Al-Halboosi during the seventh Baghdad International Dialogue Conference: Iraq influences and is influenced by its external surroundings

Iraq is not isolated from the world, but rather influenced and affected by its external surroundings, Mohammed al-Halboosi, head of the Progress Party and former Iraqi parliament speaker, said on Saturday.

"There is a need to approve a political agreement document that serves as a counterbalance to the constitution, defining the most prominent challenges facing Iraq, and to which all political, social and civil forces are committed within an irreversible time frame," al-Halboosi said in an interview at the seventh Baghdad International Dialogue Forum.

"There is a need for a political document that defines the foundations of the political system in Iraq, not just a document for forming governments," he said, noting that "some of the clauses of the political paper that was put forward after 2022 to form the government have been implemented, while others are still pending."

On the issue of weapons, al-Halboosi noted that "the Iraqi constitution prohibits parties from having armed wings," stressing that "weapons should be in the hands of the state only."

Al-Halboosi explained that "the Popular Mobilization Forces were established to confront a major security threat represented by ISIS," noting that "if Iraq is exposed to a security or terrorist threat, reliance will be placed on all the people, including various forces, but under the current circumstances, it is not permissible to have factions outside the framework of the state, and no orders can be issued to them from outside the official state institutions."

"We need a national document that diagnoses these challenges and sets practical solutions to protect the state and ensure its stability," Halbousi concluded.