Iraqi movement to Barrack: US created Baghdad’s crisis
Shafaq News – Baghdad
The United States bears direct responsibility for the conditions Iraq has faced over the past two decades, the National Project said on Saturday, responding to recent remarks by US Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack.
The Sunni-led National Project, headed by tribal Sheikh Secretary-General Jamal Al-Dhari, describes itself as a non-sectarian political movement that “does not seek power” and advocates an end to the post-2003 sectarian and ethnic quota system*.
Barrack had sharply criticized US policy in Iraq in an interview with The National, calling the intervention a “$3 trillion policy failure” and arguing that Washington “Balkanized” Iraq by attempting to impose a political model unsuited to a divided society, which he contended ultimately created a vacuum that Iran filled.
In a statement, the National Project said Barrack’s remarks amount to “a bold acknowledgment of the tragedy produced by US policies since the 2003 invasion.” The political and security vacuum left by the United States, it added, turned Iraq into an arena for regional conflict.
The movement stressed that Iraq must now build a political system that ends the quota structure to achieve stability and curb foreign interference.
“Washington must assume the consequences of its actions,” the statement concluded, “and commit to contributing to the reintegration of Iraq as a fully sovereign and effective state.”
Read more: Integrating Iraq’s armed factions: The US vision and the risks ahead
* Iraq’s post-2003 quota system, often called muhasasa, is an informal power-sharing arrangement that divides senior political positions and state institutions among Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish parties according to sectarian and ethnic lines rather than merit.
