DAVOS, Switzerland, 26 January 2007 — Iraqi leaders attending the World Economic Forum yesterday called for unity of political and armed forces in the country.
“What we need in Iraq is a united government with a united will,” Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi told forum participants at the idyllic Swiss mountain resort of Davos. “The government should be the only power. No other organization should have or use arms.”
Iraqi National Assembly member and prominent politician Adnan Pachachi echoed the vice president.
“The main problem facing Iraq is the absence of national security forces that are dependable and not infiltrated by militias,” he said. “And until there is a national security force that has undivided loyalty to the state, we are going to have this problem (of violence).”
He recommended mobilizing an international force to help maintain stability if US troops withdrew, while Abdel Mahdi unveiled a new security plan for the city of Baghdad. “One of the factors of not having stability is the regional environment. Iraq is paying for that,” Abdel Mahdi said, calling for a greater partnership with Iraq’s neighbors — including Iran and Syria — where there is “no interference” in others’ affairs, and disputes are resolved peacefully.
Speaking at a session on the Middle East, Mohammad Hossein Adeli, chairman and CEO of Economic Trends at Iran’s Center for Economic and International Studies, said the world needed a new type of leadership and governance. “The United States has placed too much emphasis on negative agendas in its efforts to replace the Cold War,” he said.
He said Western control over oil resources and production was diminishing, while market demands and consumer consumption were rising.
“At the same time,” Adeli said, “the Indian and Chinese economies are also growing rapidly and making increased demands of their own. The market power is shifting... New players have come onto the scene. Russia is now seeking new alliances by consolidating itself with neighbors, such as China. Energy is being increasingly used as a foreign policy tool. Europe considers energy security as vital. The next few years will see energy security becoming a main concern.”
However, Pei Minxin, senior associate and director of the China Program at America’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, disagreed with Adeli’s assessment.
“The power equation has not changed nor is it changing,” he said. “I don’t think the power of the United States will change much over the next 10 or 20 years.”
“However, Americans will have to learn how to become far more sensitive to their surroundings. Even though new powers, such as India and China, are emerging, the gaps between them and the United States will remain large. I do not think that either will dominate in the next 20 years,” said Pei.
In his address at C-100 or Council of Hundred Leaders, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz made it clear that modernization was certainly not Westernization.
“Let me make this very clear to everybody: We in the Muslim world will only do what is in conformity with our religious values and traditions. We in Pakistan have promulgated laws to protect the honor of women. Everybody said hell was going to be let loose. But nothing happened. Some religious types demonstrated against it, but nobody joined them.”
He lashed out at the forces behind the publication of the blasphemous cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in some Scandinavian newspapers. “That was highly provocative and should have been avoided. That controversy set the process of inter-faith dialogue back by many years. Similarly, the Pope should not have said what he said about Islam being a religion of violence. That was totally unnecessary.”
He said security measures at airports throughout the world are necessary, “but to target people of only one faith on the basis of their appearance and their nomenclature was deplorable. This is exactly what is happening now, and it is not good. Let there be security. I, myself, survived an assassination attempt, but let there be intelligent security. Let no country target individuals of a particular faith.”
He said inter-faith dialogue is a two-way process. “We need to understand each other, and we need to take steps to bring people of all faiths together. At the end of the day, everybody — be they Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist or Hindu —is praying essentially for the same thing: peace and beseeching God to guide us on to the right path.”
On Wednesday night, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced efforts for “new forms of dialogue” between G-8 leading industrial nations and the emerging economies, such as India, China and Brazil.
Calling for a resumption of the Doha Development Agenda of trade liberalization talks that were suspended some six months ago, Merkel said that agriculture could not be the only focus of concentrated effort. Progress is essential on industrial goods and services — including equal treatment of domestic and foreign investment — and only a united front by the G-8 could contribute to having the dynamic emerging economies participate in global responsibility.
Also Wednesday night, Micheline Calmy-Rey, president of the Swiss Confederation and Federal Councilor of Foreign Affairs, called on all stakeholders to work together in partnership to increase human security, which includes addressing new threats, such as the destruction of the environment.
“We as representatives of states cannot solve everything alone and cannot solve anything at all unless we rapidly improve our partnerships with business, academia and society as a whole,” she said. “We have made progress in defining and setting standards for globalization and in overcoming its negative consequences. It remains for us to focus on action that makes a real difference.”
