Level up

Dr Ali Abdel Aziz al-Yasiri, director general of the National Centre for Joint Planning and head of the CBRN Team Development Team in Iraq talks to Gwyn Winfield about taking Iraq’s CBRN to the next level

GW: What is the role of the joint planning centre for the national security advisory in Iraq and how does it fit into CBRN defence? AY: The centre’s role is to build security strategies and policies at national level, as well as national plans and contexts to deal with challenges, threats and interests. In short, it is the driving force for Iraq’s national security. The centre’s responsibilities are for preparing Iraq’s national chemical security strategy, its national policy for the transport of hazardous substances, the national report on the level of preparedness of the authorities concerned with handling CBRN accidents, and the requirements for supporting and developing the national CBRN response teams. In addition to all this it also works on Iraq’s national strategy to counter threats from WMD in the country, and the mechanism and controls for issuing import licenses for chemical and dual use materials and hazmat, and liaising with the end user. The centre accomplishes all of the above through the organisation and coordination of national

The National Centre for Planning's responsibilities are for preparing Iraq's national chemical security strategy ©Civil Defence

authorities and the adoption of state and national standards. Everything was approved in accordance with the decisions of the national security council - the highest security authority in Iraq.

GW: What agencies are in the joint planning centre, and how do you ensure that they all ‘pull’ in the same direction to achieve the centre’s goals? AY: The centre has full control and powers to coordinate and deal with all responsible agencies, or those that deal with the requirements to respond to a CBRN incidents. We help build their capability and plan their leadership and coordination work with them. The various bodies that have provided representatives to work within the control of the centre include the prime minister’s office’s national operations centre, and no fewer than 13 departments of state. The latter comprise the ministries of foreign affairs; defence; the interior; finance; planning; oil; trade; transport; industry and minerals; agriculture; higher education and scientific research; science and technology; and health and environment. In addition to these, there are further representatives working within the control of the centre from the border ports authority; the counter-terrorism service; the Iraqi national intelligence service; the Iraqi national security service; the Iraqi commission for the control of radioactive sources; the Iraqi chemists syndicate and finally the private sector.

GW: How are you looking to get increased buy-in to the centre? How are you intending to improve this? AY: We look forward to developing our work through developing skills, training, and knowledge about international experiences. In addition, we have significant coordination with organisations and countries that can provide the aforementioned services and further develop the Iraqi national authorities, raise their capabilities and modernise their equipment to meet these challenges.

GW: What are the centre’s priorities? What tools and staff have been given to you to enable you to meet them? AY: Our priorities are to complete the building of the command and control system, build national policies and plans to organise work, coordinate efforts, develop institutions, officers, employees, and even society in general to deal with various circumstances, challenges and risks. The risks we are dealing with relate to the need to combat terrorism, outlaws and organised crime so that we can achieve the highest level of national security for our citizens and homeland, and help to strengthen security and international peace. To achieve this we have our official authority and the successes made by our employees and partners towards our goals, along with the great confidence that partners give us!

GW: What is the centre’s role in crisis coordination? What has been achieved in the past few years on this topic? AY: The centre sets plans and policies, and provides advice on the near, medium and long term goals. In the past few years we have made great progress on preparing the national policy for transporting dangerous materials in Iraq, the initial work on the national report on the level of preparedness of the authorities concerned with handling CBRN incidents and the requirements for supporting and developing the CBRN national response teams. In addition we have completed preparations for the national strategy to confront WMD threats in Iraq and completed the preparatory work for our national strategy for chemical security.

Preparatory work is now finished on the mechanism and controls for issuing import licenses for chemical, dual use and hazardous materials, and following up on the end user. We have also contributed to developing contexts and opportunities for training and skills development and building contexts of coordination and joint action between national partners. Finally, we have encouraged various entities and agencies to work, participate and cooperate with each other.

GW: This is the fifth iteration of the Iraq CBRN Safety and Security Conference. What have been the successes in this time? How has capability improved? AY: The University of Babylon has been making distinguished efforts in the field of CBRN and has organised this annual gathering, which attracts national and international CBRN experts. At the end of each conference a list of important recommendations is prepared and sent sent to our department, and elsewhere, and we carefully follow the recommendations and implement them. The most important thing to have been achieved during these conferences has been presenting the challenges facing Iraq as regards safety and security in all sincerity and transparency, and to ask friends and international organisations to help overcome them. I believe we have made many achievements in this field, and look forward to more support in the future.

GW: What impact has Covid had on appreciation of CBRN threats in Iraq? Have CBRN concepts, decontamination/safe undressing etc, appeared in a response to an emerging infectious disease? AY: Yes. Advice was provided to the authorities responsible for dealing with these risks. So we sent information to the prime minister’s office, and the ministries of finance, planning, oil, health and environment, and labour and social affairs. GW: How important are international institutions to achieving better CBRN safety and security in Iraq? What would be the most important thing for an agency new to Iraq to understand? AY: The importance of international institutions in this field lies in providing support for quite a lengthy list of activities. These include capacity development, training, regional and international participation and coordination, exchange of experiences and information. The rehabilitation of leaders and those responsible for challenging areas, reducing accidents and strengthening laboratories and border crossings also rate highly among our priorities.

GW: Iraq has a strong petrochemical industry, which requires access to some dangerous chemicals. How do you balance ensuring industry can obtain these chemicals and support a strong economy with the need for safety and security? AY: We have set a national policy for the transport and protection of dangerous materials, and this helps in addressing this challenge. Iraq will continue to develop its capabilities in this area.

GW: What do you see as the challenges that the centre will be facing in the next two to three years and how are you orientating yourself to meet them? AY: The most important challenges facing our strategic planning and decision-making centres are threefold. Firstly, there are the external challenges in the emergence of new forms of terrorism with new names and new tools of terrorism. Secondly it is quite likely that financial and health crises that may weaken the funding of projects that support our efforts and training and technical activities both inside and outside Iraq. And finally, fluctuations in the political process may affect some policies and priorities.

There are three challenges facing Dr al-Yasiri's strategic planning and decision-making ©Civil Defence