You have to cross a total of four checkpoints before you reach the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad. Such security measures are necessary. An attack in 2009 resulted in the deaths of a hundred people. For its latest issue, SPIEGEL traveled to the Iraqi capital to meet with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari to discuss the current developments in the country. Zebari, 61, has extensive experience with political violence. During the 1980s, he fought as a member of the Kurdish Peshmerga against dictator Saddam Hussein. He has served as foreign minister of Iraq since 2003.
ANZEIGE
SPIEGEL: Mr. Minister, are we witnessing the end of the state of Iraq?
Zebari: I don't think that Iraq will disappear as a nation, simply because the communities of this country need a sort of federation to keep living together. Even before this latest crisis, we heard voices from Basra to Mosul to Ramadi calling for federal regions empowered to develop and recover their resources without intervention from the dominant, even authoritarian, centralized state. Five or ten years ago, it was taboo even to mention the word "federalism" in my talks with some Iraqi leaders and with my Arab League colleagues. Today federalism is accepted: Yemen has declared itself a federation, the United Arab Emirates are a federation.
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