 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for joining us here this morning at the United States Institute of Peace. It's my pleasure to welcome back to the Institute of Peace Dr. Fawad Hussein, who's chief of staff to the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, and Mr. Falat Bakr, who is the head of the Department of Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan Regional Government. You have their biographies, so I won't go through those, but we are very pleased to have these two distinguished members of the Kurdish government here with us again, and we're going to welcome them back to the Institute. Also, I'd like to welcome Ambassador Fairleaf. I'm always glad to have you. Other distinguished guests that we have here, it's a pleasure to welcome you all to the Institute. Timely conversation. Don't even have to say that. Timely conversation. The topic of Washington, of the international community, is the topic of today. And so we're very pleased to be able to sponsor this discussion today. The US airstrikes have enabled the Kurdish special America and the Iraqi forces to push back on the Islamic State. They have the Iraqi government has been formed. I'm sure we're going to have a conversation about that. The Kurds play a major role in that. Critical challenges lie in front of us as we attempt to degrade and destroy the Islamic State. How to deal with the displacement of more than 1.7 million people and the trauma caused by thousands of killings, including beheadings that we've all seen on the television. Further support for the United States and some of its allies depends on the Iraqi government formation that I just mentioned. This will be important for the Iraqi government to take the lead in countering terrorist group and addressing the underlying political, security, economic, social dynamics that have allowed the Islamic State to make the progress that it has. Kurdistan Regional Government, for one, has given Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi 90 days to meet some specific demands that we would like to explore with you again here this morning. The main point here is the Kurds in Iraq play a key role. So we are very pleased to be able to have this conversation. We will be asking what's next in Iraqi's political process. What will be the KRG's role in a stepped up campaign against the Islamic State? How is the Kurdish leadership's thinking evolving on independence, which we had a conversation about last time you all were here? And we're looking forward to pursuing that. This we're going to ask Manal Omar, who is the acting vice president for the Middle East and Africa, to set the stage, kind of an overview of the region as well as our work there. We will then have remarks by both Dr. Hussain and Minister Bakker from here, a couple of questions to get us started. And I'm looking forward very much to your questions to them. So you can guide this conversation in the directions that you would like. So Manal, would you like to begin? Thank you, Ambassador Taylor. And welcome, Dr. Hussain, Minister Bakker, Ambassador Faley, distinguished guests, and our viewers in the webcast. As Ambassador Taylor already said, this is indeed a very timely conversation. And I, for one, follow Iraq very closely. I've been working in Iraq since 1998. And when I go to sleep, it's one situation. And when I wake up, it's a completely nether. So we're very fortunate to have this insight and really be able to understand. Because in our opinion, it's not only about Iraq. What we've seen over and over is that what's happening in Iraq has great influence on what's happening at the region at large. More specifically, we see that the conflicts with Syria and the conflicts are beginning to merge. And the threat goes as far as Yemen and all across the region. And I would even argue is beginning to take a real global scale. So having that opportunity to really look in and having the insight that we'll have from our speakers is something that we feel very fortunate of. At the same time, it's an ability to pause and to be grateful for the relationship that we've had with many of our partners in Iraq. One of the things that USIP takes great pride in is that we've been in Iraq since 2003 with a permanent presence in Baghdad since 2004. We've been working with our partners and organizations that include the government as well as civil society across the country, including the Kurdish regional government. And we take pride in the fact that we've never left. USIP's core mission in Iraq is to strengthen local capacities to prevent, manage, and resolve conflicts peacefully. And that's not always easy. And one of the things that we've found is that in particularly in times of violence, the first reaction is often to forget the tools of nonviolent means that are available to build peace. Our strategy has always been to build relationships and partners with people on the ground, knowing very well that they already have the solutions, but it's often the resources and tools that are needed to be able to implement them. We are in particular proud of our relationships and partners in the Kurdish regional government. We have partnered with the KRG Ministry of Education on civic education. We've also partnered with the Ministry of Religious Affairs on training the religious olama, the scholars, on the role of religious leaders in peace building. And we've also worked with the Judicial Council of Kurdistan coordinating with the High Judicial Council in Baghdad. We're very proud of the fact that we were early on supporting Dahuk University with starting a peace building program, which is actually now today evolved into a master's program. And at the same time, we continue to always support local civil society organizations in the Kurdish region in order to be able to continue the mission of peace building. Our reality show, Salam Shabab, which we're very proud of, which brought youth from all across the region, was based interview, and we really appreciated the diversity of having the ambassadors of peace all across the region being able to travel to the North. It's very difficult in this context of Iraq to talk about progress, but we really believe in having such a long extent in Iraq, we have seen progress in terms of peace building, particularly in terms of the commitment on the ground. When many organizations felt that it was time to pull out of Iraq, USIP realized that our mission, peace building, and continuing to work on nonviolent means of conflict resolution was more important than ever. We actually decided to maintain and build up our programs with a special emphasis on building local capacity. We realized very early on that any success in Iraq would be a success for the region at large. The reality is that also any challenge to Iraq is proving to be a real challenge at the region. And I think today, more than ever, we've seen how true this is going to be. Iraq's politics and their security challenges posed by the armed advancements of the self-proclaimed so-called Islamic State, Hdash, challenge the peace builders. I personally have decided to take the lead from the region and more recently from the French government in rejecting the term Islamic State and calling them Hdash to delink any of the rhetoric and claims that they have. Because in reality, this ideological threat has really turned Iraq into turmoil and as well as the region. And the humanitarian crisis that we've seen with 1.7 million people displaced and a huge conflict that has risen across the region is something that everyone must come together in order to battle. As Iraq and the international community are gearing up to roll back Hdash, the reality is that we need to put in place not only a short-term solution to dealing with this particular group, but a long-term