Iraq is burying its past horrors

A restored and pacified Iraq is determined to regain its proper place in the Middle East and on the international scene. This is the optimistic message that Vice-President Adil Abdul Al Mahdi brought this week to France - a country which he sees as a major partner in the reconstruction of Iraq after three decades of devastating wars.

Iraq is courting France and is, in turn, being courted by it. Contracts worth many billions of euros are being negotiated, essentially in the fields of oil, security and infrastructure. President Nicolas Sarkozy is anxious for France to gain a privileged position in Iraq, while Iraq sees its growing links with France as a way to diversify its international relations and lessen its dependence on the United States.

Al Mahdi, a French-trained economist and former finance minister, is a weighty figure in Iraqi politics. He is a leading member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), headed by Abdul Aziz Al Hakim. This Iran-backed Shiite party is linked to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party in a grouping called the United Iraqi Alliance - in effect Iraq's ruling party. Al Mahdi and Al Maliki are allies (although they are also, it must be said, political rivals.) Al Maliki is due in Paris next month to take the partnership with the French a step further.

France's Total seems to have gained a head start over other international oil companies in developing Iraq's vast oil and gas reserves. It is negotiating some major concessions. A French company has signed a contract with the Municipality of Baghdad for a water purification scheme worth nearly $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion). A French consulting firm is designing a system to secure Iraq's borders. Its implementation is said to be worth another $1 billion. Eurocopter is to sell Iraq 24 helicopters for $500 million. These are only among the first of many such contracts under negotiation.

What picture of present-day Iraq does Al Mahdi provide? It is of a country firmly on the way to national reconciliation and revival, a country that has, to a large extent, quelled an armed insurgency and greatly reduced the bitter sectarian killings of recent years.

Defeating the insurgency - especially in the key province of Al Anbar - was accomplished thanks to the 'surge' in American troops, to a strengthened national army and, more particularly, to the Sahwa militia, or Sons of Iraq, an American-funded volunteer force made up of former Sunni insurgents. It was largely responsible for driving Al Qaida out of Al Anbar. This, Al Mahdi said in Paris this week, was a decisive turning point in the struggle against terror.

But dealing with a disbanded Sahwa - at one time nearly 100,000 strong - has not been easy. Attempts are being made to integrate its former members into the national security forces and other government departments. A budget of $350 million has been earmarked this year to pay their salaries. But some violent groups, operating under the Sahwa banner, have turned to crime. The recent arrest of a former Sahwa leader, Adel Mashadani, said to be running a protection racket, triggered an outbreak of violence.

Security in Iraq has clearly not yet been fully restored. Suicide bombers continue to claim their victims. But the social tissue of the country is being reconstituted. Iraq is being put together on a basis of national reconciliation, democracy, federalism and fraternity with its neighbours - in particular with Iran, Turkey and Syria.

Al Mahdi went out of his way to praise Turkey's 'very positive role' in Iraq, describing it as a major partner in the reconstruction of the country. Turkish investments in Iraq total nearly $5 billion, A briefing by Al Mahdi and his team this week served to pinpoint a number of national priorities.

Iraq is unique in the world in having more than 50 oil fields ready for development. It is urgently looking for foreign investment in its oil and gas industry, but also in every aspect of its smashed infrastructure. Iraq has external debts of $148 billion, and is continuing to pay compensation to Kuwait for its 1990 invasion, to the tune of five per cent of Iraq's oil income, or $1.5 billion a year.

To rebuild an educated elite, devastated by the flight of much of Iraq's middle class, the government is planning to send abroad 10,000 students a year for the next five years. Chosen strictly on merit, they will receive higher education in the UK, the US, France, Canada and Australia.

'Arabised' by Saddam Hussain but claimed by the Kurds, the oil-rich region of Kirkuk is a possible future flashpoint. A compromise is being sought with the Kurdistan Regional Government - either in the form of a condominium or some sort of shared authority over Kirkuk. Staffan de Mistura, the energetic special representative in Iraq of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, is heavily involved in the search for a solution.

One way or another, a revived and ambitious Iraq is putting the horrors of the past 30 years behind it. It can be safely predicted that it will, in the not too distant future, be once again a power to be reckoned with.

Patrick Seale is a commentator and author of several books on Middle East affairs.