional economic conditions with exceptional conditions on the ground it is not a secret that Iraq is a country of multiple natural resources there is oil agriculture there is religious tourism in this in Iraq it is a country of the first dawn of civilization it is 6 000 years ago yet Iraq is living exceptional conditions today the international community should bear its responsibility to support Iraq which stands and facing terrorism. Iraq will always remember those countries that are standing beside Iraq especially countries that provided security assistance training equipping I would like to extend my thanks to these countries with this honorable position it has been doing in support of Iraq. Iraq is looking forward to rebuild the cities that was destroyed the cities after being liberated the policy of Daesh is to destroy totally the cities that it leaves it leaves the cities as ruins and detonate the whole houses and the home and the whole neighborhoods with explosives and mines it was not easy for the Iraqi forces to liberate the city and this forced the Iraqi army to extend the time of the military campaign and especially to avoid the citizens that were captured as a human shields by by Daesh so we had a two-way fight confronting Daesh and trying to save the citizens and avoid targeting the civilians civilians. Iraqi armed forces moved in a professional and advanced in a professional way in the battlefield eventually the victory has been achieved we will apply the same policy in liberating the city of Musa. Iraq is committed to preserve its democratic identity the democratic system in Iraq states that all the people should express themselves freely and that's why we you see public demonstrations from time to time in Baghdad despite the opinion they adopt it is a constitutional right for the people to demonstrate this is something that Iraqi new democratic system is determined to the security forces that were sent to Iraq was not to suppress or fight the the demonstrators they were sent to maintain peace and security and protect the civilians on our political relations and the strategy of the political relations that we have with the countries in the region in the world it's it's based on strategy and a philosophy it is not spontaneous philosophy it's based on having equal relations based on mutual interests of these countries we do not ask themselves that why should we have a relation with such a country the the original thing and the normal thing is to have a bilateral relations and a multilateral relations it is a world of relations a world of mutual interests a world of mutual threats we should not ask ourselves why do we where should we have a relation with this country or that on the contrary we we share the same love respect and tolerance with that all the countries that helped iraq and that countries that sent delegations official delegations to iraq most of the countries in the international coalition sent its delegations and we returned this visit our policy states that we do not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries iraq is as you know state situated in a region surrounded by Saudi Arabia Turkey Syria Jordan Iran is Islamic state in in Saudi Arabia for example there is the monarchy system iraq deals equally with these countries and iraq will not imitate any of these countries on the contrary iraq being in this middle between these countries can can do some meditation and can work on improving the relations with these countries for example we maintain relations with Syria and we maintain relations with Turkey and we know that there's some attention between Iran and Saudi Arabia and we maintain good relations with both countries and try to build bridges between these two countries iraq always do its best to keep itself distant from the policy of exes and political pillars or and i would like to extend my thanks to the united states to all the countries and the international coalition that supported iraq and has been supporting iraq during this fight and during these difficult times iraq as you know is not defending itself only but defending the whole international community i would like to thank you for listening to me today and wish you all the best thank you very much thank you minister very good please i'm sitting here so minister thank you for for those comments my name is bill taylor i'm the executive vice president here at the united states institute of peace and very pleased to moderate this question and answer period with foreign minister we're we've taken the opportunity to give you cards if you would like to ask the foreign minister questions please put some questions on the cards pass them to the to the sides and someone will pick them up and and bring them up to me if you are following us on twitter there is a hashtag where you can ask questions as well as hashtag joffery usip so let me begin both ambassador mergork and nancy nemborg have talked about reconciliation you have talked about reconciliation you spoke of you spoke of the the plans following the mosul military campaign both ambassador mergork and nancy mentioned an earlier version of reconciliation in tukrit where the government and and the local government and some of the usip people helped with reconciliation between suni and shia following the massacre that nancy mentioned at camp spiker you also mentioned the attack at kurata and you mentioned the mothers and fathers who lost children there um one of the questions that we've already gotten asks about this issue that is why is the us media silent on terror attacks such as kurata recent attacks where the spirit of the youth was wiped out by ibrahim jabar who is here somewhere ibrahim thank you for that question minister the question is following mosul as you say there is a plan for reconciliation there is a plan for moving forward after the military action can you describe that plan can you describe how the reconciliation will take place we started the national reconciliation long time ago and we moved from the national reconciliation to national participation and by participation i mean where where different iraqi communities contribute in the decision making and the policy and the administration and different