The Directorate for Mine Action organized the fourth meeting of focal points of the state ministries and United Nations agencies to follow up the implementation of Iraq's obligations towards Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention (National Forum) in the capital, Baghdad.

From his part, the Director General of DMA, Eng. Dhafir Mahmood Khallaf, said that the fourth meeting, which was attended by representatives of the Office of Prime Minister, the General Secretariat of the Ministers Council, and the ministries (Foreign Affairs, Defense, Interior, Oil, Finance, Planning, Trade, Industry) and representatives from the governorates (Wassit, Basra, Muthanna, Maysan, Diyala) and its environment directorates, as well as the Media and Communications Commission, the National Security Advisory, the Military Industrialization Authority, and the Popular Mobilization Authority, where this meeting was held based on the decisions of previous meetings related to APMBC (Ottawa) calling for the establishment of a supportive platform for implementing the terms of convention, where DMA established (the National Forum) with the participation of all national authorities represented by the ministries supporting the National Mine Action Program in Iraq, as well as the beneficiaries from land clearance operations from those mines.

Mahmoud added that during the meeting, it was taken many decisions, including the continuous communication with governmental agencies for the purpose of concerted efforts towards Iraq free of mines by providing the fund to the national bodies to advance this national responsibility towards the international community, as well as defining the responsibilities of all parties participating in the national forum and work to implement it in a way that supports Iraq’s obligations towards the convention, as well as informing the representatives of all ministries on the report of Article VII (transparency report) of APMBC.

It is noteworthy that Iraq joined the Anti-personnel Mine Ban, known as Ottawa Convention, in 2007, and thus became a 155th member of it. Under this convention, where Iraq will have to get rid of all these mines by 2028.