strategy with intensive efforts for communities to heal and restore some form of normalcy in order to move forward. The massive human displacement is bringing increasing strains that could have long-lasting negative effects. I would like to stress again here that Iraq has always been a priority for USIP and it will remain so. We believe that we can work together even more to scale up successful efforts on dialogue and reconciliation to tackle Iraq's challenges. So even as we plan to deal with the current challenge, we continue to have a long-term vision of continuous work and our role in Iraq for many years to come. Our work on bridging relations between communities, whether it's in the justice security sector or among civil society organizations, from Baghdad to Basra, Karbala and Karkouk, including our dialogue initiatives amongst the tribes in Mahmoudiyah and in the Nineveh Plain working on minorities for several years are all experiences that we believe will be useful in addressing current and future challenges. Not only for Iraq, but we believe the Iraq experience in particular the knowledge that has grown from civil society will be very useful for other countries that are facing similar threats. Dr. Hussain, Minister Ambassador Faley, as Iraq and the Kurdish regional government continue to tackle the current challenges, the US Institute of Peace hopes that you will continue to see us as a reliable partner and will call on us for any support. Thank you. Thank you, Manal. Thank you very much. Great. Manal, in addition to setting the stage, has answered the question, what do we call ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State? And Manal has said it's Daesh, so we will adopt that. I think this is good. Let me invite Dr. Hussain and Minister Bakr to the stage and they will have opening statements, a couple of questions and then we will turn to you for questions, so please. Podium? Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Good morning. Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much for hosting us. I'm glad to be here. I see many friends here, including my good friend, Ambassador Faley. The first question usually is why are we here once again in Washington? It is part of our plan. We have planned to be here three, four times in a year. But this time is different. This time is different because we have got a new government in Baghdad, so there is a change in Baghdad. Then the first question will be, what doesn't mean this change? What doesn't mean for Iraq? What doesn't mean for Kurdistan? What doesn't mean for neighboring countries? And also for the relationship with Washington? There is also a big change. ISIS or ISIL occupied one third of the country, one third of the territory of Iraq. And it started in the beginning of August, an attack on Kurdistan region. So this is also a change. First, having one third of the country under occupation. And second, Kurdistan being attacked. The third change, which is also big, the United States policy towards Iraq. It's well known that with the new administration, I mean when Obama started, there wasn't Iraqi policy, or if there was a policy, it was a policy of being far away from Iraq or withdraw from Iraq. Now the situation is different. The American claims are engaged in fighting against ISIS in Iraq. And the relationship between Washington and Baghdad and Washington and Erbil is different than even a few months ago. So depending on these issues, depending on these topics, how are we going to see the future of the country? Because that's the question. What is next? I mean the future of Iraq. The future relationship between Iraq and Kurdistan. The future relationship between Baghdad and Washington and Erbil and Washington. We start a negotiation with various political parties in Baghdad. And from the beginning we said because of the change in Baghdad, change in the leadership, we want to be part of this new process. To rebuild the political process. Mr. Maliki hijacked the political process and the political parties in Iraq, they got it back now. But then the main question for us is how are we going to build this new process? Are we going to follow the old path? Then of course if we will all follow the old path we will reach the same results. And we know that the new prime minister, Mr. Abadi is facing huge problems in Iraq. First, as I said, one third of the Iraqi territory is under occupation of the terrorist. So how is he going to rebuild his army? About 10 divisions of the Iraqi army has been collapsed. Many people they are talking about 6 has been collapsed in Mosul and around Mosul. That's right. But about 4 divisions also has been collapsed during the fight in Anbar. I mean 3 months ago, 4 months ago, 6 months ago. When ISIS started there the fight and Iraqi army collapsed. In reality, in reality we must start once again building or rebuilding a new army in Iraq. How are we going to build that? And what about now? Who is taking care of the security in Baghdad? The security in Baghdad now is in the hands of the party militias. That's also part of the reality. Is it possible for party militias to fight and liberate the Sunni areas? This is also a question for us. I think the answer is clear. It will be difficult. It will be difficult. So who is fighting ISIS in Mosul and around Mosul? The only forces, the only main force which is fighting ISIS there is the Kurdish Peshmerga. This is also part of the reality. But there are sometimes cooperation between some units from Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga. Of course, after a long time, after a long conflict between Baghdad and Erbil working together this gives also hope to many people and to the political leadership in Baghdad so that we can start a new page. But the problem in Iraq is so deep. The conflict in Iraq is so wide and so complicated. Is it possible for the new government to deal with it? All we must be all partners in finding a solution. We are planning to be partners. We are planning to be partners in finding a solution for the problems that are facing Iraq. But at the same time, we have got many conflict areas with the same government in Baghdad. How are they going to deal with these conflicts? Cutting the budget of the region since January this year we didn't receive our budget. Is it possible for the new government to restart and take the initiative to pay the budget? This is one of the problems. The other main problem has to do with the disputed areas. Maliki's government left Article 140U which has to do with the disputed area. It's a kind of roadmap for solving the problem of disputed areas. He ignored that article. The new government is supposed to implement that article. It is the task of the government to implement it according to the constitution. Are they going to do that? And if they will do it, when are they going to do it? What about oil and gas issue and revenue sharing? These are some problems that we have with Baghdad. And one of the main problems still and exists has to do with the Peshmerga forces. Baghdad didn't want to recognize Peshmerga forces in the past, of course. Although it was once again part of the constitution as part of the security system in Iraq and to be paid by Baghdad. And they ignored to pay, I mean, perching weapons for Peshmerga forces. So one of the reasons why in the first days of the fighting, when the fighting started against ISIS, Peshmerga forces in the beginning they were obliged to reorganize themselves and defend themselves because of shortages in weapons and ammunition. So do we expect from the current government in Baghdad that they are going to deal with Peshmerga in a different way? Now outside the world is helping the Peshmerga. United States is helping the Peshmerga. Germany is helping the Peshmerga forces. Many other European