Iraq bids farewell to 2021 with hopes and challenges, and welcomes 2022 with efforts to strengthen i

[size=52]Iraq bids farewell to 2021 with hopes and challenges, and welcomes 2022 with efforts to strengthen its sovereignty and national unity[/size]

[size=45]Translation / Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]Iraq went through a year full of events, challenges and hopes marked, among other events, by hosting the first visit of the Pope to Iraq under difficult security conditions and the repercussions of the Corona epidemic, as well as holding its first early elections according to a new election law, which was followed by divisions between major political players, winners and losers whose consequences will exceed For the new 2022 year, as well as the year 2021, witnessed an escalation of terrorist attacks by ISIS, which claimed dozens of lives and caused fires in hospitals due to neglect and corruption in the country’s health system.[/size]
[size=45]Analysts say that Iran, the United States and the Gulf countries will also compete with each other over the future of Iraq for 2022, and they expect that the question looming on the horizon is whether the Iraqi political formation that emerged from the October parliamentary elections will be able to move forward with Iraq’s sovereignty and preserve it from external interference amid tensions geopolitics.[/size]
[size=45]In the first month of 2021, Iraq witnessed a resurgence of ISIS suicide bombings for the first time since the Iraqi authorities announced their defeat in 2017. On January 26, the crowded aviation square in central Baghdad witnessed a suicide bombing with two explosive belts, killing more than 30 civilians and wounding 100 other people.[/size]
[size=45]Weeks after that explosion, hopes for peace and safety were rising amid preparations to receive a guest of international specialty represented by Pope Francis, Pope of the Vatican. The Pope's three-day visit at the beginning of March spread the message of tolerance and diversity and the return of hope for openness to the world for a country that has lived through years of wars and sectarian strife. During his visit, the Pope met with Iraqi officials and religious leaders, where he met the supreme religious authority, Ali al-Sistani. During his meetings, the Pope called for the protection of Iraqi Christians, whose number had decreased to a third of their number of 1.5 million people before 2003 due to acts of persecution, displacement and killing during the sectarian war and then at the hands of militants ISIS.[/size]
[size=45]Not long after that visit, problems and crises quickly overwhelmed the scene. In April, a fire in a hospital on the outskirts of Baghdad, caused by the explosion of an oxygen gas container in the emergency room of Corona patients, killed 82 people, which shed light on the problems facing the health system and its services. Another public situation in the country due to mismanagement, corruption and political competition.[/size]
[size=45]Almost three months after that incident, another fire broke out in the Corona patients’ hall, this time in a hospital in Nasiriyah, the center of Dhi Qar governorate, killing 92 people.[/size]
[size=45]In July, ISIS again carried out another suicide bombing in a Baghdad market, killing at least 35 shoppers on the eve of Eid al-Adha. The terrorist organization then launched multiple attacks in different parts of the country.[/size]
[size=45]The summer of 2021 brought with it successive hot waves with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius, and the combination of climate change factors and severe water scarcity resulting from Turkey and Iran's water policies and depriving the country of its water quotas, the salinity rate in the soil increased and created an environmental crisis that threatens Iraqi food security. On October 10, 2021, millions of Iraqis went to the polls in the first early elections to take place in the country, which came to meet the demands of a popular protest movement that began two years ago in 2019 in protest against rampant corruption, the absence of services and the lack of job opportunities.[/size]
[size=45]Although the traditional main political players have regained control, on the other hand, a group of candidates from independent politicians and new small parties composed of them managed to achieve a remarkable victory in the elections, enabling them to enter the parliament. The Sadrist movement topped the list of election winners by winning 73 seats, while the performance of the Al-Fateh bloc, which is affiliated with armed factions, declined from 45 seats it won in the 2018 elections to only 17 seats in the last elections. Objections to the election results by the losing blocs turned into protests that took place in the street, interspersed with violence between demonstrators and security forces, in which a number of people were killed. As a result of those clashes that took place at the beginning of November, two demonstrators were killed and more than 100 wounded between protesters and security men, which exacerbated tensions between armed factions and Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.[/size]
[size=45]A few days after these events, Al-Kazemi survived an assassination attempt by a drone attack on his official residence in the Green Zone, which is the first assassination attempt on an Iraqi prime minister since 2003. No party has claimed responsibility for the incident and the investigation is continuing.[/size]
[size=45]Another important event that the country witnessed during the year 2021 was Iraq’s recovery of 17,000 antiquities from the United States and other countries, and this was considered a victory and the fruit of a long effort in combating smuggling and looting of the country’s cultural heritage. Among those priceless artifacts, some of which date back 4,000 years, is a clay tablet bearing some texts from the Epic of Gilgamesh.[/size]
[size=45]Also for the first time in decades at the level of Iraqi foreign policy and Iraq's recovery of its regional status and influence, Baghdad hosted a regional and international summit conference with French participation in an attempt to calm tensions and enhance cooperation. This was represented, for example, by Baghdad hosting several meetings between Saudi Arabia and Iran to cool the atmosphere between them.[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the challenges and aspirations of 2022, analyst Nicholas Heras of the Washington Institute for Studies told VOA, “It will require Iraqi leaders to work across Iraqi society as a whole to try to build bridges between its various components and achieve peaceful coexistence. This will be a challenge to the issue of Iraq remaining a united country between different components and sects.”[/size]
[size=45]With 2021 approaching departure, Heras says, coalition forces in Iraq will end their combat missions at the end of this month, converting nearly 2,500 soldiers who were involved in the fight against ISIS, to training and advisory missions. But observers say that Iran wants to remove all the American presence from Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The analyst Heras added that Al-Kazemi is seen as a balanced person in the country's relations between Iran and the United States, on the other hand, the political analyst and writer, Osama Al-Sharif, from the Arab News newspaper, says that the winner of the elections, the cleric, Muqtada Al-Sadr, has praised Al-Kazemi's efforts to maintain impartiality Iraq against the Iranian-American scene. He said that Al-Sadr may keep Al-Kazemi as prime minister for a second term, even if this raised the objections of other rival blocs.[/size]
[size=45]He added, "This may be a big step forward for Iraq, which is trying to revive its national identity and rejoin the Arab incubator." And if al-Sadr was able to nullify the sectarian quota system in shaping the government, this would be a historical achievement in the country’s recovery, but failure to achieve this would have negative repercussions on all sides.[/size]
[size=45]• About The National and the VOA news site[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]