Iraq's Prime Minister presents his government's achievements: we have the best relations with Kurdistan

Shafaq News/ The Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi considered his government has "the best" relations with the Kurdistan Region among all governments since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

In a speech during the cabinet session, Al-Kadhimi evaluates a year and a half of his government's work.

"We went through great challenges, we overcoming them, but some needed more time...All our achievements were with the support of the ministers and our Iraqi people, their patience and wisdom."

Concerning the "White Paper" for economic reform, he said that it provided many financial incomes to Iraq and was welcomed by many national sectors especially in industry and agriculture."

"Through the white paper, we succeeded in providing more than 12 billion dollars for the Central Bank of Iraq's reserves and raising Iraq's international credit rating."

Al-Kadhimi added, "Iraq was close to being classified as a rogue nation, but within a short period, it regained much of its regional, international, Arab and Islamic role. In addition, we succeeded in improving our relations, as well as in embracing more than one meeting among our brothers, friends, and neighbors on the land of Baghdad, the land of peace."

The Prime Minister continued presenting his government's achievements, "We have worked hard to protect our people from the Coronavirus epidemic…we have provided the best vaccines for the Iraqi people, and we are continuing to employ the best companies to work in this field."

About the energy sector, "for the first time, we worked to rely on clean energy, we changed the name of the ministry to the Ministry of Electricity and Alternative Energy, and we signed many contracts with companies interested in alternative energy and clean energy such as solar energy."

The Iraqi PM said that during his administration, the relation with the Kurdistan region "was the best since 2003, and we are proud of it. We had fewer tensions, thank god, through dialogue and building trust, we succeeded in crossing to the best relations."

Al-Kadhimi affirmed the withdrawal of the US-led Coalition combat forces, saying, "By the end of this year, the combat role of the Global Coalition will end, and today there is not a single soldier of the Coalition forces who is a fighter. "

He added," instead, a group of advisors arrived to support our forces and our needs in the war against terrorism and ISIS."

It is worth noting that Mustafa Al Kadhimi became a leading contender for the premiership following months of protests that broke out across Iraq in October 2019 and the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

After nearly six months of political negotiations, Iraq's parliament confirmed al-Kadhimi as Prime Minister of Iraq on 6 May 2020. Before entering office, al-Kadhimi said his government would be a government that "finds solutions to Iraq's many problems and not a crisis-ridden government."

He promised early elections and vowed Iraq would not be used as a battleground by other countries.

Last November, al-Kadhimi survived an assassination attempt via an explosive drone; the army shot down two drones while the last one targeted his residence in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone district.