Thank you, ambassador, for being here and thank you as well for being on the panel. I have yet to good to kuwait, the last time i had been there with 1990 during the gulf war. I got to take a second picture next to the two spirit towers, this time whats that . There you go, liberation towers. It was good to be back, but more importantly to see this Coalition Come together not only in the private sector and having 64 nation theres, but also, like you said, ambassador, seeing the iraqis out front, talking about the country, talking about not only Economic Opportunities in iraq, but also about humanitarian situation. One of the things the first day of the conference was great. The press was able to ask questions of not only Prime Minister abadi but also the kuwaitty Prime Minister and the deputy minister and the foreign mince sterp. The iraq i can press asked some of the toughest question. They warned dont go on a stage with mike pregent, hes going to ask tough questions. The iraq i can press was tough. They were grit. But their questions went unanswered. A lot of their questions were based on reconstruction in the area such as mosul and other prov vinss and the idps. Why wont we delay elections to allow idps to come back, as you mentioned 2. 6 million in these camps and want to vote. So the questions were great. So lets talk lets look at the visuals. Prime minister abadi had a great stage to he looked we use the term in the United States he looked president ial. He looked in charge of a country and had he the legitimacy of 64 countries backing him up by being there. And also the private sector companies. But there was also an air of what are we getting ourselves into of what are we get ourselves into if we do these things. Not only defense contractors that are very familiar with a kickback. I set an example in 2018 when we were work with the administration of ministry to try to get an electric contract in baghdad, but because ge didnt offer a kickback in went to simmons and simmons was only able to produce a third of that capacity. Again, i say this in 2008. Thats because it was of at surge, of it alkwied as decimated, after we built the sunni resistance and the awakens. After we allowed for political accommodation and reconciliation we started focus oth what were doing now, Economic Investment, capability. These important things when you have that you do in post conflict societies. But, again, as we all know, security is tied to economy. This is an economy thats tied to its security, the ir iraqi e. This is something the United States knows based open our time there, our investment, our blood and treasure, not to mention the iraqi sacrifice of course. I was an embedded officer in the army and we saw them fall all the time. We were in Armored Vehicles and then were in fdic pick yumup trucks yet they were going the same direction as the enemy. Theres a lot of cost in these things and we dont want to see security backslide. I think there was a hint of that at the conference. The good thing about the position of baghdad is that a lot of the reconstruction, as you mentioned, has been outsourced to the u. N. And its ngos and its other groups. I mean, i have the document that basically you cited everything thats going on in iraq where the u. N. Is focused, the 54 nablds in mosul, 16 are heavily damaged, 23 are moderately damage and 14 are lightly damaged. This not what the focus of this conference was when it came to the private Sector Investment in iraq. This is where the u. N. Was focused on. This is what unammy was focused on, and this is where the iraqi press hit baghdad hard. Said where is the talk from the Prime Minister about these things. Of course you can find these things but it wasnt out front. I had a chance to listen to them talk about Economic Investment in iraq. And he talked about four main areas for Economic Investment, and he called iraqs oil sector the bread basket of the iraqi economy. He talked about construction, telecommunications, and transportation. Again, this caution that was in the air of the conference was how much influence does aroon ha iran have in iraq . Thats the whole conversation. Just because it borders doesnt mean it have you had anymore influence than kuwait, saudi or other groups. Iraq shouldnt have to lean towards its eastern border. And this conference was about that. And if you looked at the focus of the investment from saudi arabia and kuwait, kuwaits focus was on busser, un cussa and these places because it borders the area. This is a place sure of Economic Investment. It also is a place to actually use leverage with not only iran but with iraq when it comes to Economic Investment. And the saudis, i was asked earlier or ive been asked over the last couple weeks about saudi Economic Investment in iraq and what does it mean. Is it a u. S. Lever to curb iranian influence in iraq or is it going to be what happened in lebanon and syria where iranis invest yet iraq gets do what it wants . Those are the issue. We hosted a member of the row hick ma party, had a conversation, again, also warned not to meet with this reporter or this observer in iraq, but a great conversation. He said something that resonated with me and ties directly to this conference in cue wait. Kuwait. He said the only way to counter iran is if theyre a strong economic power. Iraq. Correct. Iraq say strong economic power, and hes exactly right. The best way for iraq to be a strong economic power is to ensure that much like with the irgc does in iran, theyre not able to do in iraq. The four main areas that the irgc has its tentacles in the youre rainian economy is oil sector, transportation, tell communications, and construction. The four areas that Prime Minister abadi and allor wrathgy asked investors to go into were the oil