countries, France is helping the Peshmerga forces. It will be strange that outside the world is supporting Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi government ignores Peshmerga forces. This will be strange. But this is an issue it must be discussed. These are some problems that the Iraqi government and we are facing nowadays in Kurdistan. The question is about the future. How are we going to establish first our relationship with Baghdad? Second, the relationship of Iraq with the outside world. As far as our relationship with Baghdad I think we must face the reality. The new reality once again is that Iraq has been divided not because of the Kurds but Iraq was divided because of the terrorist occupation terrorist of Daesh when they controlled one third of the country. But Iraq has been also divided because of the back policy of Prime Minister Maliki. Because Maliki at the end he was ruling the country alone. He ignored his partners so that means if we want to establish a new Iraq we must go back to partnership. If we want to keep the unity of Iraq then it is up to Baghdad to behave in the correct way according to the constitution of Iraq. That means to establish federal structures in Iraq. Without having federal structures in Iraq the unity of Iraq will not be there. And by the way when we are talking about federal structures we are talking about the constitution in fact. We are not violating the Iraqi constitution. So to keep the unity of Iraq once again we need federal structure. Why do we need federal structure? It will be difficult after what happened in Iraq especially between the Sunnis and Shi'a to bring these two communities together in one Iraq. In other words the solution is if the Sunnis will have their own area and the Shi'a will have their own area and our right has been recognized in the constitution as a federal region then we can have Baghdad for all of us. That is the way to keep Iraq and the unity of Iraq. What doesn't mean unity of Iraq if the Sunnis they don't feel that they have been represented in Baghdad and the Kurds they feel they have been ignored in Baghdad or discriminated in Baghdad and the Shi'a wants to control Iraq or some Sunnis wants to come back to the old style to control Iraq once again and to rule Iraq. This will not happen. The Kurds will not accept that anymore. The Sunnis will cannot control, re-control Iraq alone and the Shi'a they cannot rule Iraq alone. So the way to have the unity of Iraq is partnership but partnership is not enough. We need a structure for partnership. Partnership has not to do with having some Sunni faces or Kurdish faces or Shi'a faces in the government in Iraq. We had it. During Maliki we had it. Partnership has to do with the balance of power on the ground and balance of the power on the ground each group must have its own administrations right and its own region. I think Iraq will be more safer and more united if we will talk about sharing the wealth and power between center and periphery. Iraq will be better united if we will talk about decentralization of the security. Nowadays it is difficult as I mentioned it is difficult for Shi'a party militias to fight in Sunni areas. It will be difficult for the Kurds to go to the Arab areas and to fight there. It will be difficult for Sunni units if there are some Sunni units to go to the Shi'a areas. So the way is to have this federal structure and federal structure in Iraq it doesn't mean only sharing the power but distributing the power and the wealth between the center and periphery but also the security must be distributed. It will be difficult to have one security force. We must have various security forces. If we will go this direction then perhaps we will have a united Iraq but at the same time united because the people of these areas will agree about that. So there must be an agreement to be united. If not I think we must prepare ourselves for a different future of Iraq and how it will be I don't know but it will be difficult then to talk about unity in Iraq while the Kurds will be ignored the Sunni will be marginalized the Shi'a will be only in Baghdad and around Baghdad in the south. Unity of Iraq has to do with that every Iraqi and these three main communities must feel that they are part of the political process part of the decision making process part of the implementing the decision and each has got its own identity but it's also own geography inside Iraq. Thank you very much. Minister you have said you're going to decide whether to speak from here or there and your decision is please. Good morning. I would like to start by thanking USIP for hosting us here and also for your attendance. Building upon what Dr. Hussein has said we are here to communicate a number of messages to the officials in the American administration to our friends on the capital hill our friends in the think tank and the media outlets about the situation on the ground in Kurdistan and of course the title of the session Iraq what's next is important because people are following the challenges we are facing and also people want to know what will happen within Iraq and what will happen in Kurdistan in dealing with the challenges we are facing. I'd like to talk about three main areas political, security and humanitarian and the political sphere there has been some progress with the decision that was made to join the government formation process in Baghdad although the leadership in Kurdistan was not in favor of joining the administration or the government in Baghdad due to the fact that the negotiation process that took place was not an encouraging one but we deemed it necessary that we have to do something in order to bring about the change for the sake of improving at a later stage otherwise changing faces would not be enough for us to see a real change in the structure and also in the path of the government the second is the security situation we have faced some serious challenges in June but later in August when the immediate attack of the ISIS terrorists came and approached Kurdistan region therefore last time when we were here in Washington end of June and beginning of July we were communicating the message that we need assistance, military assistance and support in order to be ready for ISIS we knew that we were under threat but unfortunately things did not move fast enough for us to be ready for that security challenge and we have faced difficulties as a result, and I will go to the third point which is humanitarian, we have faced a humanitarian catastrophe especially in the areas of Sinjar, Nineveh plain and south of Erbil in all of Iraq there is 1.8 million IDPs and refugees indeed 1.5 of them are in Kurdistan region so that includes 250,000 Syrian refugees and the rest are IDPs from the rest of Iraq only this year the KRG has hosted or received 850,000 of them in three waves, the first wave was in March after the events in Anbar province the second wave was in June after the fall of Musal and then the other provinces and the third wave was in August that has been a real challenge for us not only in providing humanitarian assistance for people that KRG itself had real challenges of running the administration because it's truly a challenge for a government to be at war with the ISIS terrorists and to care for 1.5 million IDPs and refugees and not to have paid the salaries of Peshmergas who are in the front we are three months behind in paying the salaries of Peshmergas and the civil servants therefore we commend the resilience of the Kurdish government and Kurdish people in being able to face all these challenges while the people's expectations are higher than before therefore we are here in order to ask for support in terms of helping us to help those vulnerable people especially the Yazidis, the Christians the Shabak, the