The twelfth session of RCD Forum 2019 – Baghdad, entitled “Iraq’s Security as a Cornerstone for Regional Stability”, has addressed the most important key issues in the structure of Iraqi security sector. Toby Dodge, a professor in London School of Economics, has talked about corruption and politicization in the military institution, which had an impact in its declining performance, unlike the recent years, whose momentum of progress have to be sustained.
 
From his side, Mr. Falih Al-Fayyadh pointed out that the American side had the wider role in the foundation of the new Iraqi army, followed by the British side. Al-Fayyadh stressed that Iraq represents the main matter in the region, and the American-Iranian conflict have an effects on us, adding that Iraq seeks to generate a common understanding or vision among the region’s states to support the stability in the region.
 
KGR Minister of Interior, Mr. Karim Sinjari, talked about the necessity to study the foundations on which the extremist ideology emerges, saying that the lack of trust among the Iraqi components is due to the bloody past. Moreover, he had to say that none has succeeded in rebuilding it.
 
From his side, the Iraqi Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Othman Al-Ghanimi, said that the restructuring of the army went through two stages; the first was in 2003 and the second in 2014, commending the Jihad ruling (fatwa) of the Grand Ayatollah, because of which the volunteers have supported the army, otherwise, ISIS would have entered Baghdad. He added that between 2015 and 2018, 24 military brigades were formed, and there are projects to transform the army from a consuming institution to a productive one.
 
Lina al-Khatib, the Middle East program director in Chatham House Institute, said that the situation in Syria and Iraq is overlapping, and that the situation in Syria is very delicate, unlike the situation in Iraq, which is good, and there is a huge difference between the two cases.