The path
In 2024, Iraq witnessed various political, economic, security and even sporting events. This period was the most stable in the country compared to previous years, especially with regard to matters of a security and sectarian nature.
The beginning of 2024 witnessed, for the first time, the issuance of a decision by the Federal Supreme Court obligating the Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq to organize and conduct the Kurdistan Parliament elections. The vacancy of the position of Parliament Speaker after the dismissal of Halbousi by a court decision also cast a shadow over the political and legislative scene in the country for several months, after Parliament failed in several sessions to decide between the candidate who came forward, MP Shaalan Al-Karim, who received 152 votes, and MP Salem Al-Issawi, who received 97 votes.
After 10 years of interruption, the provincial councils returned to form and work in February 2024, amid fears of repeating the experience of previous sessions that failed to provide the services they were supposed to provide, and were part of corruption, deals and quotas, according to observers. The Federal Court also issued decisions indicating the unconstitutionality of some articles of the Kurdistan Parliament Elections Law, including the cancellation of the 11 minority quota seats and dividing the region into four electoral districts, in addition to obligating the federal and regional governments to localize the salaries of the latter’s employees in federal government banks operating outside the region.
By April 2024, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani will meet with US President Joseph Biden at the White House in the US capital, Washington, which he arrived on an official visit to discuss bilateral issues and files, and the file of moving the relationship between Iraq and the United States to a sustainable partnership, on economic foundations, and within the path of bilateral cooperation in various fields. In the same month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Baghdad on an official visit, the first in 13 years, to discuss many common files that needed to be resolved, especially the water files, oil exports from the Kurdistan Region, the path of development, economic and banking cooperation, and the file of joint security.
May 2024 was full of events, including the termination of the UNAMI mission in Iraq, which came at the request of Iraq and a UN recommendation, as confirmed by the last briefing of the former Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, to the Security Council.
As the country enters mid-2024, the United Nations appoints the Omani “Mohammed bin Awad Al-Hassani” as its representative in Iraq, succeeding Plasschaert, after the UN Security Council unanimously approved the termination of the UN political mission in Iraq, in addition to refuting statements that indicated the possibility of holding early elections in the country.
In July 2024, the Ministry of Migration and Displacement announced the complete closure of the Ashti camp for displaced persons in Sulaymaniyah after the return of the last batch of displaced persons from the camps of Sulaymaniyah Governorate to their original places .
By August 2024, the country had witnessed political, parliamentary and societal debates and arguments about passing the general amnesty and personal status laws, and their passage became linked to each other, and because of them, several parliamentary sessions were postponed. In addition, after more than 7 months, the Kirkuk Provincial Council was able to elect Ribwar Taha as governor of Kirkuk and Muhammad Al-Hafez as president of the council in a session held at the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad.
In September 2024, Iraq witnessed the arrival of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to Baghdad on his first visit abroad since his election last July in order to strengthen the already close bilateral relations between the two countries. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry also announced a timetable for ending the military mission of the international coalition to defeat ISIS in Iraq within the next 12 months, and no later than the end of September 2025.
Moving on to October 2024, we see that the citizens of the Kurdistan Region have flocked to the ballot boxes to choose their parliament. After more than six years have passed since the last vote to choose the Kurdistan Parliament, as well as after several unsuccessful sessions and about a year since the dismissal of “Halbousi” from Parliament by a judicial decision, the House of Representatives was able to elect Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani to the position of Parliament Speaker.
In November 2024, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani arrived in the Kurdistan Region and visited the cities of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah to hold talks on forming a new government in the region and addressing a number of pending issues between the two governments. The month also witnessed the conduct of the general population and housing census in all Iraqi governorates, including the Kurdistan Region, and the Prime Minister announced the success of the process, indicating that in light of the completion of the general census database, the population of Iraq has reached more than 45 million people.
As for December 2024, it was hot at the beginning, as Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani confirmed during his hosting in Parliament that: The issue of espionage and eavesdropping is the “lie of the century” and is not based on anything. In contrast, the UN representative in Iraq, Mohammed al-Hassan, confirmed in his briefing before the UN Security Council that Iraq has witnessed positive developments in recent months and that it enjoys peace and security that it has not witnessed for years.
The Iraqis, both government and people, hope that the internal situation in the country will remain stable, and that there will be a continuous effort to achieve further development, construction, rehabilitation of infrastructure, and the construction of strategic projects that serve the citizen and place him among the ranks of advanced countries and have a position on the regional and international scene.