Faeli and all the other displaced people who in addition being traumatized and shocked at the barbarity and the brutality of these terrorists they are facing challenges of death because we know that thousands of people were stranded on Mount Sinja and others were without any shelter and food so through that the UN and its agencies are working with the KRG in order to provide assistance but it's not enough therefore we call upon the international community to come forward and provide assistance so that we can meet their expectations over 700 schools in Kurdistan and mainly in Dohuk province are occupied by IDPs so the displaced people cannot be asked to leave the schools school year has started so this has affected the community directly, the population of Dohuk have not been able to send their children to school we need to build 26 refugee camps and IDP camps in Kurdistan we have to prepare ourselves for winter people would be able to go back to their villages after they have been liberated but we have to make sure that there are proper defensive lines and consolidated so that these people once again would not face displacement another issue that we would like to draw the attention of the international community, the attempt at genocide and especially against the Yazidis and the Christians because the messages and the policy of the terrorists were very clear either convert, pay or you will be dead or pay or leave and dead so that concept of medieval ages to be implemented and put in place in 21st century is a bit strange therefore we needed international support in order to address the challenge that we are facing the KRG is doing whatever it can in order to meet their expectations and to provide the assistance that is needed but it's not an easy challenge therefore we are expecting before the international community the Iraqi federal government to come forward they can play a role in helping financing some of these activities and helping providing food stuff because most of the displaced people are Iraqi families Iraqi families are entitled to receive their food share and the public distribution system it's not a favorite because every Iraqi family is entitled to receive that so the federal government can back that through the Ministry of Trade they can provide that through the mechanism and also most of these people who are government employees or pensioners they can also receive their salaries at least it would help people to get something to alleviate the burden on the KRG which itself is facing deficit from local and foreign companies in order to run the administration therefore the challenges ahead of us are huge if we were to go towards a better future in Iraq and Kurdistan region then we have to look for a genuine partnership that would ensure a better future for all of us we talked about federal structure but federalism was set and stipulated in the Constitution but indeed it has been emptied from its content it was not implemented it was not adhered to and the only group that was mentioning it was the Kurdistan region and the officials in Kurdistan therefore we can't have more of the same of what we had in the last eight years either to bring about a meaningful change a meaningful change that would give hope for the improvement of the situation or we have to think about a serious situation therefore this time the Kurdish leadership decided conditionally to join the government in Baghdad in order to give some time for serious and real negotiation on addressing the issues with clear cut time frame in order to be addressed because we cannot continue and the situation on the ground is facing the security challenges and economic challenges therefore I would like to stop here by thanking you for being here and with our call on the international community to support us politically in order for Kurdistan region and the rest of Iraq to succeed in the challenges we face second in terms of military support for our forces on the ground to face this challenge and third for the humanitarian assistance and also the sending international investigators and teams to work on the recognition of the genocide and thank you Thank you minister Thank you very much So if I can ask just a couple of questions at the outset while you prepare your questions I look forward to them and I'm sure both Dr. Hussain and Minister Bakker do as well You've both in general terms described the purpose of your visit here and you've described Dr. Hussain the differences from when you were here recently in the past and they are there is a new government there has been this attack on KRG from Daesh or ISIL and US policy has changed your visit here as you've just described in some general terms is highlighting requests from the US government if you were to be more specific on the kinds of you mentioned humanitarian military support is there are there specifics that you've had conversations with on the hill and will have in the State Department and with the White House on the kinds of both humanitarian and military support that the United States the international community more broadly but the United States specifically on this visit ought to consider and ought to get to you quickly Thank you for this question when we were here the last time it was June, July and on 3rd of July we were in the White House and then at that time we discussed the security situation in Iraq and ISIS has already occupied Mosul and many other areas at that time we requested the United States government to help us with weapons now we are here the United States has sent weapons so this is also a change, a big change at that time we were requesting the United States to help us to face ISIS threat now the United States claims are striking ISIS bases so the question here but the question also in Kurdistan is what is our target is the target to get ISIS far away from Kurdistan region is it the target to push ISIS once again back into Mosul they are there but to push them back or is it the target to destroy ISIS also in Iraq and some people here they go further to destroy ISIS bases also in Syria if this is the question who is going to fight ISIS on the ground who can do that is it possible to destroy ISIS only by air strike or you must have combination of both that must be the way otherwise you cannot destroy ISIS only by air strike then the next question we know the answer but the question here who is going to fight and where are the fighters which force is going to be your partner on the ground I know we are talking about Iraqi forces there are some units of Iraqi army but the reality is that the main force on the ground the Kurds the Kurds they are fighting ISIS for many reasons some reasons has to do with principles with their values but ISIS is also threat for Kurdistan and they attacked Kurdistan now the Kurds are ready to fight ISIS everywhere and we think that Kurdistan will stay under threat if ISIS will stay in Mosul in other words the target for the time being must be Mosul but to enter Mosul you need different kinds of weapons you need different kinds of weapons to enter Mosul so we are here to talk about that and we already started discussion to ask the American that your partner on the ground are ready to continue this fight and by the way the last days we liberated many areas and we are not far away from Mosul but to enter the city it needs once again as I said different kinds of weapons so we requested once again this we talked about that with various officials and we are going to continue this discussion here of course if the target will be to destroy ISIS on the other side of the border Syria that's a different issue and it needs different discussion Dr. Saini if I could just ask is there a different kind of weapons in order to push into Mosul are you being specific with your US government