ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Middle East Research Institute (MERI) on Tuesday held its annual forum in Erbil. The two-day event brings together local and international policymakers and academics to discuss the latest developments in the region.
MERI President Dlawer Ala'Aldeen told Rudaw's Hiwa Jamal ahead of the forum that bringing together all the leaders who are expected to speak at the event was not easy work, adding that the forum intends to "provide clarity to people regarding analysis of events that occurred in the past year and what's coming in the future.”
He added that every year “influential people at the level of decision-makers, researchers, and thinkers have participated in increasingly large numbers. Our programs also reflect this history and future along with these people and the content of our discussions."
Among the key speakers of the event are Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, Kurdistan Region Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK) leader Bafel Talabani as well as several Iraqi leaders and international policymakers.
The event takes place just days after campaigning for Iraq’s legislative elections. Ala'Aldeen said they did not want to do it at this time.
"We didn't want to do it during election campaigning time. Our forums are every year in October… Our politicians have created a governance system where we have two elections in four years and we don't know when it will be our time [to host the forum],” he said.
“When they decided it would be at this time, we fell into campaigning, and it couldn't be done earlier or later. But what we've done before is try to prevent politicians from using the forum for campaigning. We discuss viewpoints, strategy and governance policy and try to distance them from going too much into election campaigning,” he added.
The legislative elections are scheduled to take place on November 11.