Al-Sudani Seeks UN Political Mission Closure

After the years long operations of international political and military assistance missions in the conflict-affected state of Iraq, the country’s Prime Minister, Shia Al-Sudani showed his urge to end the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) by the year of 2025. In a recent letter to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guiterres by Iraq’s Al-Sudani pointed out that the Iraqi government had developed all those capacities to deal with its economic and political agendas on their own. It has also mentioned that, “Iraq has managed to take important steps in many fields, especially those that fall under UNAMI’s mandate”. There is no doubt that since the years of chaos and escalating sectarian violence along with emergence of one of the most dangerous international terrorist organizations like the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), Iraq had moved out with many serious challenges with the support of the United States-led Coalition Forces and the UN-led political and institutional support missions.

UNAMI was established since 2003 during the initial phase of the US invasion of Iraq that led to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s long-ruling authoritarian regime. It was established with the legal provisions to foster democratic system and to attain stability with the newly institutionalized government agencies and armed forces under the behest of Anglo-American existence in the country. UNAMI’s mandate was also to engage all the political stakeholders of Iraq and to pursue the inclusive economic and strategic objectives for shared state-building to deal with crisis emerged from continuous conflict in the country. With the time being, UNAMI’s objectives faced renewals and redefinitions as it also paved ground for the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL (UNITAD). It was established under the UN Security Council Resolution no. 2379 that was passed in 2017 to investigate and bring justice to the victims of war crimes, terrorism, massive human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).  Nevertheless, UNAMI and other missions of the United Nations provided idealistic justifications for international community to secure the objectives of international criminal justice to deal with widespread human rights issues and sustaining democratic order in Iraq.

Anyhow, loopholes in the implementation of principles of the international law had also posed challenges to the sovereign position of Iraq. It can be determined with historical facts that Iraq’s sovereignty had to face the breaches and interventions from external players since the 90s in which different justifications were streamlined. Whether it can be the US’s intervention in Iraq to protect Kurdish population under the UN mandate or the imposition of economic sanctions against country during the Gulf War, to taking up to the events of the United States intervention in the country with existence of heavily militarized coalition to topple down its government or groups like ISIL taking over huge swathes of land, the sovereign position of Iraq had always remained fragmented. Similarly, the country had also faced a major influence of its neighbors, especially by the Islamic Republic of Iran that pursue its own political and strategic objectives by supporting its local allies like the Popular Mobilization Unit (PMU) or the Dawa Party that had remained in power coalition for several times after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Iraqi proponents for sustaining sovereignty had also raised concerns towards the timely military incursions and air strikes from the side of Turkiye as well.

As stated by one of the scholars on Iraqi political and security landscapes, Byrar Baban, that since there is creation of political discourse and framing of the groundwork for sovereignty restoration policy under the “State Administration Coalition”, directed by Iraq’s Al-Sudani, there had been passing of several policies like “Serving the Flag” for mandatory military service and raising of the restoring sovereignty’s sentiment to revoke those laws that ensure restriction of foreign intervention and revoking of de-centralization in Iraq. In Iraq’s contemporary political landscape, the “State administration” actually serves as a tantamount manifestation for the term of sovereignty. Similarly, Baban’s observations also denoted from the very point that Iraqi leaders see the relevant terminology of sovereignty as embodiment for a foundational principle, a framework of thought and a steadfast aspiration to ensure Iraq being strengthened enough to deal with its internal issues itself and ward-off foreign interventionism with existence of external players like the UN-led observer missions or the US-led stationed coalition forces. The sovereigntist sentiment in the Iraqi leaders can be proven as essential for the conflict-affected Iraq like any other state to formulate the policy of respect for the country’s position in the regional and international affairs. This can be justified from Iraq’s parliamentary stance for the call of withdrawal of the foreign forces after the assassination of Iranian Major General, Qasem Soleimani along with other pro-Iranian Iraqi militia leaders near Baghdad’s International Airport in 2020 on the Presidential orders of the US’s Donald Trump.

Anyhow, the calling off for the missions like UNAMI and withdrawal of foreign military forces from Iraq may also have impact on the stability that exist to some extent through existence of such factors. For example, the sovereigntist sentiment had demanded the end of 2012’s “Khor Abdullah” agreement with Kuwait which led to the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq’s decision to consider it as illegal and restore its sovereignty over the region of Khor Abdullah.

The agreement with Kuwait was regarded as one of the important steps towards stability in Iraq’s neighborhood and reduction of land-based disputes in the Middle East. Correspondingly, the similar sentiment in the country also raises the voice for the revocation of all those measures that granted centralization of governance in Iraq and to restrict autonomy to regions like Iraqi Kurdistan that were formulated to attain stability and ethnic cohesion in the country. It is quite much known that existence of foreign missions and military forces are playing a pivotal role in observing the stability and decentralization which can be determined as a way ahead for inclusive Iraq. There is no doubt that PM Al-Sudani had reiterated that he is advocate of balancing relations with both Iran and the United States and his political will had regarded to take the sovereigntist sentiment as a serious matter for the country’s progress. But his political ambitions may have several consequences.

It can’t be denied here that Iraq had eventually institutionalized pro-Iranian military units like PMU and had gained significant Iranian influence that had no doubt played a major role in undermining the Sunni extremist groups like ISIL. But in the post-ISIL environments, pro-Iranian groups or the governmental forces proven to be violating the human rights and inflicting other abuses against Sunni population of the country based on “revenge politics” and sentiments there. It is also determined that sovereigntist sentiment in Iraq is in favor of withdrawing all foreign missions like UNAMI to uphold country’s own sovereign position. But the factors like Shia-Sunni divide or the Arab-Kurdish disagreements with existence of factors like armed militias and groups meant for protecting their own interests can lead to the point of possible escalation if the foreign forces or international missions may withdraw from Iraq. The aspects like repealing the decentralization in Iraq and revocation of agreements with its neighbors may also pose consequences for the country that had already been facing issues and lack of will towards political inclusivity due to continuous conflicts and crisis. This can also justify a framework for the resurge of dangerous terrorist organizations like ISIL and the Al Qaida in the country that previously rose up after the withdrawal of the US-led forces from Iraq in 2008, that could be seen in ISIL’s occupation of the large swathes of land in the years after 2010. It is to add here that sovereigntist sentiment will also pave further justification for a state like Iran to continue its intervention in domestic affairs of the country to support its proxy groups and pave way for further instability in the region.

Syed Haris Shah

The writer is a graduate of Peace and Conflict Studies from the National Defence University, Islamabad.

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