Baghdad looks to Trump with framework agreement

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Foreign Ministry announced Dec. 2 the formation of a high-level committee to start implementing the Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA). This reflects Iraq’s readiness for the era of US President-elect Donald Trump and to invest in the change of the US administration to garner support for its war on terror and for the reconstruction process.

The agreement, which was signed by both the United States and Iraq in 2008, affirmed political, diplomatic, defense, security and cultural cooperation in the fields of the economy, energy, health, technology and judiciary. However, Ahmed Jamal, the spokesman for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, told Al-Monitor, “What has been achieved is merely limited to some security areas and the war on terror.”

He said, “The non-implementation of the agreement items falls mostly on the Iraqi side, especially in terms of technological, cultural, security, health and trade cooperation. This is due to the fact that the Iraqi ministries lack the plans and programs to implement cooperation and coordination with the American side, which prompted Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to work on the formation of a committee under his chairmanship in November 2016 — dubbed the SFA Implementation Committee. Said committee includes many ministries’ undersecretaries as members.”

Jamal added, “The committee held a meeting last month and will continue to do so in order to prepare drafts for the plans that are being discussed with the Americans, to be converted into formal agreements that will be implemented within specific time frames.”