levels of the iraqi political life you find peoples from different ethnicities different backgrounds the iraqi public sector institutions reflect the truth about iraqi people every iraqi city is a diversified one you can never find an iraqi city that is from one ethnicity and there there are no kind of long range or broad range of of ethnic tension or cleansing indeed there are some individual attacks the national reconciliation has started and can never stop national reconciliation committee commission will be the focal point for those discussions you talked about how the of the importance of local governments and indeed civil society organizations that can help with that reconciliation between people like in tukrit where the sunni and shia were divided by that massacre can you describe in in any detail what your plans are for mosul let me explain to you the role or the role that i hope it has when the iraqi people when a people is well educated on the concept of national reconciliation and if they are not prepared for such a reconciliation no one can impose a certain culture upon them iraqi people i assure you cannot accept to ignite internal fights and no one can convince or lead the iraqi people into a fight they do not have this culture iraqi people as a coherent one the NGOs should do its best efforts to create and to strengthen this this social fabric and and strengthen and support and promote for the tolerance that has always lived in the iraqi committee and cut the way on dash coexistence is a culture inside iraq and no two iraqis differ that they should that they will live together and that the best for iraq is to stay together united minister speaking of of a united iraq there are communities who have lived together for for a long time six thousand years as you described we have a couple of questions here about the Kurdish community and one specific question is about Kurdish community's participation in the donor's conference that comes up tomorrow this question and also one from twitter Kurdish Peshmerga forces are playing a vital role in defeating ISIL and feeding dash and sheltering over 1.8 million displaced syrians in iraqis they have requested an invitation to attend this pledge conference how has this request been granted and will any krg officials attend the conference the Kurds as part of the iraqi people suffered as much as the rest of iraqi parts suffered oppression ethnic cleansing isolating the community just like the same way the Shia and Sunnis were suffering when Saddam Hussein attacked the Kurds not because he was an Arab because he attacked Arabs before the Kurds and he attacked the Shia not because he is Sunni and he attacked the Sunnis as well we all suffers Kurds Arab from the oppression of Saddam Hussein just as we are suffering today from terrorism where terrorism targets everybody in iraq today in new iraq the Kurdish is equal to the arab the Kurdish are participating in the iraqi parliament in the iraqi government since the first president of the republic and today the president is Kurd Iraqi Kurdish we have ministers and important ministries also assuming these positions we have we might have some disagreements but no one can deny that the the rights of the Kurds is a priority for me we all gather under iraq today iraq with its diversified community reflects the coherence and reflects the cohesion between its parts also there is a continued culture in iraq whether in the parliament in the media that that the national unity must always be preserved we are not worried about the future of the national of the national unity of iraq Kurds Arabs and others all are equal and all believe in the unity of iraq the the current government has signed a national pact with the 20 points in the first point mentioned that the iraqi government should be inclusive representing everybody and that was achieved and we signed this pact and we are committed to mr we have a couple of questions from the the audience on post mozal after mozal and we've already talked a bit about the reconciliation components of that and so two further questions on that once mozal is recaptured what will the iraqi government do with the popular mobilization forces disband them or convert them to a national guard so there's on the military side and there's a related question what are the non-security measures that the iraqi government will take to prevent another generation of terrorists from emerging after liberating mozal the different national iraqi groups that are fighting in iraq came as a reaction for example the mobilized forces came after great violations against the iraqi territories and iraqi population from iso the the iraqi volunteers represented by the mobilizing force came as a response from different appeals from the iraqi people from the highest religious leadership in iraq and those are committed to the principles of the of the iraqi army and work under their umbrella what would you expect after two-thirds of iraq has fallen across the history many countries adopted similar methods accepting volunteers things like the army who are assisting the the regular army in its fight and we have benefited from these lessons and those volunteers are doing a great job to the war against iso whether the mobilizing forces or other groups contributed a lot in preserving the the cities whether the capital and other cities those fighters are moving under the umbrella of the iraqi government and they are under the prime minister command because he's the commander in chief and he's also the president of the iraqi government every armed iraqi person fighting today on the battlefields is automatically related and receives orders from the chief of command for example as just like the president of the united states is the chief of command that we have the same in iraq we have the same constitutional secret if there is if the need continues for the mobilizing forces they will be kept if not we will examine other other countries experiences how they can re reintegrate the armed groups into the community we have no problem any citizen whether he's armed or not whether his title is the iraqi army the mobilizing force or the volunteers he's part of the iraqi committee and we will make