different kinds of weapons you need tanks, you need helicopters you need different kinds of artillery you need there are special cars for cleaning the mines so you need different kinds of weapons that we have we think that with these weapons it's not enough to enter the city of Mosul you mentioned on this topic that some countries have been providing some weapons I understand it's been like weapons and the proposal here is for heavier weapons, it's for tanks, it's for helicopters it's for artillery are there other countries that you've had conversations with Europeans that could also provide this indeed we are very pleased at the level of support and solidarity that was shown to Kurdistan and we believe the support to Kurdistan was for the values that we stand for for democracy, for freedom, for human rights, for rule of law what we have building Kurdistan therefore we were very pleased to see all that support around the world yes, some European countries have provided weapons they are like to mid weapons but we are asking for heavy weapons and it's supposed to be on their way but what we want is to have weapons heavy weapons which are good for offensive purposes or defensive purposes because we cannot defeat ISIS unless we move against them and make advances therefore this is the nature and second we also want to get some assistance but also other countries around the world to help us for an international conference on humanitarian assistance because this is a major issue that we are facing the refugees in Syria are still there there is no prospect for a solution in Syria the IDPs and the rest of Iraq are there yes we would be able to help those who are in the Nineveh plane and other areas to go back but what about the rest in Mosul, in Anbar, in Diyala provinces therefore this is a huge challenge on us a humanitarian assistance conference to be hosted by KRG and the UN agencies in order to look at their needs to make a proper assessment and how to meet them especially as we are approaching the winter and that may go into the next year Dr. Sain, one other question which you've already addressed to some degree the Peshmerga can be the ground forces President Obama has made it very clear that he at this point has no intention of sending US ground forces in a combat role you've suggested that the Peshmerga are prepared to do that to provide that component of the attack of the pushback of the attempt of the effort to destroy to grade and destroy Daesh there have been voices in Iraq who have reinforced that who have said we don't want American forces on the ground in Iraq what's your sense of that and what's your sense of the view in Baghdad of American forces and the willingness of the Peshmerga to be the ground forces there are some people in Iraq they don't want American forces for ideological reason we are not from that category it is up to the American to decide if they will send their forces it's up to them that of course in the agreement with the Iraqi government because at the end when you send forces to another country you need an agreement but in principle when the American forces were in Iraq and the American government decided to withdraw my president and Kurdish leadership made it clear the security situation in Iraq was not yet there to be protected by Iraqi security itself although Prime Minister Maliki at that time he went on the TV and he announced that everything was under control and the security situation was good in Iraq but we have seen it anyhow I think as far as the fight against ISIS we said it the Kurdish forces they are ready to do it not because the American are asking us we are doing that on the basis of our principle we are doing that because we are defending our people we are defending our country we are defending our principles but our values has to do also with western values we are talking about democracy we are defending human rights we are defending human rights I mean all these principles are part of our policy our policy is based on these principles while ISIS in principle they are against all these ideas so we are fighting the first place for our people but at the same time we are fighting for the free world because ISIS is an international organization there are thousands of Islamist terrorists they came from western countries and they are fighters they are fighting there the question is what are they doing when they will finish the fight there of course they will be a threat to the security and other parts of the world so our fight indirectly is a fight also for other societies but we are ready to do it on the ground we are ready to do it on the ground that's why we made it clear that at this point we don't need other armies or American boots on the ground that was clear but if the American government will decide one day to send army units to that area of course it depends on the American policy but also on the agreement with the Iraqi government very good so we have now the opportunity for you to ask questions and there is a question right here so if you will wait for the mic state your name and your question thank you Rafael from the Brazilian embassy could you comment on the participation of Iran helping the Iraqi forces thank you in the first days of the fighting then we are talking about the beginning of August and when ISIS terrorists reached the border of Erbil the Iranian government sent some support military support to Kurdistan and we are thankful for that so they were helpful in this fight especially in the beginning of the fighting and the Iranian helped also the Iraqi forces in this case they were let's say party militias to liberate Amelie it was under siege for two months and the population of that city they were resisting for two months so Kurdish forces plus let's say Shia party forces and the Iranian and the American they helped all together to liberate that area the American of course they used their airstrike in that area but the Peshmerga forces and the Shia forces they were together in the fight and they liberated the people there Dr. Sainte, if I can just elaborate on a good question so was there coordination then to coordinate the American airstrikes the Peshmerga on the ground the Iranian support was there Iranian American Kurdish Iraqi coordination on the ground of course there was coordination between the Shia forces and the Peshmerga forces this was of course otherwise you cannot advance and fight that terrorist as far as the coordination between the American planes usually it is a coordination between Peshmerga forces the American so the coordination between the Americans and the Iranians was through the Peshmerga it was not coordination between the American and the Iranian it was coordination between Peshmerga also we have some American advisors on the ground with us so this has been announced therefore when we talked about American troops in fact we have said it this is our fight it's our responsibility to do it it has a regional dimension as well as an international dimension but locally it's our responsibility as Kurds and Kurdistanis as well as Iraqis but then it goes to Syria and beyond that it has to become regional and international but the Americans have announced that they have sent some experts and advisors to be with us on the ground in order to assess the situation and to see what kind of military support and assistance to be provided for our forces very good sir my name is Yarevan Said I work for a road news agency I have two questions for the guests one of them is you know how optimistic are you about the energy government to implement your demands within three months as well the Kurds have you know given up a century of death by two different energy you know governments to implement your demands and secondly you know there are reports that Baghdad is giving