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CNN. Broadcasting A Long Wide Ranging Interview With The Iraqi PM Conducted In English ! (by don961) Transcript of Interview With Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi September 16, 2017 8:10 BAGHDAD — A transcript of an interview Saturday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi by The Associated Press. AP: Thank you mister prime minister for having The Associated Press here in Baghdad. Al-Abadi: Welcome..................... AP: During the Mosul operation you called on Iraqi refugees in Europe, I think it was specifically Germany but in Europe in general, to return as the city would soon be liberated. But has Iraq taken any steps to facilitate the return of refugees from Europe or to help with their reintegration? Al-Abadi: Yes, indeed. I think we've entered into very lengthy negotiations with European countries to try to facilitate that. Some of these people they have sold all their belongings. So it is very hard for them to re-establish themselves back in Iraq. So they need some help. I'm not talking about giving away money and donations. I'm talking about establishing some economic forum for them here or an institution. A financial institution to give them very easy loans for a very long period of time for them to establish business here and for them to stay here and rebuild their lives. We are talking about this in detail and some of these steps are very successful at the moment. Some countries have taken such steps. I think it is a reward for them, a reward for Iraq and a reward for the refugees as well. AP: So it sounds like you are encouraging people to come back to Iraq. Al-Abadi: Well, yes of course. These are Iraqi people. We don't want to lose our citizens. I'm not going to support forced repatriation into Iraq but I think a lot of Iraqis found it very tough to be in Europe as refugees. They have been promised paradise there, but well, at the end of the day they have seen it. It's not paradise.................... AP: Another Mosul question. Do we know how many civilians lost their lives in the course of the operation to retake the city? Al-Abadi: Yes we have a number from the hospitals and the ministry. I have three sources: the military, the civil defense, and the ministry of health. The lowest number we have is 970. The highest number we have 1,260. AP: When you hear those numbers, how does that make you feel? Do you feel that will detract at all from the success of the military operation? Al-Abadi: One single civilian who lost his life is too much for us. The aim of this operation is to liberate the people from the atrocities of Daesh (Arabic acronym for Islamic State group). But we have to keep in mind that every day when Daesh was ruling there were many civilians who lost their lives. There are many civilians who have been displaced. There were many women sold, mistreated or raped. There are many children who have been mistreated. So at the end of the day, we are facing a terrorist criminal organization. There was nothing in their way. There is no crime they could've committed that they didn't commit during that time. It is very tough for us. When you are fighting inside the city there is a population, and this organization is holding the population hostage. We tried our utmost to protect the civilians. That's why our security forces paid a very high price. The number of causalities among our security forces was almost more than double the number of causalities among civilians. This is very high in any army. I've spoken to many military commanders in Europe and the U.S. and they say this is never heard of, that the number of military causalities is higher than the number of civilian causalities............... AP: Iraqi elections are coming up and Nouri al-Maliki, your predecessor, is still your toughest political opponent. But as part of the same political party, how do you plan to run for next year's elections? Al-Abadi: I still haven't fielded any plan for elections next year. I'm still quiet about it because I'm preoccupied with liberating our territory because this year we want to finalize this, to kick out all Daesh from Iraq to secure our border -- this is my priority. My priority is not for me to run in an election. My priority is to achieve this and to make sure that elections are held on time. This is of paramount importance to us I will make sure this happens on time. And that our territory has been liberated from Daesh so all Iraqi citizens can take part in the election. AP: Would there be a possibility of you splitting from your party in order to run for re-election? Al-Abadi: It depends who's splitting with what. But my direction is this: I hope, and we are working very hard for this, to depart for Iraq and Iraqi politicians, to depart from blocks which belong to ethnic, or sectarian or religious groups. To reform the whole country we have to run national political blocks which represent the interests of all the Iraqi people. I can see this is the larger demand of the Iraqi citizens. I hope the politicians can meet that demand. That is my goal, this is my aspiration: to see political parties that cut across the board.................... AP: Looking back on your first term in office, your successes have been on the battlefield against IS. But when you first got to office, you promised wide, sweeping reforms but have delivered very little on that front. How do you expect to convince the Iraqi people that you have what it takes as a political leader to lead them to a post-IS Iraq? Al-Abadi: I think we've achieved some of that, which is crucial. I promised that we would fight corruption, but fighting corruption we need certain steps, consultative steps so that you are able to follow up on it. And we have managed now I think by cracking down on corrupt people. At the moment you have seen many are in prisons now. I think the force of the law is now seen by the people and we intend to carry on with this. I don't want the corruption issue to be used against political parties or political opponents. This has happened in the past. We want to move away from this and allow the courts and investigators to look at it very carefully. To fight corruption you need a very detailed investigation. Corrupt people sometimes are smart, some of them are dull, but some of them are very smart. They can hide their corruption tactics. So we have to be very careful in investigating it to the full. It will take time, and it is showing results at the moment. For the economic performance, we have instituted a lot of economic reforms. The point is, it is not being felt by the people. We had a financial crisis with the collapse of oil prices. But we have been managing it to prevent this financial crisis impacting people directly. So I consider this economic policy a success and a monetary success, and we have been working very hard on it. It is probably not seen directly by many people but I think it's seen by many public figures who are acquainted with the economic and financial crises and they can see there's progress. Iraq's sovereign status has been improved quite noticeably. I remember two years ago we asked for government bonds to be sold on the open market. I think the minimum we got in terms of interest rate was about 11.5 percent. This second time we've done it the interest rate dropped to 6.75 percent, which I think