Lecturer: Independent politician Sharif Ali bin Al-Hussein.

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Kamel Al-Qayyam.

Al-Rafidain Dialogue Center RCD organized a panel discussion on Iraqi foreign policy, in which the independent politician Sharif Ali bin Al-Hussein lectured; he addressed the Iraqi foreign policy, referring to some of the problems affecting this policy, including not dealing with the facts on the ground when negotiating with neighboring countries. and he set an example in the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party in terms as Iraq didn’t consider this as a Turkish internal problem that crossed into Iraq as a result of the weakness of the Turkish government in controlling its borders, as the lecturer pointed out that the Iraqi foreign policy did not invest in the national achievements achieved by Iraq as nationalism gains, Among these is the victory over ISIS, which the Iraqis achieved on behalf of the world, and it did not translate into real international support for the reconstruction of Iraq during the conferences held for that purpose, including the Kuwait conference, the lecture also addressed the regional situation and the position to be taken by Iraq, as was talked during the panel about the human resource in the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the need to develop it to be more efficient in communicating with the communities in which it is present, in order to achieve the national interests of Iraq, a lot took place during the session From discussions and interventions of the attendees, a distinguished elite of academics, clerics and intellectuals.

Below are the most important outcomes of the panel discussion:

1-      Foreign policy overlaps with all other government functions, and the work and objectives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must be supportive of the work and objectives of other ministries, in order for the overall government performance to be sound, consistent and in harmony.

2-      The creating and development of strategic plans for Iraqi foreign policy depended on various factors, the most important of which are: the internal factor of local trends and public opinion and the degree of homogeneity and interaction of some segments of society towards international issues, which are naturally reflected in foreign policy. The external factor: any influence and intervention of countries affecting the Iraqi situation, whether regional or international, for example, the U.S.-Iran conflict, misleads Iraqi foreign policy.

3-      Iraq's foreign policy is taken for not investing in the great achievements made by the Iraqi people from great sacrifices in the fight against terrorism and not to convey the degrees of harm, suffering and injustice of the terrorist organization ISIS, which is one of the secretions of chaos and international and regional conflict, which Iraq has paid dearly for on behalf of the whole world in the face of the most dark and atonement...forces.

4-      Iraq's failure to include itself in determining the future of the Middle East, as well as in the dialogues on the crisis in Syria or other crises in the region, although Iraq is one of the countries affected by these crises, is an indication of the weak effectiveness of Iraqi foreign policy.

5-      Iraqi foreign policy should be bolder, more scrutinized of the nature of some regional problems such as the problem of the Turkish presence in Iraq and the continued Turkish bombing of some Iraqi cities, the origin of this problem is internal Turkish, the PKK are Turkish citizens who crossed the Turkish border towards Iraq, because the Turkish government is unable to control its borders and settle its differences with these Turkish armed factions and convince them of the national melting with Turkish society, and this is supposed to make the position of the Iraqi decision maker a strong position rather a weak position by blaming the Turkish side for this crisis and it must control its borders.

6-      Iraq's positions must be unified towards a unified and harmonious Iraqi foreign policy "in accordance with a serial timetable" aimed at achieving Iraq’s national interest. For example, the water issue is being treated as a real-time problem, but it is in fact an old problem for more than 50 years it has been present on the Iraqi scene.

7-      Iraq's foreign policy should be used to conclude collective agreements or bilateral treaties to confront corruption and corrupt people so that Iraq can be respected by other countries and act as a deterrent to spoilers.

8-      The national interest in Iraqi foreign policy, particularly in dealing with the issue of the U.S.-Iran conflict and the present strongly on the Iraqi scene, must be diagnosed, so we must not enter into the policy of interlocutors and allow Iraq to be an arena of international conflict, and maintain good relations and friendship with all international parties.

9-      Iraq's position on the U.S.-Iran conflict in the Middle East should not be neutral in the negative sense, i.e. not to take a certain position on the crisis, but must be positively neutral in the sense of moving on both sides of the crisis from the point of view of the distinguished relations that Iraq has with two parties in order to calm the situation and reach compromises that preserve their interests.

10-    The efficiency of Iraqi diplomatic missions must be increased by increasing the efficiency of the human resources working in those missions in terms of learning foreign languages, learning how to deal with the communities in which they serve and developing their means of communication with those communities, as well as developing the media aspect in Iraqi embassies or official Iraqi news agencies so that foreigners can see what is happening in Iraq through these means.

11-   Foreign policy must be dealt with from realistic perspectives away from theoretical perceptions or emotion, i.e. when dealing with any country, the extent of its support to Iraq and the extent to which Iraq benefits from it, for example, the relationship with the United States, should look at the role of the United States in overthrowing the former regime and provide it with support in the war on terror, and if there are mistakes, it must be addressed and so on with other countries such as the Islamic Republic of Iran. Realistic dealing with relations with the United States of America and not emotional dealing.

12-   The change of political systems plays an important and influential role in the behavior of peoples, as the behavior of peoples depends on regime change, for example, when the regime in Germany changed after World War II, and the German people turned to building and democracy after their tendency towards external expansion and war.