us of his experience thank you minister and on the second part on the non-security steps that the government the non-security steps that the government will take after mozal to avoid the the problem of terrorism a new generation of terrorists are there are there plans in that direction father this issue is very important in iraq and we need to pay a lot of attention the city of mozal is a diversified city it has a lot of ethnicities religions and people from different backgrounds and even different clans and tribes and in mozal there is a tribal background looking at this map we should react in a wise way to prevent others from making use of these differences to create further tensions in the history of mozal there has had been many attempts to ignite tension political tensions inside the city but the city had always overcome such attempts i had detailed conversation with the iraqi prime minister about the plans and the post liberation period how we can attract the inhabitants and the citizens of mozal who left the city and left the country many of the citizens of mozal and iraq left to your countries and this is a problem we should tackle how we can bring them back we had a vast displacement movement to from mozal to codistan and other parts of the middle of iraq so the demographic fabric of the country has changed a little bit first we should should prepare a plan for the reconstruction of the city providing job opportunities preserving the possessions and the belongings of the citizens of mozal and convince the idps and the edps from this city to get back to their to their hometown and providing them with the with encouraging uh uh uh encouraging opportunities and encouraging stuff so they can find homes to live in they find schools and public services this is our principle we need to achieve victory in mozal and al-ambar but we also should maintain and prepare for for the post liberation area this is not only a national responsibility but an international responsibility for all the international community to cut the range of time and abbreviate the the range of time to start the third term of this campaign and how to consider how to reconstruct the city we cannot ask the peoples to come back to their cities while there is no hospital or public services or schools for them um all these services must be provided all these are basic needs should be provided to in the city before they are asked to come back thank you minister um in your role as foreign minister i know you've been other ministers before including the prime minister but in your current role as foreign minister there are a couple of questions about international relations as as the neplexa rock um one of course is uh uh your neighbor to the north has just uh put down uh an attempted coup um do you have thoughts about the uh your relations with turkey following uh that coup attempt we have uh fixed unstable and constant relations with our neighboring countries and no one should be mistaken that a country could isolate itself from the surroundings the united states once adopted a policy to isolate itself from cuba uh uh today uh turkey uh uh intervened uh uh in the north of iraq and stationed base uh we might disagree with the government about something or another uh yet uh we should maintain strategic people with with the uh with the turkish people um we blamed um uh the turkish intervention of iraq yet we uh did our best to maintain good relations with turkey despite their military presence in the country we believe that we should maintain this relations due to the geographic and historical ties that after this coup attempt i found the minister of foreign affairs of the republic of turkey i called him over the phone and uh i uh asked him to continue uh support to uh iraq and i urged him to support iraqi uh including iraq in the national list of the world heritage and we and turkey voted for iraq to include the marches in the uniscoe world heritage so we can achieve a lot uh in politics uh and turkey will always remain a friendly country to iraq the your colleague uh in ankara gave you a positive response to your uh your phone call minister another of your neighbors um uh you now have uh in baghdad um an embassy from saudi arabia um can you say a little bit about the relations between iraq and and saudi arabia now that there are diplomatic relations uh syria arabia is a neighboring country to iraq and the priorities of geography is uh turkey syria arabia syria jordan iran kawait and we have relations and we made a lot of efforts to push forward the bilateral relations between syria arabia and iraq and to establish diplomatic ties between the two countries some statements and some actions uh surprising actions and statements that were shocked by from this odyside we wanted to keep these statements and these reactions away from the media to maintain these relations we still hope uh to uh to prevent uh intervention from the our syrian neighbors and to prevent hostile statements uh maintaining uh good relations uh with them uh syria arabia is an arab country uh close sharing borders with iraq and uh it's very important for us to maintain these relations uh syria arabia is the country where mecca is there is and where all muslim programs go every year all these are pushing factors towards maintaining uh good relations with them uh disagreements might happen between the two countries but we will not hesitate to talk together and sit together and discuss how we can solve it that's for mr um let me thank you very much for your your answers for your comments here i know you have other things on your agenda here this afternoon um you have been very forthcoming on these kinds of questions and we appreciate it we wish you the best of luck tomorrow with the donor's conference and the next day on the coalition strategy and moving forward as ambassador megerk said and we hope you will come back here on your next visit so ladies and gentlemen please join me in thanking the foreign minister for the all the best and uh i wish iraq will continue in this campaign with the assistance of the international community wish you all the best and thank you very much and please remain in your seats until the official party departs