is a huge drop for the government of Iraq working without the support of the financial institutions. The demand we have received is about seven times the amount of the bonds we have requested. This shows an interest and trust in the Iraqi economy. One of the reasons there is this trust is because we have introduced a lot reforms in our economy and in our financial policy............................. AP: Two of your most important allies are increasingly opposed to one another: the United States and Iran. Would you say that you have to balance between the interests of the United States and those of Iran as you govern? Al-Abadi: Well, no. They've always been foes since 2003. The point is that every country has their own interests but there are common interests for all of them: for the United States, for Iran, for Iraq. I'm working on the common interest, I'm not trying to please Iran, and I'm not trying to please the US to be honest with you. But in what we are working on, there is a common interest for everyone. I'm working on this common interest. My job is not to look beyond this. There is a lot of disagreement between the two countries regarding their relationship, bilateral relationship, regarding their policies in the region. I'm not going to go into all their businesses too much. This is not the role of Iraq or the Iraqi government. This is between the two countries themselves. The job is to work for Iraq and there is a huge interest for the United States for a stable Iraq and there is a huge interest for Iran in a stable Iraq. We are working on this common interest, the Iraqi interests, to resolve the issues and we have been so successful so far. AP: Do their differences make your job harder? Al-Abadi: Yes. They do. I think at one time I issued a warning: that I don't want to be in a position where I have to micromanage their differences inside Iraq. AP: Like the mediator. Al-Abadi: Well, we don't want to do that. The U.S. is a superpower, Iran is regional power and they know their interests very well and they know that Iraq is important for both of them. And we are working alongside that.......................... AP: Talking about the (current) military operation in western Anbar, how you evaluate it and how long it will take? Al-Abadi: We announced the operation today at 6:00 a.m. and at about 11:00 a.m. we liberated the highway that leads to Akashat, about 60-to-70 kilometers. This is proof that our forces are capable of moving as we did in Tal Afar, with new plans. That is also proof that we cut off the enemy's head in Nineveh when we liberated it. We didn't allow their leaders, their terrorists, to flee and a large number of terrorists were killed. Daesh has lost its ability to fight. I can tell you what they will do: they will carry out cowardly acts against civilians like the cowardly attack in Thi Qar because they don't have the ability to fight us in the battlefield. We have high intelligence capabilities and we chase them and we have plans. I tell the families of the wounded from Basra, Thi Qar, Muthana and other provinces as well as the victims from Islamic Republic of Iran that we will take revenge from Daesh for this cowardly attack. AP: Can we say that your government will liberate all the areas under Daesh control this year? Al-Abadi: This is our ambition and we can achieve that inshallah (God willing). After the Tal Afar operation and the current one, we are able to liberate all our lands this year. Of course our main concern is to secure the Iraqi-Syrian borders. To secure the borders we need to cooperate with the Syrian government, so we asked that the other side of the border be under the control of the government army. We are cooperating with the Syrian government to secure the borders from their side and, God willing, we will open the borders in the near future so that travelers and goods can move........................ AP: You are heading to the United States, what are the main issues you will discuss with the U.S. president? Al-Abadi: The visit is to New York to take part in the United Nations' general assembly. It is an opportunity to meet, during two or three days, with maybe 30 of the world leaders and this is important to us. Iraq needs many things, first we have the stability efforts in the liberated areas, we have a real economic and fiscal problem. We need support not only for the liberated areas but for all of Iraq. We had a lot of martyrs and wounded people. All provinces took part in the fight so the development in Iraq needs support. So all that needs international support. We need the whole world to continue focusing on this. Iraq is a good example for others. We have eliminated terrorism and liberated our lands, so we want to tell the region and the whole world that the situation will be better after the terrorism. So one of the reasons to go to New York is to keep the focus on the Iraq. Thanks to God we have succeeded in that now as many of the leaders visited Iraq and there is even a consensus regarding the referendum in the region. They are against the referendum and with the unity and sovereignty of Iraq. I also informed the leaders in Kurdistan that this success is for all us and that we all benefit when the country is strong and we all lose when the government if weak. If we disagree, the world will not help us, but if we cooperate all will help us and you saw how all the world helped us during the (IS) fight. If we disagreed at that time the world wouldn't have helped us. The second of aim of going to New York is that we are entering a new phase. We are moving toward reconstruction. We are considering a number of reforms in the country as well as continuing the fight against terrorism, the terrorism not only in Iraq but in the whole region. There is a draft law under discussion for about six months with the members of the security council not only to criminalize Daesh but to chase them down everywhere. We want to establish something within the judicial sovereignty in Iraq in cooperation with an international team. We have a lot of evidence against Daesh members: how they entered (Iraq) and from where, their nationalities and their finances, so we need an international investigation based on a Security Council resolution to chase them down. This is a major event that happened to Iraq in which we lost a lot of our citizens, millions of displaced people, devastated infrastructure, it is a catastrophe for us that we can't overcome easily. So, we are seeking such a resolution from the Security Council and God willing it will be submitted in this period. Yesterday, I received the last amendments we asked for and the path is open to submit such legislation to the Security Council. The terrorist attack in Thi Qar is a cowardly one; same as the others in Paris, London, Germany, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, in all places terrorism carries out such cowardly acts to kill civilians in order to create conflict. In that area (Thi Qar) there are Shiites and Sunnis, so it wants to give the impression that Sunnis were behind this terrorist act so that there will be a conflict inside Iraq, but they will not succeed. Today our heroic operation in western Anbar in Akashat is a response to this terrorist act and we will chase them down and kill them, God willing. https://www.voanews.com/a/transcript-iraq-prime-minister-haider-al-abadi/4032224.html