a hard time for the weapons you know to your Kurds the other thing is that it is facilitating these weapons from European countries and other countries two of them as far as the minister is clearly deferring this on the I may interfere but I will as far as the opportunity of course we hope that that we will succeed and I'm talking about we because at the end the Iraqi government means all political parties so we are working to reach success but at the same time we must be realistic success has to do with being committed to as I said to the constitution but also to many agreements which have been signed in the past and if there will be positive steps in Baghdad the direction of Kurdistan then of course we will continue supporting the government and we put some conditions and we hope that within three months we will receive some positive signals and positive steps and implementing the agreements which we had and one of them has to do with let's say deciding when Iraqi government is going to have census and other end to have referendum to the areas one of them which I think now they are discussing it to pay the budget of Kurdistan other issue has to do with the Peshmerga forces the payment for Peshmerga forces weapon for Peshmerga forces so we hope that positive steps will be taken so that we can continue building a new political process as far as receiving weapons Mr. Maliki when he was Prime Minister until last day he created some problems for us he obliged the planes especially planes which brought weapons from various countries to go first to Baghdad just for few hours and then flying to Erbil during that period we had telephone calls with Mr. Awadi not yet Prime Minister he promised that he would solve this problem I don't know how these days it has been solved but he promised that it will be solved and then we are dealing with the situation in Iraq it's all based on lack of trust and unfulfilled promises it's not about being optimist or pessimist it's about being realist if we want to have a better future a future that can be sustained a future that can ensure partnership power sharing and prosperity to be realistic we are not going to go back to the old structure as we said last time and we reiterated that we are not going to go back to the Iraq of pre-Musel era we in Kurdistan regional government we ask for more political power more economic power and more sovereignty including control over our airspace not only military flights humanitarian air flights as well as visitors dignitaries who wanted to visit Kurdistan who obliged to go and land in Baghdad to meet with Iraqi officials and then to come otherwise they would not be allowed to visit Kurdistan just imagine like here for people who do not want to come to Washington if they go to another state to say you have to go to Washington land in Washington meet some people and then go to the other states we can't have it like this therefore we have to open a new page a page based on trust based on understanding and also reading the new realities on the ground thank you minister I have two questions here why would you on the go ahead my name is Connie Zulam I am with the American Kurdish Information Network physically Scotland is thousands of kilometers away from Kurdistan but politically they face an identical problem the problem of self-rule the desire to be free first do you support the yes campaign or better together campaign two how long will it take for the Arab ruling circles in Baghdad to do what David Cameron did to allow a referendum on the issue question on the Iraq is great Britain nor Scotland so there are differences but at the end we are talking about the right of self-determination the Kurds has the right of self-determination when they will exercise that right they will do them so that must be clear I mean the Kurds has got that right and they will exercise it one day but it's up to Kurdish people to decide when and how it has also to do with the last chance which has been given to Baghdad we hope that Baghdad can make it Baghdad can be changed Baghdad will stay as it was then of course the situation will be different but the right of self-determination is our right and when we will exercise that when the Kurdish people will exercise that that has to do with them not somebody else will decide for them history has shown that unity cannot be imposed it has to be voluntary of course in democratic societies and civilized societies it's much easier to deal with than our part of the world which has long and deep traditions of hatred of violence and of dictatorship so therefore it needs time we cannot compare the two situations but for us of course it's a sentimental issue it's a sensational for us to we can't be against the will of other nations when they aspire to independence we can't be because we are aspiring for our own independence but it's for the people of Scotland of the United Kingdom to decide but peacefully and I believe they are civilized people when you look at it, when they say better together it tells you how civilized these people are they are not saying no as such they are saying if we stay together it is better but for us I believe it is better to separate from each other yes sir fellow Schrafer no affiliation but I did attend a conference earlier this week by SAIS school advanced international studies I got an understanding of several things I just want to run that by the speakers today number one that the government Baghdad is democratic for Shias but not for Sunnis it has not been inclusive of the Sunnis and ISIS is largely a reflection of that that 80% of the land occupied by ISIS in Iraq is actually occupied by disgruntled Sunnis who are supporting ISIS and that much of the military leadership of ISIS is special forces officers from the Iraqi army what was the question state your question specifically what was that question do you accept this or do you disagree with it I guess that's my question the makeup of the ISIS military is former members of the Sunnis that were in the Iraqi army right and 80% of the land I don't know if 80% to be honest it's difficult to have the percentage but it is well known that many officers of the former regime regime of Saddam Hussein they joined ISIS and they are playing an important role but as I said ISIS is an international organization they have got people from around the world but also Arabs from North Africa and Gulf countries so it is an ideological organization as far as democracy for Shia and not for Sunni I don't think we have got yet a real democracy in Iraq so it is neither for Shia nor for Sunni nor for Kurds but one day we will have a democratic system in Iraq you see during my introduction I didn't talk about democracy I talked about federal structure because it will be difficult now to have a democratic system in Iraq election is part of democracy it's not I mean for a democratic system you need a lot election can be the basis for a democratic system for a democratic system you need democratic elite you need democratic parties you need people who believes in democracy and I am afraid that it will be difficult to find a lot of people there in Iraq who believes in democracy a real democracy so we need to first to divide the power among the population so that's why I talked about federal structure and develop within their own community their system and at the end they can cooperate and perhaps that will create a kind of margin of freedom and a democratic process but to have a democratic system in Iraq we must go a long, long way it's not yet there well Iraq is in a transitional phase if you just going back to the previous question there were a number of prime ministers of Great Britain who were from Scotland so this is where we will have real democracy when people in Iraq will be treated as equal partners