Daesh still controls the city, its outskirts and territories to the North and to the West of the city. According to the experts, political reforms should be implemented for Mosul and the whole region to help it heal from the devastating effect of Daesh's presence in the country.
Necessary Steps
"As far as Iraq is concerned Baghdad will have to find a way to recalibrate the political system — both locally in Mosul but also at the national level to ensure all the country's ethnic and sectarian constituencies are properly represented," Alison Pargeter, senior research fellow at the UK Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told Sputnik.
The country's Sunnis have been complaining about Shia dominance in the country's political system particularly with southern Iraq and the capital Baghdad being mostly Shiite-populated.
"One of the reasons why ISIS [Daesh] was able to expand in 2014 was that it could play on the grievances of Iraqi Sunnis who had been marginalized by the sectarian policies of Nouri Maliki [former Iraqi Prime Minister]. Indeed Iraq has to find a way to move beyond sectarian and ethnic politics if it is to succeed as a unified state," Pargeter said.
Mehdi Dehnavi, global security analyst with IndraStra Global think tank, told Sputnik that the existing political situation in Iraq is favorable for Daesh.
"Iraq will certainly defeat the Islamic State, but in the military field. But we should not forget that ISIS is a way of thinking, as long as democratic values are not in place, there is a possibility of growth and further rising of the Islamic State [Daesh]," Dehnavi said.
Daesh Out of Iraq
"I think ISIS will be forced out of Iraq and will lose the territory it controls there by the end of 2017. Although the fight will be hard, Iraqi forces are advancing faster than expected in the Mosul operation," Pargeter said.
The success and the pace of advancement in Mosul have raised talks on liberation of Syria's Raqqah.
"Overall, regional countries must work together, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia and the United States to win the fight," Dehnavi said, noting that any help from Western powers to terrorist groups should be cut immediately.
Alison Pargeter noted, however, that even with Daesh militants driven out of Iraq, the terrorist threat will still remain.
"ISIS is unlikely to be wiped out of Iraq entirely. The group's remnants are likely to engage in more guerrilla style tactics, launching attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere," Pargeter said.
