On Sunday, 28 May, the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies (ECSS) welcomed his Eminence Ammar Al-Hakim, leader of the Iraqi National Wisdom Movement, who arrived in Egypt on an official visit and met with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi upon his arrival.
At the ECSS, Al-Hakim was welcomed by Dr. Khaled Okasha, General Manager of the ECSS, who also gave his Eminence a tour of the facility to introduce him to its various departments and units as well as its research output in a range of fields.
Al-Hakim convened a meeting with members of the ECSS advisory board members and experts to discuss ways to advance cooperation between Egypt and Iraq. His Eminence then delivered a lecture titled “A Vision of Arab Cooperation Prospects in the Context of Recent Regional and Global Developments”, which was followed with a question-and-answer session.
The lecture began with an opening remark by Okasha, who welcomed Al-Hakim to the ECSS and reiterated the ECSS’s pride in hosting Al-Hakim, a distinguished Iraqi and Arab figure. He went on to note the significance of the lecture’s title in light of the current regional and global transformations and the Arab tendency to promote joint action, which was emphasized at the 32nd Arab League Summit in Jeddah
At the outset of his address, Al-Hakim highlighted the comprehensive nature of ties between Iraq and Egypt, comparing the former to the “shield” of the Arab nation and the latter to its “sword”, noting that the two are inseparable. According to his Eminence, over the past two decades, Iraq has been deliberately thrust into the challenges it has faced on all levels, most notably the challenge of terrorism, which has reached its apex with the Islamic State (IS). However, Iraq has managed to overcome these challenges, and even the threat of terrorism is now largely contained to isolated desert pockets.
Al-Hakim further stated that sectarianism in Iraq only exists at the political, not popular, level. According to Al-Hakim, there were political forces that wanted to hide behind sects in order to obtain gains. However, the Iraqi people flatly rejected that, and a national realization grew that there is no way to overcome the challenges except through dialogue to reach internal solutions and remedies, away from the solutions imposed from the outside, which are not as concerned with the interests of Iraq as they are with the interests of other countries. This produced a state of healthy communal coexistence and the realization that sectarianism is not a national concern but rather a political one, which, as Al-Hakim stated, has resulted in the formation of the ruling State Administration Coalition, which unites all political forces in the Iraqi House of Representatives and is the first ruling coalition to include all Iraqi components. Iraq, thus, was able to establish a genuine democracy, which is now being institutionalized so that there are clear guidelines for conducting politics and running the government.
Al-Hakim stated that Iraq is eager to “zero out” regional crises because each regional pacification benefits Iraq. To this end, Iraq hosted five rounds of talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as talks between other countries, transforming it from a battlefield for conflict to a haven for communication. His Eminence argued that bolstering the Iraqi state is the best way to deal with Iraq’s threats and difficulties since the country has enormous potential but must be carefully steered.
Speaking of the Arab world, Al-Hakim emphasized that the Arab nation is capable of engaging in dialogue and coexisting peacefully with other countries in the region, and that Egypt and Iraq can serve as a stepping-stone to this goal by working with other Arab partners to develop a comprehensive system of cooperation on all fronts. According to Al-Hakim, the ECSS can act as the perfect vehicle for such insights and visions, and it can play this role in collaboration with Iraqi think tanks in formulating a vision and a road map with specific paths, in order to advance stability and the interests of all with the goal of building and development.
Al-Hakim responded to a series of inquiries and comments from the ECSS experts and researchers regarding the difficulties Iraq is currently facing, the prospects for Iraqi cooperation mechanisms with countries in the region, such as the trilateral mechanism between Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq, as well as Iraq’s current relations with various nations around the world. Al-Hakim emphasized that cooperation between Egypt and Iraq at all levels is a significant issue that the two countries are interested in, and that this was a major topic of discussion during his meeting with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
Al-Hakim noted that the strategic partnership between Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan is founded on shared interests and is being developed through joint projects for electrical interconnection and other areas of cooperation, expressing his hope that Syria and Lebanon will eventually join this partnership. His Eminence emphasized that Iraq is open to integration with all tracks of cooperation in the region, pointing out that the region’s countries must maximize their cooperation with one another in order to fulfill the aspirations of the Arab peoples for prosperity and development.
