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Iraqi PM: corruption number one enemy of the state

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
10 Dec 2022 21:57

Iraqi PM says that corruption is the country's greatest enemy and is preventing the government from carrying out its duties.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani delivering a speech on the anniversary of Iraq's victory on the ISIS terrorist organization.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said on Saturday that corruption has become the country's number one enemy after the defeat of ISIS.

In a speech during a celebration on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the declaration of victory over ISIS, Al-Sudani praised all the security agencies that contributed to the fight against the terrorist organization.

The Iraqi prime minister also recalled, "the steadfastness of the displaced, their distress after being forced out from their homes and the birthplace of their parents and grandparents, their homeland, which they have known for thousands of years."

القائد العام للقوات المسلحة @mohamedshia يحضر احتفالية لقيادة العمليات المشتركة بمناسبة ذكرى النصر على الارهاب، ويؤكد :

نحيي اليوم الذكرى الخامسة للنصر المؤزّر على فلول الإرهابِ والظلام، نصرٌ ما كان ليتحققَ لولا صلابةُ العراقيين وصبرُهم وتكاتفُهم. pic.twitter.com/6qTHMmYo2k
— المكتب الإعلامي لرئيس الوزراء 🇮🇶 (@IraqiPMO) December 10, 2022

He praised the role of Iraqi women in liberating the country from the terrorist organization, saying, "No victory would have been reached without the Iraqi women and their honorable role in the liberation operations and supporting our fighting forces, I salute the women of Iraq and their Martyrs on the anniversary of the great victory."

Al-Sudani also called to remember, "the Martyrs of oppression and betrayal, our youth in the Speicher massacre, the defenseless innocents, victims of hatred and cowardly murder," referring to the crime committed by ISIS in June 2014 when it executed by around 2,000 Iraqi students and security elements inside the Tikrit Air Academy (formerly Speicher military base) in Salah Al-Din province in the northern part of the country.

He stressed that the Iraqis, "who have triumphed over terrorism are able to triumph over corruption, which has become the number one enemy of the state and its system."

He concluded by saying: "I still remember the words of the supreme authority in Najaf, on the thirteenth of December 2019; the Battle of reform is more severe than the Battle of terrorism, and the Iraqis are able to win it."

Corruption is one of the biggest challenges facing Al-Sudani's government, which took office in late October.

On Friday, Al-Sudani said on Twitter that he put the fight against corruption in his government's priorities, stating that corruption is the first reason for the state's inability to carry out its duties.

It is noteworthy that Iraq announced in December 2017 the liberation of its entire territory from the grip of the western-backed ISIS terrorist organization after about 3 and a half years of fighting against militants.