Kahtan Janabi: Baghdad, Erbil Plan to Run Mosul Together after Liberation from IS

Novinite is publishing an interview with H.E. Mr Kahtan Janabi about the forthcoming battle of the Iraqi government to retake Mosul, the country's second-largest city that fell to the Islamic State (IS) group in 2014.

Mr Janabi has been the Iraq's Ambassador to Bulgaria since 2015.

His work for the government began in 2006, when he halted his career in Medicine and became Advisor of the Iraqi cabinet. Between 2010 and 2014, he was appointed ambassador to Sri Lanka. From 2011 to 2014, he was also non-resident ambassador to the Maldives. 

Your Excellency, the battle for Mosul has been in preparation for months. Why does it take so long to organize?

It's more than months. The preparation started a year ago. On the Iraqi side, all the preparation has taken place - our army, our police, our volunteers. We started two months ago to liberate the villages and small cities around Mosul. And also the preparation and work to liberate Al Mosul with the peshmerga in Kurdistan, with the Kurdish troops, and also the international alliance to fight ISIS [Mr Janabi uses the acronym "ISIS" to refer to the extremist group]. America, more than 60 countries - one of them Bulgaria - they make alliance to fight ISIS. So there are a lot of meetings, discussions with these parties how to start, when to start, and how long it will take and so on. It's almost we'll be started soon.

Next month maybe?

Maybe.

International media quoted Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as saying the battle will be finished victoriously by the end of the year. What makes him so optimistic?

You know Iraq is a country of heritage and civilization. Baghdad was the capital of...