“The Man of the Hour”: Tireless Kazemi
2020-09-04 06:57:59
Shafaq News / The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, is a unique case in these harsh Iraqi, complex regional and international circumstances that are under the burden of the Corona virus pandemic, as despite all this, his intense external and internal movement can be observed, which makes him the “man of the hour.”

A leader in the Wisdom Movement, Ali al-Jurani, told Shafaq News, “Prime Minister Al-Kazimi is different from all previous prime ministers, as he is the most active and persistent young man with a lot of movement and follow-up in internal and external affairs.”

The events of the few months that Al-Kazemi spent as prime minister are indicative of what Al-Jurani says, and perhaps more than that, as with a quick comparison it can be seen that Al-Kazemi appears to be the most active at the level of Arab countries.

While there were no significant foreign visits of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the situation of the rest of the Arab countries was not much different. The majority of Arab presidents and heads of government are exercising their duties remotely for various reasons, including their relatively large ages, the dangers of the Corona pandemic, and the preoccupation of other regional and foreign capitals with their economic burdens.

Within a few weeks, Al-Kazemi was holding talks in Tehran in July, on his first foreign visit and meeting with the Republic’s guide, Ali Khamenei, and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. Last August, he was in the White House in Washington overseeing the resumption of strategic dialogue talks with the Americans and was meeting with President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, prominent members of the US Congress, and representatives of major US companies interested in investing in Iraqi projects.

Despite the exceptional timing of the visit and the American preoccupation with the raging election battle, the Americans hoped him to extend his visit for an additional day. In view of the dangerous security conditions that had passed on the city of Basra after a series of assassinations and bombings, Al-Kazemi immediately landed in Basra after concluding his visit to the United States.

His visit to Basra was not a formal one, as he immediately gathered the governorate officials and the leaders of the security services to give orders, in his capacity as the supreme commander of the armed forces, to control security escapes. He even made changes, even while he was in Washington and then in Basra, changes that affected security officials.

Al-Jurani, a leader in the Wisdom Movement, said in his interview with Shafaq News, that “external visits and meetings with Arab and foreign officials in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, are a good indication in the interest of Iraq and its foreign relations.”

Even when Al-Kazemi is in Baghdad, the prime minister’s agenda and activities are crowded with meetings, according to official statements and what the Prime Minister’s account publishes on “Twitter”, whether with political officials or security leaders, and sometimes you see him in the headquarters of the fight against terrorism, and at other times in a headquarters. Joint operations, an hour goes to inspect a prison, then supervises a military operation against terrorism, inspects border points, then appears for a moment in a public place, or visits families of martyrs, then at the end of the night he meets with leaders of political and parliamentary blocs to hold consultations on difficult files that need to be ” Decomposition. ”

A few days after his return from Washington and addressing the challenges of Basra, he was in the Jordanian capital Amman for a summit meeting with Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and the Jordanian King Abdullah II. Analysts believe that he strengthens Iraq’s economic and political relations with two important regional capitals, and strengthens the “Arab embrace” of Iraq, and may open outlets to Bahrain. Medium white and red. The tripartite summit would be appropriate for Al-Kazemi to present his vision of the regional challenges in a comprehensive manner, and confirms the Iraqi message that he has been sending since taking office, that he wants to sow stability in the region and keep Iraq away from interactions, and replace that with forms of cooperation, openness and investment.

Al-Jurani confirms this by saying that “the external activity of Prime Minister Al-Kazemi has many positive repercussions at the level of the economy, investment, security and other important issues, especially this activity during which important agreements were signed with various countries.”

The leader in the Wisdom Movement added that we are “optimistic about the external activities of Al-Kazemi, and his movements are good until now, and he must continue this activity in order to restore Iraq’s role in the region and the world.”

After the Amman summit, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia opened its arms to welcome Al-Kazemi. After she requested a postponement of his visit last July due to the health problem that afflicted the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, she sent an official invitation to the Iraqi Prime Minister to visit Riyadh, and sent its Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan to Baghdad for the first time to meet Al-Kazimi and prepare for the upcoming visit.

Then Al-Kazemi was on a new date with an exceptional Western official: French President Emmanuel Macron, who preceded him to Baghdad, Minister of the French Armies, Florence Parly, and on the same path: from Beirut to Baghdad, to send messages of solidarity, and most importantly criticism against Turkey.

The head of the Political Thinking Center, Ihssan Al-Shammari, said in an interview with Shafaq News Agency that “there is no doubt that the diplomatic movement and presence at the level of the geography of important countries, the Poles such as the United States, and neighboring countries such as Iran and the tripartite summit (Baghdad, Amman, Cairo) and the visit of the French president and what is planned His visits and receptions in the coming days is a diplomatic asset for Iraq. ”

Al-Shammari says, “This indicates the existence of a new phase, to break the isolation, which was imposed on Iraq as a result of the wrong policies adopted by the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi in the Arab and even Western surroundings, and as a result of what accompanied the political crisis.” He added, “There is a new approach represented in openness to Iraq and Iraq’s interaction on its Arab and Western surroundings, and this will greatly enhance the status of Iraq and the importance of its role, and give the possibility that Iraq will present some approaches to some crises.”

Al-Kazemi realizes the sensitivity of the stage that Iraq and the region are going through, and realizes that the key to his successes lies in activating his communications and movement internally and externally, and betting on an internal Iraqi understanding of his vision, which helps him consolidate the gains that the Iraqis can reap.

Al-Shammari said, “Prime Minister Al-Kazemi faces internal challenges regarding the issue of translating these visits, and that it is a positive response within the internal Iraqi affairs. There are differing opinions by the Iraqi political forces, between a strongly opposing supporter and those who use missiles as letters of rejection of some agreements and visits.”

He continued, “Investments in the coming period will not be at the level of ambition, despite the area of ​​great openness. The problem is not in the agreements that are concluded. Rather, there are those who internally obstruct Iraq from taking its diplomatic role and the possibility of being a leader, and for this there are many challenges to these visits and meetings.” .

The head of the Center for Political Thinking concluded that “the diplomatic movement is linked to what the Iraqi government can achieve in terms of reforms. If there are no real and serious reforms, the visits will be only a date and a memory, nothing more.”

In fact, it is too early to judge Al-Kazemi’s external movement, in terms of translating it into investments that will quickly reflect positively on the economic situation of the Iraqis, or break the isolation that surrounded Iraq in recent years. However, what is certain is that the activity shown by the Iraqi Prime Minister can achieve payoff in the stage that separates us from early elections at the beginning of the summer of 2021, and confirms that the exceptional “man of the hour” now, may be his ticket to be a regional player to be reckoned with in the near future.