NIQASH: Events in Syria have seen Iraq proposed as an alternative route for the passage of export goods from the Persian Gulf countries into Turkey and Europe, and vice versa. Your thoughts on this?
Al-Amiri: This has been discussed. But there are actually a lot of technical issues we need to solve first. For one thing, we don’t have X-ray scanners for the inspection of exports and imports. And opening everything by hand to check it is difficult and time consuming.
Finally, there’s also the security situation in the country to consider. It still needs to improve. But we’re working on developing the proper environment to get all of this happening.
NIQASH: Let’s talk about your other job, as head of the Badr Organization. Recently the Badr Organization, once the military wing of one of the most important Islamic political parties in Iraq, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, split from its parent body. So tell us, did that split happen because of upcoming elections?
Al-Amiri: It’s not as simple as that. Personally I would describe the relationship between the two organizations as a complimentary one. Right from the day they were created, the Islamic Supreme Council and the Badr Organization were always independent of one another. But due to conditions in the country – such as the US-led occupation of Iraq – the two organizations merged. To overcome the difficulties we faced, together.
Iraq was basically an occupied country and conditions weren’t stable. To build a new Iraq we needed to work together. But now those conditions have obviously changed. There’s no need for a joint leadership.
Rather than having two quite separate organizations under one leadership, we think it’s better to make that separation official. Now the Badr Organization has its leaders and the Islamic Supreme Council has theirs.
Nonetheless the two organizations continue to coordinate their activities, and at the very highest level.
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