sector, telecommunications sector, transportation sector and the construction sector. So the United States as we talk about blood and sacrifice and we talk about the optimistic levers or the optimistic way forward by using our levers is to help iraq by maybe warning iraq that investments that go into iraqi skps that have any ties to an irgc fund company will be subject to u. S. Treasury sanctions. Thats a strong tool. Its also an insurance policy for investors that when they go in theyll be protected knowing that the companies are doing business with have actually have no ties to the irgc and ill leave of that there because theres not a lot of evidence that there are ties to that now. Its just simply if rye ans doing it its doing it in syrias economy, in lebanons, and its been doing it since 2003, economic ties, but theres also questionable ones as well. An insurance policy. Now, the one thing that Prime Minister abadi said that was also a security blanket for investors and also something that alealeve eights a lot of their concerns is hes going to look at getting rid of this 10 to 20 kickback that secures the contract. And he is setting up a commission and he wants to see it gain a lot of momentum after the elections. And that brings me to the elections and ill kind of try wrap up here. The upcoming elections, again, 2. 6 million sunnis displaced because of the campaign against isis and what isis did asked for a delay. The iraqi press asked many questions about why isnt the election being delayed . And, of course, you want to be able to say we want to keep it on time, we want to do it the right way, the elections are important. When, mr. Ambassador, when you mentioned, you know, cross sectarian and cross ethic coalitions, were seeing those and they need to win. The issue now is the fattah party, is that the right party that im talking about . The one led by yes. So currently that party has the militias that you warned about. Ah, hezbollah, bahta core, participating in that party. And what we talk to ra hick ma, they said we dont want to work to moderate, we want to work with Coalition Parties to marginalize this party. Am i saying it right . All right. The fattah party. The problem is now, if the fattah party the fattah party hasnt won yet, but it already has its minister in charge of the minister of the interior, it has the commander and Deputy Commander in hol lamb ray and a des egg nated u. S. Terrorists who commands hezbollah is the Deputy Commander of the house of ashob by. Volunteers are great iraqis that did all the right things, problem is theyve sort of fallen under this command and control structure. Well talk about that later. But the issue is if fattah wins, these ministers stay in place. If they lose, do the other parties have enough power to push them out and get somebody that could send a signal not only to investors, not only to americans and nato, because natos voiced concern before we go in we want to make sure fattah party doesnt win. We want to make sure that he is not the Prime Minister. Those are important things. But in the forming of these coalitions during this election, in order to make the Economic Investment opportunity more stable, the security situation more stable, these coalitions arent talking about replacing these ministers or getting rid of mow behind dus as the Deputy Commander. One of our biggest problems is the u. S. Training equip program, ten u. S. Tanks fall in his hands, u. S. Government denied that for the last two years and now theres evidence of it and were trying to get it back. These arent captured isis tanks, these are mod op contanks to militias. I just want to hear some of the Political Parties in iraq talking about how theyre going to stop the influence and the saturation of irgs force sies like badda core, and hezbollah, when they have such prom nate position in the Iraqi Government today. And thats causing serns not only fortunate toe Training Program in high rack a iraq, security backslide in iraq, they just they just cement that argument that iran has more influence in iraq than it should. And just a quick a quick ant ne doke. 27 people were killed north of baghdad. And, this is terrible, but it was cheered but some sectors of the iraqi population. The sunni arab population of minute uwa and some of the sunni kurdish population of the krg controlled areas. It end that isis killed militias and the irg militias deserved it. And that that right there, especially with this operation taking place in an area where theres oil, theres infrastructure, and there are still isis pockets is concerning not only to investors, not only to nato allies, but also to those of us like you point out in your article, the that want to assure that this victory is permanent and not simply a reset of conditions that led to isis to begin with with an increased dynamic in that now the u. S. Is no longer trusted as much by the curds and by the sunnis but also that irans had more influence that its ever had. And im happy to be wrong about all of that, i just want to be comfortable in saying i was wrong. Thanks, mike. I actually wanted to also before i open it up on u. N. Administrations sort of approach on iraq particularly on burden sharing which linda also mentioned in her comments and i did at the outset of still being the largest humanitarian and stabilization donor but not contributing to reconstruction on the Security Side looking more whether nato mission could be part of ways of perhaps stepping down, sort of using engagement had the how do you see all of that combined with this . Well, with the Administration Says publicly it can actually hurt what were doing privately in iraq. When i say privately, in meetings where were assuring guarantees and making promises to the Iraqi Security forces were working with, that were