not based on their religion, sect or nationality Iraq is a bi-national, multicultural, multi-ethnic society that fact has to be considered in transitional phase you have to prepare the ground and you have to educate the people it may need generations in order to get there thank you, other questions yes, all the way here yes my name is Ali Ahmad, I'm working for Akhara TV my question is the Kurds gave prime minister Abadi 90 days to make progress in terms of solving problems between Baghdad and Erbil if the 90 days is over, what's your position then it depends what happens in the coming 90 days are we as I mentioned are we going to have positive steps towards solving main issues or the government in Baghdad will ignore all these issues if will not happen then of course the Kurds has got many options many options but one of them is to go back to our people and to ask our people what's the next step but we hope that we can make it we are serious as far as being partner of Mr. Abadi we want to support him we are working with him it is not up only it is not fair to leave it only to Mr. Abadi we are talking positive step that means we are going to work together to reach that positive step so the first project for us is to re-establish the right path in the political process in Baghdad also Iraq has got other problems not only between Erbil and Baghdad there are some Iraqi problems that have to be addressed in order to have a better future for the country Sunnis have got problems Kurds have problems some Shia groups have got problems therefore the previous government failed because it did not meet the expectations of the communities if we are to solve all these problems then we need serious participation among all the partners to help move Iraq forward at this stage but we are at the first few days of the government formation therefore we have a long path until we get to the 90 days yes sir I recall as early as 2007 and 8 we have community practitioners in the area of community psychology was part of a coalition providing mental health services for those who have been suffered from the area of trauma and other long-term mental health experiences and my question is now and moving forward what type of treatment has been provided for those who are currently suffering from trauma and what type of plan is on the ground in treating those who are suffering from mental health experiences thank you well indeed we are overstretching our infrastructure and we do need help from the international community and especially the international NGOs to come and be on the ground with us because it's beyond the capacity of the KRG 1.5 million compared with 5.5 million the population is 20% of our population have increased overnight so therefore this is a huge burden on us and we don't have that many resources nor the capacity to deal with them each family of the IDPs and refugees there is a story and there are problems to deal with therefore it's huge especially the women, the children, the elderly those who suffer from chronic diseases these are all people who need close attention and that's why we say we need assistance, we need support from different organizations around the world yes sir my name is Isan Günduz George Mason University how is Turkey's unwillingness to cooperate with international coalition going to affect the KRG and Turkey's relations thank you you see a good friend of mine from Turkey it is not up to us to answer a question on behalf of Turkey so you can raise this question with Turkey itself or Turkish officials well said sir there's my coming as a follow up question having a feasible Sunni region under the federal structure you're describing can Turkey play a role at the end the population of Iraq they must decide about how they are going to organize their life and how they want to live together but it is well known Turkish government has got good relationship with Sunni leaders and I think Turkey is still supporting some Sunni leaders and Sunni organizations I don't know if they are pushing Sunni leaders to have their federal structure but nowadays many Sunni leaders I mean if you compare it with the past they are talking about federal region while in the past they were not talking they were very much against I'm talking about many Sunni leaders there are Sunni organizations which are against federal structure and still they think federalism will lead to divide Iraq but there are some Sunni leaders who are saying the solution for Iraq at the end is to have a region for Sunni and to have a region for Shia and of course Kurdistan and then back that will be the capital of the country well the events in Iraq and in the Middle East are affected by the Shia Sunni power struggle whether we like it or not we hope that one day we will come that we don't talk about such issues and all the neighbors of Iraq have got their own agenda as an objective they want to achieve Iraq but at the end of the day for Iraq to succeed decisions of Iraq have to be made impact that within Iraq by the Iraqis otherwise there would be no future for the country Thank you I'm John Dixon with the Global Peace Foundation and I want to really appreciate the Institute for Peace for doing this and our visitors from Kurdistan I've been a few times there and I just think what you're doing is really important because Americans really don't understand what is Kurdistan and the Kurdish people and if they did a lot of this would be taken care of so I just want to applaud you for taking the time to come here and to do what you're doing because that's just the information that's been missing people just don't get it and as they get to understand your situation and our fantastic friends in the Middle East all of this will be I think a no-brainer for support I was curious also about the Kurdish communities outside of Kurdistan around in the region and if there's communication and how much other how many of the refugees are Kurdish as opposed to coming in from Syria and from Iraq and other places these four Kurds we we have three different stages back in 1991 after the Kurdish uprising we told thank you to America after 2003 we were the only group in Iraq publicly told America thank you for the time we are here to tell the American people and the American administration thank you for what you have done as for the Kurdish diaspora and the people in Kurdistan we're proud that we were united against the threat of the terrorist of ISIS and we have opened the door of Kurdistan and we have this open door policy to receive all the refugees and IDPs without asking who is a Kurd because Kurdistan would remain the land of tolerance peaceful coexistence because we believe in the rights of others as much as we believe in our own rights we were refugees one day we know how painful it is to be a refugee at this place therefore the majority of the IDPs who are in Kurdistan are Arabs, Sunnis, Samshis Christians Yazidis they belong to different ethnicities and religions and Kurdistan is proud of that culture and will continue to be so Yes please Hi I'm Michelle Piercey I'm with DAI my colleagues and I just returned from a visit to the Kurdish region last week and you can tell us about this thank you very much wonderful time I just wanted to say that in addition to a culture of what you might call a syndictatorship our experience in Iraq and in the Kurdish region has also been that there's frequently a culture of seeing a conspiracy around every corner the sudden departure of four divisions of the Iraqi army and the speed with which ISIL took terrain in the Kurdish region I think surprised us from afar when we arrived we were really struck by how quickly and how effectively they were able to take territory without a shot so much as being fired there are many explanations about for why that happened I'm wondering