Eli Lake, Columnist

The Sense Behind the Nonsense From Iraq's Foreign Minister

He claims that Iraq is not riven by sectarianism. He's wrong. He claims the fight in Iraq is a global conflict. He's right.

July 20, 2016 at 10:00 AM UTC

By Eli Lake

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari is delivering a mixed message.
Photographer: YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images

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On the eve of a major donor's conference in Washington, Iraq's foreign minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, would like Americans to know a few things about his country.

First, Iraqis are not a sectarian people: "Coexistence is a culture that lives in Iraq." Second, Iraqis of all backgrounds suffered equally under Saddam Hussein. (Never mind what those Kurds over there might tell you.) And finally, there are no Americans fighting the Islamic State today on Iraqi soil.