Political Initiative to Resolve Anbar Crisis

In contrast, others in Iraq believe that the country's crises are purely political, and their security manifestations reflect the political reality. Those who assert this, however, are ignoring the grave security challenge posed by extremist organizations, like al-Qaeda, that do not believe in political solutions or in modern democratic states and are working to establish a state based on its extreme religious and ideological beliefs.

Analyzing major internal security crises in any country should not include separating the political and security tracks. In fact, separating them, or neglecting one of them, is dangerous. Sucha an approach might temporarily ease a crisis, but in the long term will lead to even bigger crises.

Looking back at the past 10 years reveals that the crisis in Anbar did not start in 2013 and that al-Qaeda’s presence in the province predates 2014. All previous steps taken there were in fact attempts to ease tensions, sometimes through political flexibility and sometimes the use of excessive force.

What is different about Hakim’s initiative is that it tries to find permanent mechanisms based on understanding Anbar as a highly sensitive, predominantly tribal and religious region that borders three countries (Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia), which makes it susceptible to influence by events outside Iraq's borders.

The $4 billion spread over four years is not a huge amount for rebuilding a province that constitutes one-third of ​​Iraq and is in need of numerous development projects. Regardless, the budget has political and moral significance because it could lead the people of Anbar to believe that the Baghdad government is dealing with them in the same way it deals with the other provinces. Such perceptions reflect and affect the sensibilities that have developed at the sectarian and regional levels in Iraq.