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Sweden's abuse of Iraq threatens the huge economic interests of the European Union
- Time: 07/25/2023 08:00:00
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{Economic: Al Furat News} During the past three fiscal years (2020-2022), the volume of trade exchange between Iraq and the European Union amounted to about fifty billion euros, half of which was in the past year alone, before the crisis of burning the Qur’an affected the relations of the two sides.
According to European Union figures, Iraq exported oil products and minerals worth 7.2 billion euros in 2020, and 12.9 billion euros in 2021, and Iraqi exports to the Union rose to 24 billion euros in 2022.
While Iraq imported electrical products, energy conversion equipment, and agricultural exports worth 3.5 billion, 4 billion, and 4.5 billion in the past three years.
However, heavy clouds cast a shadow over the relations between the two sides, as Iraq cut off its relations with Sweden for the first time since the start of diplomatic exchange in 1964 when Sweden opened an independent embassy in Baghdad after its embassy in Tehran covered both Iran and Iraq.
In addition, the burning of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, the recurrence of the incident of burning the Qur’an in Denmark, and the cancellation of a planned visit by the German Defense Minister to Baghdad due to the tension, made observers concerned about the possibility of increasing negative developments between Iraq and Europe.
Burning the embassy and expelling the ambassador
In the aftermath of the burning of the Iraqi flag and the Koran in front of the Iraqi embassy building in Stockholm last Wednesday, angry demonstrators came out, attacked the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and burned it, Thursday.
On the same day, Iraq announced the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador, Jessica Svardstrom, from the country and the withdrawal of the Iraqi Chargé d'Affaires, Biwan Jassim, from Stockholm.
"The embassy staff is still in Sweden," said a diplomatic source working at the Iraqi embassy in Sweden, adding that the crew had received instructions to prepare to leave at any time.
According to the source, who asked not to be named or positioned, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has prepared a plan to distribute the crews to the embassies of other "nearby" countries, but he says that several problems may face the large Iraqi community in Sweden, which relies on the embassy to issue passports, legal powers of attorney, and others.
There is no official census of the Iraqi community in Sweden, but the American NBC network says that the country hosts the largest Iraqi community living in Europe, and the numbers are estimated at more than 130,000 people.
It is not known exactly how many Swedes are in Iraq, or if they have left the country.
Repercussions of severing ties
The European Union operates as a single unit in many legal, economic and defense fields, but its states maintain their independence with regard to their foreign relations with countries to a large extent, provided that those relations do not conflict with the strategic interests and security of the Union, according to Article 26 of the Treaty on European Union which stipulates that the European Council determines the strategic interests of the Union, and defines the general guidelines for the common foreign and security policy.
Iraq has relations with all countries of the Union, with the exception of Sweden now, and it is not known how the Union will act in this regard.
Sweden, in turn, has relations with most countries of the world, and its last diplomatic opening was after a break with the Vatican, which ended in 1983, a break that lasted 450 years.
Sweden is not aware of any rupture in relations with any country, with the exception of a temporary suspension of the embassy's work in North Korea in 2020.
Iraqi political analyst Yassin Aziz says that the crisis with Sweden had a "speciality" because the act that caused it was repeated despite Baghdad's warnings, and also because the one who did the act was an Iraqi.
Baghdad calls on Sweden to hand over the burner of the Qur'an and the desecrator of the Iraqi flag, Silwan Momica, but it does not seem so far that Sweden is responding to the request.
Momica, according to the source at the Iraqi embassy in Sweden, does not have refugee status, nor does he have permanent residency in Sweden.
The source says that this gives Iraq more chances to convince Sweden to return him to the country.
On Monday, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Danish diplomatic staff left the country two days ago, while calling on European countries to "quickly reconsider the so-called freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate."
On Monday, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the withdrawal of its diplomatic mission from Iraq, following protests in Baghdad after burning a copy of the Quran in the capital, Copenhagen.
A spokesman for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the embassy in Baghdad has been closed due to the summer vacation since July 22.
The severance of relations represents the last stage of diplomatic escalation between the countries, and analyst Aziz says that this measure may cause embarrassment to the Iraqi government in the future.
After burning the Qur'an in Denmark, Aziz says, "The Iraqi government will be in great embarrassment if it does not take the same action it took towards Sweden," in the event that Denmark does not take measures to calm Iraq down.
Ammar, [7/25/2023 7:58 AM]
The Danish Foreign Ministry condemned the burning of the Qur’an, but it also stressed the importance of protecting freedom of expression, which may mean that it may allow the act to be repeated again.
