Iraqi president calls for creation of business opportunities for Azerbaijan in Iraq Press statement by President Abdullatif Jamal Rashid

Iraq's President Abdullatif Jamal Rashid addressed on November 20 in a joint press briefing with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, highlighting key issues of mutual interest.

Caliber.Az, citing the Azerbaijani president's press service, republishes the press statement of the Iraqi president:

- Mr. President, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.

I am very glad to be here. This is my second visit to Azerbaijan with the kind invitation of Mr. President. I thank you for inviting us here.

I think our visit has been very fruitful and very useful. Our cooperation is on the way to being much stronger than in the past. We can cooperate in many fields of activities as regards to construction of infrastructures, normal trades, oil and gas, multinational projects and at the same time, investment in Iraq, and at the same time, encouraging tourism, education and fields, which are very important to the two nations.

Mr. President, allow me to give you a brief picture of the new Iraq, which I call a new Iraq. I am sure, Your Excellency knows about our history, in which we suffered a long period of time and dictatorship, various and popular governments, military governments, at the same time, one-party governments or one-person governments. And that went on for quite some time, which caused us internal conflicts, sometimes wars between Iraqi communities, the war between communities and the government, the war between Iraq and our neighbouring countries and even challenging the international community. The Iraqi behaviour was rejected by the international community and by our neighbours, which led us to the invasion of Iraq. And at the same time, we suffered after the invasion by the terror attacks. The last action of terrorism was ISIS attacking the Iraqi population and Iraqi cities and Iraqi centres.

But I'm glad to report and inform you that has passed away. Iraq is in good healthy condition. We have peace, security and at the same time, a government, which has been elected by the people. We have a large number of parliamentary activities and parliament in Iraq. The total number of parliamentary members comes to nearly 330. We have elected a government and we have elected a president for Iraq. During this period, although it took us a long period of time to come to this conclusion, it was useful for the Iraqi nation as a nation, because we reached these decisions through dialogue, understanding, through cooperation between various nationalities in Iraq, various religions in Iraq and various political parties in Iraq. They all contributed to achieving this end.

Now, as I said, the government was formed a year ago, and the President has been elected before choosing the government. We have a parliament, which has been in session for a year looking into the affairs of Iraq. And the government is trying to implement what is needed.

We have divided our responsibilities into two major actions or activities. One is to improve our infrastructure, the second is to review all our services. During the period of conflicts, and wars, I think, all the infrastructures in Iraq were damaged, and all the services fell behind. So, we are trying to improve and fix what is needed for Iraq.

The Iraqi economy is good. We have oil production, which is about 4 or 4.5 million barrels a day. We have agriculture, we have water resources. I think the Iraqi economy is good now and it will be better even in the future. We have started multinational projects regarding energy, oil, agriculture and other fields.

So, I think, our visits here have been useful, and we hope to repeat these visits. I'm very glad that the delegation from here is coming to Iraq soon. We will again discuss all the necessary matters for cooperation and for starting cooperation in many fields as you mentioned, Mr. President.

We have to create a new environment for business in Iraq, and at the same time, business opportunities for Azerbaijan in Iraq. Mr. President, I congratulate you on achieving peace and stability in Azerbaijan. At the same time, I wish you all the luck in finalizing your agreement with Armenia. I think that war and conflicts can only lead to worsening the situation. It cannot solve any problem. I think all our problems have to be solved through dialogue, through understanding and through cooperation.

Unfortunately, the entire Middle East and even - it has affected the world – we are suffering from a new conflict in the Middle East, which is the rights of Palestinians. The Iraqi position on this issue is very clear. We fully support the rights of all Palestinians whether in West Bank, in Gaza or anywhere in the world. We hope that the Palestinians will achieve their full national rights and be recommended as a state for Palestinians soon.

Without solving this conflict, genuinely, I think the tension in the entire area will remain and the peace and stability will not be secured. So, our sympathy is with the Palestinian people and our support is for the Palestinian people. Iraq’s position is very clear from the day and we have informed the international community about our position. We condemn the actions, carried out in Gaza by killing and attacking civilians, plus the infrastructure, which is in Gaza with regard to schools, hospitals, and housing and population in Gaza. I hope this crisis will come to an end soon and the Palestinian people will establish their rights in their own land.

Mr. President, I think there are a number of topics, which we can talk about in detail. But I think I'll leave that to our different ministries and in different institutions in the two countries to tackle these agreements or to tackle these standing problems to solve it.

I'm very glad to see the cooperation between the two sides is getting better and we will be in touch and receive your delegations, whenever they have time and whatever it needs to be by establishing the transportation between the two countries through the flights and, at the same time, learn from some of your experience.

Finally, I want to really congratulate you for the achievement, which you have done, what I've seen only in Baku regard to infrastructures, building, and organization in the city. I congratulate you. That is a fantastic achievement for any country and you should be proud of living in Baku.

Again, Mr. President, thank you very much for inviting us. It has been a pleasure to spend time with your colleagues. And again, I wish you all the luck and wish you success in the future.