if you can share your interpretation of why and how that happened so quickly and as a very good follow up perhaps if you want to discuss the departing Iraqi army generals and why or whether they ought to be held to account well indeed talking about what happened in June and afterwards we were honest and open with ourselves with our friends in the international community therefore we stated clearly that we are on the defensive because we knew what we had although we went into filling the security vacuum and we wanted to make sure that we provide protection to all the religious and ethnic minorities in all these areas but the point was that we wanted help in order to have enough weapons to defend ourselves literally the Peshmerga's had outdated old and used weapons that stopped functioning even in facing ISIS so therefore it was unlike the situation with the Iraqi army that they had the most sophisticated and advanced weapons they just laid down they could not resist for more than for even three hours and they left the scene and they let the people unprotected therefore in the Kurdish situation there were a number of factors first the weapons the supremacy of the weaponry second the tactics that they were new for the Peshmerga the strategy of fear and creating panic among the population and also the long border which was 1035 kilometers long and the Peshmerga were supposed to provide all that support with the military airstrikes the situation has changed because we had confidence that we can achieve success in facing such kind of advanced weaponry and therefore it is such that the Peshmerga's have believed in the cause they are ready to sacrifice for the sake of their people and their land and we have seen the day after day that we are retaking control of the territory that we lost during the first days and we are determined to continue the path as for the Iraqi generals there are many questions there has to be an investigation of why that happened because it was a total military the US army the US government spent a lot of time energy resources in building and providing arms we as Peshmerga forces we have not received our fair share from these weapons that were provided although weapons were allocated for Kurdistan region but we did not receive it as a result of the wrong policies of the former prime minister Maliki that withholded all these weapons and we still have not received them but it belongs to their culture maybe the people who were there they were she as are not Sunnis therefore they did not feel that it is their responsibility to protect the people some of the soldiers who were interviewed they said we joined the army just to get a good salary we were not ready to die and these are interviews with people who fled and there were thousands of them who were there so only in Muslim area there were about 52,000 people in arms so therefore they have larger numbers than Peshmerga with better weapons etc and of course the conspiracy theory is there in every corner in every alley in that part of the world because if you talk to somebody whispering in his ear the other person says that this is conspiracy against me we have time I think for one last question and it will be right here thank you Dakhil Shamu from Voice of America two questions regarding the salary it looks like that the issue salary was with Maliki, Prime Minister Maliki why Abadi is not sending the salary second question I don't know why don't you why don't you talk you want to talk about KRG-Turkey relations a few days ago I read a statement by you saying that you were disappointed because Turkey did not help KRG when ISIS attacked Erbil as far as salary we were in contact before even becoming Prime Minister and he promised that he is going to solve it for the first month and later on negotiation will start so he is supposed to solve it now I mean paying for September and then negotiation will start about the payment but also about our oil policy so he promised that talking about Turkey the question was about Turkey itself otherwise the question was about Turkish Kurdistan relationship I talked to you as you mentioned we established good relationship with Turkey and the economic interaction between the region and Turkey is wide huge the cultural interaction and of course the geography all this pushed us to have good relationship with Turkey on the contrary with the past I am talking about 2010 until 2010 the relationship between the region and Turkey was very bad tense but since 2010 both sides they approached each other and we established a very good relationship so the question for us was now when ISIS attacked us and we approached our Turkish friends we approached them we had discussions and we were disappointed because we heard a lot about promising that they will defend us if there will be an attack and various times it has been repeated that your security is also affect our security so when there will be attack on you when your security will be threatened that means a threat to our security also but when the attack was there at that time we didn't receive enough support and we received support from the United States and European countries so this issue became part of the discussion in Kurdistan now what happened why I think it will be good once again to sit around the table I mean Turkish representative and representative Kurdistan to discuss this matter in different way and to find solution because at the end we will say neighbors we need each other there is mutual interest for both sides but we must repair this damage there is damage in our relationship some people they say okay why you are asking Turkey but but we we ask them because we had this discussion with them before in the past there was serious discussion about the security of the area and security of the region and we got always the promises that if we will be under threat there will be support for us so when it was not there then we were disappointed that doesn't mean the whole relationship with Turkey has been damaged but on this issue it has been damaged so we need serious discussion with each other and I think we will do that thank you the first part of your question indeed when we talk about being part of Iraq so it's a given fact that we have to be treated fairly so it's not that a favorite that is doing if we are supposed to be Iraqis then we have to be treated as Iraqis and to get our fair share from the budget so that's it and the process has started we hope that we will be able to address these issues in a good spirit so that we can solve the other problems which are complicated, more complicated than this and for the second part of the question we were expecting more from Turkey while others who have never promised anything they came forward Turkey did not do that Dr. Hussein Mr. Bakker let me thank you very much for your open response your frank responses sometimes in response to several questions about difficult topics some have been difficult this is a difficult time and you face great challenges I was impressed with your focus on trying to make this new government and Baghdad work that seems to be the first priority there there are alternatives and you've laid out what might happen if that doesn't work but emphasizing that I think was interesting you're being specific about heavy weapons support from the United States as well as the Peshmerga being the ground troops in this strategy for fighting against Daesh and ISIL the donors conference that you mentioned I think is going to be very important there's incredible suffering that needs to be addressed by the international community as well as Iraqis let me thank Manal Omar and Sahang Hamasid and Miriam Sasi for putting this together thank you for joining us here today and please join me in thanking Dr. Sain and Mr. Bakr thank you very much