The political analyst says, "To prevent a recurrence of what happened in other European countries, Iraqi diplomacy must move against European countries, but not alone, but with the support of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and go to internationalize the issue because it is difficult for the Iraqi government to sever its relations with many countries."
Aziz called on the government to "take a rational and wise approach in order to prevent the development of these matters."
Iraq's position was praised by Arab observers, but the official Arab position is still unclear regarding the severing of relations due to the burning of the Qur'an.
Egyptian international law professor Ayman Salama told Al-Hurra that "Sweden's license [...] is ignorance of diplomatic norms and a flagrant violation of several provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations in 1961."
Salama believes that the Swedish license represents "an affront to the sovereignty of a state, an injustice to its independence, and a contempt for its status among nations."
the future of the relationship
The Iraqi diplomatic source, who works at the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, indicates that "administrative relations still exist between the two countries."
The source is concerned with administrative relations, security inquiries, procedures for granting visas, and other official correspondence, according to the source.
He also says that there is an Iraqi trend represented in "calming down the media statements on the subject," and perhaps gradually restoring relations after a while. He also indicates another trend that pushes towards "reducing diplomatic representation but not completely canceling it, and preserving the technical teams that facilitate the transactions of the Iraqi community in Sweden."
In 2022, the European Union doubled its exports from Iraq, which are mostly fuel, from about $14 billion in 2021 to $26 billion in 2022.
This amounts to about twenty percent of the total Iraqi budget for 2022.
Iraq did not completely cut economic relations with Sweden, although trade exchange between the two countries is not significant.
The volume of Swedish exports to Iraq in 2022 amounted to a little more than fifty million dollars, about 40 percent of which is in the form of medicines, drugs, and medical equipment, and the rest is distributed between chemicals, mechanical and electrical equipment, and others.
As for Denmark, Iraq imported supplies worth 50 million dollars during 2021, while it exported materials worth only twenty thousand dollars.
But the Iraqi-German trade exchange was much greater, as Iraq exported fuel by about $1 billion to Germany in 2021, and imported equipment from it of about the same value.
The tension affected civil organizations affiliated with European countries as well, as the Danish Refugee Council confirmed, on Saturday, that its site in southern Iraq had been subjected to an “armed attack,” adding in a statement that its employees “were not subjected to physical harm,” but the building was burned.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
{Economic: Al Furat News} During the past three fiscal years (2020-2022), the volume of trade exchange between Iraq and the European Union amounted to about fifty billion euros, half of which was in the past year alone, before the crisis of burning the Qur’an affected the relations of the two sides.
According to European Union figures, Iraq exported oil products and minerals worth 7.2 billion euros in 2020, and 12.9 billion euros in 2021, and Iraqi exports to the Union rose to 24 billion euros in 2022.
While Iraq imported electrical products, energy conversion equipment, and agricultural exports worth 3.5 billion, 4 billion, and 4.5 billion in the past three years.
However, heavy clouds cast a shadow over the relations between the two sides, as Iraq cut off its relations with Sweden for the first time since the start of diplomatic exchange in 1964 when Sweden opened an independent embassy in Baghdad after its embassy in Tehran covered both Iran and Iraq.
In addition, the burning of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, the recurrence of the incident of burning the Qur’an in Denmark, and the cancellation of a planned visit by the German Defense Minister to Baghdad due to the tension, made observers concerned about the possibility of increasing negative developments between Iraq and Europe.
Burning the embassy and expelling the ambassador
In the aftermath of the burning of the Iraqi flag and the Koran in front of the Iraqi embassy building in Stockholm last Wednesday, angry demonstrators came out, attacked the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and burned it, Thursday.
On the same day, Iraq announced the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador, Jessica Svardstrom, from the country and the withdrawal of the Iraqi Chargé d'Affaires, Biwan Jassim, from Stockholm.
"The embassy staff is still in Sweden," said a diplomatic source working at the Iraqi embassy in Sweden, adding that the crew had received instructions to prepare to leave at any time.
According to the source, who asked not to be named or positioned, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has prepared a plan to distribute the crews to the embassies of other "nearby" countries, but he says that several problems may face the large Iraqi community in Sweden, which relies on the embassy to issue passports, legal powers of attorney, and others.
There is no official census of the Iraqi community in Sweden, but the American NBC network says that the country hosts the largest Iraqi community living in Europe, and the numbers are estimated at more than 130,000 people.
It is not known exactly how many Swedes are in Iraq, or if they have left the country.
