Seminar on “The recent parliamentary elections in Iraq, their implications for relations with Iran, the United States and Arab countries, and future prospects”

In a seminar entitled “The recent parliamentary elections in Iraq, their implications for relations with Iran, the United States and Arab countries, and future prospects”, which was inaugurated by Ambassador Dr. Mounir Zahran, ECFA Chairman, and attended by a number of ambassadors, academics and researchers, including, ambassadors: Dr. Ezzat Saad, ECFA Director, Rakha Hassan, Farouk Mabrouk, Sherif Shahin, former Egyptian ambassador to Iraq, Dr. Mohamed Al-Saeed Idris, and Dr. Ragai Fayed, head of the Egyptian Center for Kurdish Studies, it was referred to a warning that Muqtada Al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadrist movement, which won the highest number of seats in the Iraqi parliament (73 out of 329 seats) in the October 2021 elections, does not receive Arab support for his position seeking to correctly form a government, and its rejection of Iranian pressures, to empty the election result of its content, and to distance the Sunnis and Kurds from al-Sadr regarding the formation of the new government. It was also pointed out that this comes after the heavy losses of the powers closely related to Iran in the parliamentary elections, urging that there must be strong communication and support from the Arab countries for the pan-Arab Iraqi powers, and that Egypt should invite Muqtada al-Sadr to visit it, as did two Gulf states.

The seminar, which was held on November 17, 2021, expected that the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Masoud Barzani, would run as a candidate for the presidency of the country in the upcoming presidential elections. He is in a stronger position than ever, after obtaining 31 seats compared to 25 in the May 2018 elections. However, the seminar indicated that there are still a number of obstacles facing his candidature, including: the referendum, which was held in September 2017 on the independence of the Kurdistan region of Iraq with its future concerns over reinforcing this separatist trend; as well as the inclusion in Erbil – in the Kurdistan region of Iraq – of the “Peace and Recovery” conference in September 2021; which aimed normalization with Israel, and acknowledgment for those who abandoned Iraq to restore their property there again; This raises more controversy about the region’s intention to enter into relations with Israel, which has long been rejected by the Iraqi people.

The seminar also addressed the future of Iraq and the Arab Mashreq in general during the coming period; It considered that two important dates should not be ignored, as they have great repercussions on this future: the first is the date of the official U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq on December 31, 2021; The second is the approaching expiration of the Treaty of Lausanne, which drew the borders of Iraq, Syria and Turkey in 2023, after which Turkey will attempt to annex the northern part of Mosul and northern part of Aleppo to its territories.