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CNN (5 March 2019)

By Arwa Damon, Ghazi Balkiz, Muwafaq Mohammed and Brice Laine, CNN

Baghdad, Iraq

[...]

During his opening remarks at the fair, Iraqi President Barham Salih spoke about the challenge of terrorism, the importance of freedom of speech, and Iraq's historic stature within the Middle East as an intellectual center, though the country is far from that glorious era.

"As we approach politics, its most serious challenge, the terrorist challenge, I want to point out that Iraqi political life is at a stage of transformation in which victory over terrorism and violence must be strengthened by further reforms and actions that would make it a decisive victory," Salih said.

For Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi expert on ISIS, therein lies the problem. Despite the rhetoric from some Iraqi leaders, this is a country where political failures and the rise of terrorism and violence are inextricably intertwined.

"Iraq has not learned the lesson from ISIS," Hashimi, who has tracked the terror group from back in its early days as al Qaeda in Iraq, told CNN. "Especially when it comes to co-existing and civil security, accepting others and apologizing to others, the same reasons that made ISIS a state are still there and growing."

[...]

To read the rest of the article, please click: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/05/middleeast/iraq-isis-return-intl/