UN envoy: Most pressing goal for Iraq remains defeating ISIL

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com)- The special representative of the UN secretary-general for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, on Tuesday stressed the optimism he feels for the country’s future, while tempering those hopes with fear over the many things that can go wrong and saying the most pressing goal for the Middle East nation remains defeating Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant ( ISIL).

“I am a paranoid optimist,” Mladenov said in his final briefing as the UN Iraq envoy to the UN Security Council, noting the efforts made by the Iraqi political, community and religious leaders to save their country from terror. “Today, more than ever, there is a growing understanding that the country can only move forward based on the principles of democracy, rule of law, respect for diversity and inclusivity.”

Even though the national unity government was set on addressing many long-standing concerns of the Iraqi people, Mladenov said that he remains “paranoid.”

“So many things can go wrong,” he said. “ISIL remains in control of most of Iraq’s western provinces, the fragile efforts towards unity and reconciliation need to be carefully nurtured if they are to bear fruit, while the economy has been hit by falling oil prices and skyrocketing security costs,” he said.

Iraq is facing an insurgency by the jihadist group ISIL, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State (IS), which has forced thousands of people mainly from minority communities to flee their homes since late last year.

The group, whose fighters had seized vast swaths of territory in northern Iraq since June 2014 and announced the establishment of a caliphate in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq, has released videos showing beheadings of people including two American journalists and a British aid worker.

Mladenov also touched upon the Iraqi government’s “important steps” on political and institutional reform, economic and social reconstruction and national reconciliation, as well as its efforts to engage countries in the region.

“Iraq’s most pressing goal remains to win back territory taken by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, ISIL,” he said. “The authorities have pledged to provide military and financial assistance to local leaders and tribal fighters to aid their struggle against ISIL.”

Moving forward would require expansion of the process of inclusion into the political sphere, as an exclusively military solution to the problem would be both impossible and counterproductive, he said.

“ISIL flourishes when Iraq is weak,” he said. “Iraq is weak when it is divided by sectarian politics, when political patronage overtakes national loyalty.”

Mladenov said many risks remained despite positive steps taken. He pointed to the toll taken by armed conflict and acts of terrorism, with more than 12,000 civilians killed in 2014 and 23, 000 others injured.

“Almost daily terrorist attacks continue to deliberately target all Iraqis, most notably the Shi’ite community, as well as ethnic and religious minorities across the country,” he said, decrying ISIL’s violations and abuses as “gruesome” and stressing the ” serious threat” they posed to the country’s cohesion, with increasing reports of revenge attacks, and the marring of recent military gains by claims that militias have killed unarmed civilians.

The country was challenged also by fiscal constraints and UNAMI was working actively with the authorities to set up a Recovery and Reconstruction fund, while the challenge posed by supporting internally displaced persons was also huge.

According to him, 5.2 million people need humanitarian assistance, of whom, 2.25 million are displaced and 235,000 are refugees from Syria, with the population of the Kurdistan Region having increased by 30 percent because of the influx.

The UN’s humanitarian country team had listed fast track priorities which could not be postponed or ignored and he called for 150 million U.S. dollars to support the internally displaced people.

During his briefing, Mladenov also spoke about the issue of missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals and property, pointing out that the Kuwaiti Government and people were “understandably disappointed” that nothing tangible has been achieved for many years on the matter.

With goodwill between Iraq and Kuwait at its highest now since 1990, he said it was an “opportune moment” for the countries’ leadership to come together on an important humanitarian issue.