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378139
Mon, 08/24/2015 - 17:30
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Situation in Iraq can be settled only through national dialogue - Lavrov

MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Political settlement in Iraq is possible only through national dialogue with participation of all sides, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the youth forum "Territory of meanings on the Klyazma" on Monday. "Our position is that everyone should be constantly reminded that no one, no country or a group of countries can dictate their will to everyone else and that people should decide on their future by themselves, doing it on the basis of UN Charter, doing it through national dialogue," Lavrov said. The foreign minister reminded that Iraq "went through terrible times" when US invaded the country in 2033 under the pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction. The invasion was condemned by Russia and other countries. Lavrov said "American occupational administration dispersed security forces that mostly consisted of representatives of the Sunni minority. Officers from Saddam Hussein’s army who lost work later joined the Islamic State terrorist organization though they were not in any way linked to Islamism. At the moment, they are the core fighting force of the Islamic State, Lavrov explained. The minister said that many high-ranked American politicians from the administration and Congress admit that invading Iraq was a mistake. "Now Americans are trying to persuade those leaders who represent the Shia majority not to intimidate the Sunni minority which Americans themselves drove out of everywhere. This is a rather paradoxical story," he said. "Our approach is very simple. We will do anything like this. This is social engineering, manipulation of state structure from outside, from far away - it is already so destructive that we do not have to persuade anyone. That is why we want all Iraqis - Shias, Sunnis, Kurds - to agree on what to do by themselves," Lavrov noted. "Problems persisted for a long time between Baghdad and Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, on distributing constitutional authority and, in particular, distributing profits from trading oil. However, they managed to reach agreement later. Yes, the implementation of agreements is proceeding rather difficultly but we do not see any way of peacefully settling the situation other than through national dialogue," the foreign minister said. "We will never share the position of US Vice President Joseph Biden who directly stated that Iraq should be split into Shia and Sunni parts, and Kurds should get what they want. Someone from across the ocean is telling Iraq how it should reform. We will not play these games. We support the notion that peoples should define their destiny themselves, and we actively facilitate national dialogue with participation of all sides," he cocluded. Read more

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