With stability slowly returning to Iraq after near civil war, a more confident Baghdad on Tuesday proposed forming an EU-style trading and security bloc with its neighbors.
Unveiling the plan at a conference in Washington, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraq was now ready to play a more assertive regional role.
“It is a time now for Iraq as well as its partners to think of a new era on the role of Iraq in the region after five hard years,” Dabbagh said in an address to the US Institute of Peace, greeted skeptically by the audience.
Its publication signaled that Iraq wants to put itself on a more equal footing with its neighbors, who until recently viewed it as almost a failed state.
Dabbagh said the Iraq neighbors’ group that was set up to help stabilize the country after the US-led invasion in 2003 was no longer useful. Neighboring states had shown “dwindling interest” in the project, which focused on improving security cooperation to help reduce violence in Iraq.
He proposed creating a “Regional Economic Partnership” with Iraq at the heart of a trading, security and energy bloc that would include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and later perhaps Gulf states.
Dabbagh said informal discussions had been held with Kuwait, Syria and Turkey but did not report their reactions.
“The new Iraq could convert the region into the EU model. Iraq is going to play a major stabilizing factor,” he said.
He said barriers to trade and the free movement of goods and people would be lifted; water resources and electricity shared; security integrated; and agreements on shared oil fields and joint infrastructure projects reached.
Audience members repeatedly asked whether the initiative was realistic given that Iraq is still viewed by many as a source of regional instability.
Meanwhile, the British government is preparing to withdraw its troops from Iraq by next June, newspapers reported yesterday.
Citing a senior defense source, the Guardian said the pullout would start in March and that the last troops would leave Basra by June. Other newspapers also reported defense sources as giving a June date.
About 300 to 400 troops could remain to help train Iraqi forces, while equipment such as helicopters would be transferred to Afghanistan.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ruled out a timetable for a withdrawal but has indicated he wanted to reduce the number of troops in Iraq. Ministers have spoken of a “fundamental change of mission” next year and this was reiterated by a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman yesterday.
“Significant progress has been made in Basra ... As such, we are now expecting to see a fundamental change of mission in early 2009,” she said.
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