Peace Palace Meeting: Reaffirming the consistent position of rejecting any security solution to peaceful demonstrations

Baghdad-INA

The President of the Republic Dr. Barham Salih hosted a meeting held at the Peace Palace in Baghdad on Sunday 10-11-2019, and was attended by Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mohammed Halbousi and President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Fayeq Zidan.

The meeting discussed various political and security developments in the country in the midst of large demonstrations in Baghdad and other provinces, the press office of the president said in a statement received on Sunday. In response to national public opinion and the requirements of political and service life, which deserves spare Iraqis after decades of tyranny, war, violence and corruption.

The popular protest by the youth of Iraq, who aspired to a free and dignified life with a peaceful national will that respects the legal and constitutional contexts and appreciates and safeguards the interests of the country, is a great protest in the process of rebuilding the state, purifying its institutions and upgrading its construction to what Iraq deserves.

The participants reaffirmed the firm position of refraining from any security solution to peaceful demonstrations, and strict accountability for any confrontation based on excessive violence, referring in this regard to the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to prevent the use of live bullets and all forms of violence that depend on cruelty and exaggeration.

The meeting dealt with keen interest cases of abductions against activists by uncontrolled and outlaw groups, as well as crimes of assault on demonstrators, which are directed at investigating and identifying the perpetrators and punishing them, stressing that no one of the demonstrators will be detained.

The assembled parties affirmed that all persons found guilty of criminal offenses and any party shall be referred to the just and fair judiciary. Strict justice will prosecute anyone who assaults, abducts or arrests anyone outside the law and the judiciary. Once again the importance of confining arms to the state is confirmed, and this will inevitably be achieved.