College professors call for strong ties with Iraq’s neighbors

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: A number of Iraqi college professors on Thursday called for improving Iraq’s relations with its neighbors in the scientific, economic and political fields and to establish strong pillars for those ties. This came during the 6th annual conference, arranged by the strategic studies center of Mosul University, which discussed the future of Iraq’s relations with neighboring countries. The conference was attended by the Iraqi minister of higher education, the president of Mosul University, and a number of scholars and researchers presenting 40 scientific studies. Ibrahim Khalil al-Alaf, director of the center, told IraqiNews.com news agency that “during the past 50 years, Iraq’s relations with neighboring countries have experienced many difficulties.” “The complications varied from wars to interference in internal affairs,” he said. “We believe it is high time now to lay strong foundations for those ties,” he added. Al-Alaf noted that the foundations should rely on “trust, dialogue, and mutual respect.” “Currently, Iraq has great opportunities to establish strategic relations with its neighbors,” he explained. “I hope that the presented papers in this conference would be of help for the Iraqi decision makers,” he proceeded. For his part, Tareq Mohammed Tayeb al-Qasar, a political sciences professor of Mosul University, presented a paper titled “Future Scenes of Iraq’s Relations with Neighboring Countries.” “Reading the future of Iraq’s relations with its neighbors is a problem in itself, because the political scene in Iraq is still turbulent,” al-Qassar said. “Iraq’s internal affairs and security stability decide the future of its relations with neighboring countries,” he added. “Future scenes of an unstable region like the one surrounding Iraq should consider a number of options and scenarios,” he noted. Meanwhile, Sarmad Kawkab Jameel, a professor of economics, said, “Challenges that faced Iraq for more than two decades ended with a crisis in 2003 when the political regime collapsed and took with it the financial, monetary, and banking policies.” “The Iraqi economic, financial and trade systems are still ruptured, as they have been six years ago,” Jameel said. “Rebuilding those systems is not an easy task. It is not by a press release or like solving a political problem,” he added. The conference came up with 12 recommendations, including the necessity to build a national policy that relies on the principle of Iraq first, unifying the Iraqi political discourse inside and outside the country, and keeping Iraq within its Arab and Muslim environs. MH (I)/AmR 1