training with, and also as we try to reestablish these levers that weve had in the past with baghdad. My concern about the current administrations strategy is that in the state Department Iraq has fallen almost completely out of the iranian influence talk. State department has said irans influence in syria, lebanon and yemen and left iraq out, and thats concerning to generals like the generality sitcom and generals in the department of defense. The other part of that is the president s strategy to defeat isis, call it a victory, and get out. Outsource reconstruction to iraq, maintain a minimal presence. These are parties are calling for the exit of American Forces and now theres a u. S. Policy where militias cannot be within 20 kilometers of american bases where americans are training iraqis. The problem is that these tear lists organizations that keep popping up in these ungoverned spaces in the middle east and north africa and southwest asia. So the administration, again, id listen to the general, like you mentioned earlier, listen to the generals, and then challenge the generals to come up with solutions. And, again, nobody wants to stay in iraq, but weve stayed in iraq this whole time, so maybe we should stay in some capacity, some normalized treaty where theres a u. S. Base there that can do exactly these things when something pops up. Augment the Security Forces archd be able to decimate something that shouldnt have been born to begin with. Thanks, mike. Let me now ask a question to the whole panel and youre also allowed to sort of comment on each others intervention if you want to. On one really sort of simple but hopefully a little bit difficult question would justing what in all of this do you see as the greatest challenge for iraq moving forward among all the things that weve sort of outlined here on the panel . Ill start with you, ambassador. Well, the biggest challenge that iraq is facing is the fact that it has to address issues with tools that need building. So, for example, one of the one of our difficulties in the last, you know, ten years of wars that weve had is that we were engaged in the a war that we were building our army at the same time, okay. And in order for us to address many of the issues that you raised, corruption, Better Services to citizens, equity, we need to strengthen our institutions. So i think the greatest guarantor of iraqi independence is not only that we will be a strong economy, we have oil, we have resources, we can do that. What i think the strongest guarantor of our being an independent nation that can stand and look any other country in the eye is if we can strengthen our institutions. And this is actually something that we are on track and having been engaged in an iraqi institution in the last 14 years, i can tell you that i see incremental changes that are cumulative making it better. An example, early on when we were staffing the Foreign Ministry we had promotion exams. Everybody used to pass, okay. Now people flunk. There are standards being applied, okay. One of the reasons why the icts is such a Successful Institution in iraq is that because it applies criteria and principles that make it a strong institution. So this is the track that were on, finding corruption is part of it. Now, recently we were i was in baghdad for an Ambassadors Conference and we were the focus of this conference this year was reconstruction. Last years was liberation, if you will. But just as our army is a much better institution than it was a few years ago, right now were focusing on the institutions that we need to build up to fight the battles that we need to fight, particularly with regard to corruption. So now the institution that is the most in the lime light is our interrogative commission, which is actually making good progress. Thanks. Linda, over to. You thank you. I would add to the wise comments of the ambassador, i wrote a 2008 book about the surge period called tell me how this ends and chapter 15 has a list of things that were widely agreed to be the Critical Issues to bring stability to iraq. And that list is more or less still to be done. So i think its very important for things like the full implementation of the federalized system. Theres a decent tral liezation law on the books. Empla mentation has gunn begun to voflt eight ministries down to the governance but it needs to be done to give that sense of local ownership to the population, the debath fa occasion law needs to be revised, the status of occur kirk, the hydrocarbons, law, et cetera. Those of you that follow iraq know the list very well. And i think it will be incumbent upon the Council Representatives because it is a parliamentary system, to grasp this net he will nete lerks and understand that these have institutional answers and commit to building these answers. Iraq is a great country, theres no reason it cant come u come through dark period, but it must find the will to do so. I firmly believe that iraqis have no wish to be the 51st state of iran. They are sufficiently confident now that they can move forward and set the appropriate limits on iranian influence. The worst thing would be for the u. S. To publicly demand or legislate x, y, or z conditions because that will ensure the inflammation of iraqi nationalism and elect the very man, michael, would you like to see not elected spot let us work in a sophisticated way, use the strategic Framework Agreement to put in, i think, very fairly demand transparency conditions as the world bank does for any further aid. Hopefully we will lock in a longterm Security Assistance agreement. They want it, its our core competence, we have an advantage here over iran and lets press that. So thats a mouthful, but thats what i would say we have to do Going Forward. Thanks, linda. One of the wor