Hisham Daoud, Advisor To Iraqi PM Al-Kadhimi: Our Coffers Are Empty; We Have Only $300 Million In The Treasury

Hisham Daoud, an advisor to Iraqi PM Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, said in a speech posted on the Iraqi PM Office's official YouTube channel on June 16, 2020 that the coffers in Baghdad are empty. He said that former Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and his government had handed them over to the new administration without anything in them, and he explained that there are currently only $300 million in Iraq's treasury. He said that Iraq needs to supply its people with food and schools, to fight a pandemic and terrorism, and to build "reliable armed forces." In addition, Daoud said that Turkey and Iran must learn to respect the country's control of its borders.

Hisham Daoud: "Today, Iraq is suffering from great economic problems. I'm talking about Iraq as a whole, including Kurdistan. There are problems with salaries and with revenues in general. I believe that the current affliction enables us to understand [things] better. We are not in a situation where we can open the coffers in Baghdad. The truth is that the coffers are empty. They were handed over to us with nothing in them. There are only $300 million in the treasury. Adel Abdul-Mahdi and his government left the treasury in this state. And we are facing a country, people in need, people who need to eat, schools, a pandemic, the war on terrorism, and the building of reliable armed forces. When we talk with a country that transgresses our border like Turkey, we need it to respect us when we say: 'No!' When we tell our eastern neighbor [Iran] that we will not open the border because the coronavirus will spread again in Iraq, we need to be perceived as reliable men of our world, and this stems from the strength of the government, and from its popular base in society."