Repercussions of severing ties
The European Union operates as a single unit in many legal, economic and defense fields, but its states maintain their independence with regard to their foreign relations with countries to a large extent, provided that those relations do not conflict with the strategic interests and security of the Union, according to Article 26 of the Treaty on European Union which stipulates that the European Council determines the strategic interests of the Union, and defines the general guidelines for the common foreign and security policy.
Iraq has relations with all countries of the Union, with the exception of Sweden now, and it is not known how the Union will act in this regard.
Sweden, in turn, has relations with most countries of the world, and its last diplomatic opening was after a break with the Vatican, which ended in 1983, a break that lasted 450 years.
Sweden is not aware of any rupture in relations with any country, with the exception of a temporary suspension of the embassy's work in North Korea in 2020.
Iraqi political analyst Yassin Aziz says that the crisis with Sweden had a "speciality" because the act that caused it was repeated despite Baghdad's warnings, and also because the one who did the act was an Iraqi.
Baghdad calls on Sweden to hand over the burner of the Qur'an and the desecrator of the Iraqi flag, Silwan Momica, but it does not seem so far that Sweden is responding to the request.
Momica, according to the source at the Iraqi embassy in Sweden, does not have refugee status, nor does he have permanent residency in Sweden.
The source says that this gives Iraq more chances to convince Sweden to return him to the country.
On Monday, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Danish diplomatic staff left the country two days ago, while calling on European countries to "quickly reconsider the so-called freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate."
On Monday, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the withdrawal of its diplomatic mission from Iraq, following protests in Baghdad after burning a copy of the Quran in the capital, Copenhagen.
A spokesman for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the embassy in Baghdad has been closed due to the summer vacation since July 22.
The severance of relations represents the last stage of diplomatic escalation between the countries, and analyst Aziz says that this measure may cause embarrassment to the Iraqi government in the future.
After burning the Qur'an in Denmark, Aziz says, "The Iraqi government will be in great embarrassment if it does not take the same action it took towards Sweden," in the event that Denmark does not take measures to calm Iraq down.
Ammar, [7/25/2023 7:58 AM]
The Danish Foreign Ministry condemned the burning of the Qur’an, but it also stressed the importance of protecting freedom of expression, which may mean that it may allow the act to be repeated again.
The political analyst says, "To prevent a recurrence of what happened in other European countries, Iraqi diplomacy must move against European countries, but not alone, but with the support of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and go to internationalize the issue because it is difficult for the Iraqi government to sever its relations with many countries."
Aziz called on the government to "take a rational and wise approach in order to prevent the development of these matters."
Iraq's position was praised by Arab observers, but the official Arab position is still unclear regarding the severing of relations due to the burning of the Qur'an.
Egyptian international law professor Ayman Salama told Al-Hurra that "Sweden's license [...] is ignorance of diplomatic norms and a flagrant violation of several provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations in 1961."
Salama believes that the Swedish license represents "an affront to the sovereignty of a state, an injustice to its independence, and a contempt for its status among nations."
the future of the relationship
The Iraqi diplomatic source, who works at the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, indicates that "administrative relations still exist between the two countries."
The source is concerned with administrative relations, security inquiries, procedures for granting visas, and other official correspondence, according to the source.
He also says that there is an Iraqi trend represented in "calming down the media statements on the subject," and perhaps gradually restoring relations after a while. He also indicates another trend that pushes towards "reducing diplomatic representation but not completely canceling it, and preserving the technical teams that facilitate the transactions of the Iraqi community in Sweden."
In 2022, the European Union doubled its exports from Iraq, which are mostly fuel, from about $14 billion in 2021 to $26 billion in 2022.
This amounts to about twenty percent of the total Iraqi budget for 2022.
Iraq did not completely cut economic relations with Sweden, although trade exchange between the two countries is not significant.
The volume of Swedish exports to Iraq in 2022 amounted to a little more than fifty million dollars, about 40 percent of which is in the form of medicines, drugs, and medical equipment, and the rest is distributed between chemicals, mechanical and electrical equipment, and others.
As for Denmark, Iraq imported supplies worth 50 million dollars during 2021, while it exported materials worth only twenty thousand dollars.
But the Iraqi-German trade exchange was much greater, as Iraq exported fuel by about $1 billion to Germany in 2021, and imported equipment from it of about the same value.
The tension affected civil organizations affiliated with European countries as well, as the Danish Refugee Council confirmed, on Saturday, that its site in southern Iraq had been subjected to an “armed attack,” adding in a statement that its employees “were not subjected to physical harm,” but the building was burned.
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