To voters. Why muslim pilgrims are concerned the selfie is under mining the importance of hajj. The battle against fighters from the Islamic State of iraq and levant continues tonne several fronts. In iraq and syria. I. S. I. L. Says it has taken more territory in anbar province, even though iraqs army and sunni fighters continue to go after the group. Imran khan reports from the iraqi capital baghdad. The furious exchange of fire shows that the battle against i. S. I. L. Is not slowing down. Backed by tanks and weapons, the Government Forces are in this town, linking anbar with baghdad, in the south of the country. Holing it against yil holding it against i. S. I. L. Fighters mean supplies can reach the province. Translation well never leave the city. This is our homeland that we cannot abandon, because there is a con spir si on the country. Well fight them, whether they calm themselves rebels or armed groups. We are all iraqi, christians, shia, we are all brothers. If they want their
Dynamics between the region of government of baghdad as well as shifting relations between the groups including the syrian and iraqi satisfactions and implications. I am pleased to have with me an Extremist Group this morning. They include our own associates at the carnegie little east foundation. I cant see him from there. The Research Focused on the dynamics of the syrian conflict and the political role and Security Transformation in the arab world. We are also joined by our associate. He is formerly a researcher at the academy. His research has focused on iraq and authority in islam and middle eastern history and politics. Natalie is the senior fellow of the National University here in washington. Denise was formally a researcher working in the turkish regions of iraq. Turkey, iran, and syria. She specializes on the Regional Energy security and conflict state building. Finally to my immediate left is joseph who has just joined us here in d. C. As a visiting scholar at the carnegie e
Reserves so they can make a cash investment in a Capital Infrastructure to build a city hall or to do Something Like that and also to keep the bond rating agencies happy, to demonstrate that they are good stewards of the fiscal resources. So if you noticed the trend over time, it was much less than what we are now at about 22 of expenditures. Some 25 or 30 years ago it was much less. What cities have done over the last 25 and 30 years is theyve realized several things. One, that you cant predict the future as we all witnessed this last winter when salt reserves for at least the northern cities and some southern as well ran out very early and they had to dig into their reserves to buy more salt and snowplowing services. So preparing for these unexpected emergencies is one of the reasons that the reserves tend to grow over time. The other is that between the time that we started monitoring ending balances in the general fund to the present is that the federal government has become a much
You asked about where defense fits in this. Clearly, outreach. The profoundly a political activity. There is a bit to the offer that we in the americans and others are involved in. I think our Principal Task is likely involved in trading the army and developing the capacity of the army to ensure that the armeded forces are balanced, credible and as non sectarian as can be. The army was a sunni army. Had been undermined by corruption and appointing by then Prime Minister and building something that has more substance, that is more balanced and trusted across the communities is clearly the aim. We can create the space for the politics to gain ground, but if it doesnt gain ground, we are kugting a very Different Military campaign. There are elements of pressure not to encourage them to split those pressure b in tehran, tied in of course to other iranian ambitions there, but to convince them that an inclusive goth that brings the kurds and sunnis in is better than being on the front lines
And get into syria . Yes, they do. Do the turks permit that . I dont think so. One final question. Iran is in the midst of iraq. Its in the midst of syria. Do we share much rale goals with iran . Well oob ill say that our goals with respect to iraq is that we return iraq to the sovereign control of the people and the government. Do you think the iranians share that view . I believe so. I believe the iranians would believe that their interests would consider their interests are best served because they have significant influence in iraq . They have regional interest and those interests are in iraq. Thats not something that should surprise us or necessarily alarm us. Im looking beyond. So if we think an accommodation with iran to fight isil is good the aftermath of that in iraq, in syria, in yemen and elsewhere in my view is not so good. So times we look at the short game versus the long one and im concerned about what the long one is. I would not propose that were accommodating iran and