embassy events

Speaker Sets Scene for Iraqi Elections in Czech Republic

Michael Rubin

A week before the December 15 Iraqi parliamentary elections, PAS Prague organized a speaker program with  Michael Rubin, a renowned expert on Iraq and the Middle East from the American Enterprise Institute. The program consisted of public lectures in Prague, Pilsen, Brno and Olomouc, as well as consultations with Czech parliamentarians, senators and representatives of the Czech Foreign Ministry. In addition, Mr. Rubin, together with a group of local dignitaries, attended a working breakfast hosted by Ambassador Cabaniss and appeared live on Czech TV’s Události komentáře.

In all his remarks, Mr. Rubin provided a detailed picture of the current situation in Iraq and offered some predictions for the post-election period. He argued that while the current security situation is serious, there are important trends signaling that Iraqis have faith in their country’s future. Chief among them are, in his view, the lack of refugees from Iraq, the booming Iraqi property market and local appreciation of the Iraqi dinar. He also maintained that the upcoming elections will further entrench the concept of accountability in Iraqi politics, thus contributing to the growth of democracy in Iraq.