Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. before Febuary 2nd 2006

راقيةIRAQI MINISTER expresses the hope of attracting Number Gulf for the development of Iraqi Industries

لندن.London-1-22 (KUNA) -- Egyptian Minister of Industry and Mining Iraqi Fawzi Hariri here today, the great importance of their sector in the development of the Iraqi economy, and expressed his hope to attract Arab and Gulf investments to develop industries, especially the Iraqi from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Oman.
.Hariri, visiting Britain is currently heading a delegation of 10 figures to discuss how to develop industrial and mining sources Iraqi with senior British officials concerned.

وقال والمنسوجات.The minister said the visitor briefly to reporters at the headquarters of the British Foreign Ministry, despite the deteriorating security situation in his country, but there are 230 factories working in Iraq now in areas including engineering, oil derivatives and pharmaceutical industries and textiles.

.He expressed the hope that the Iraqi industry program to allocate future with the move Iraq towards a market economy and privatization, stressing the need for detailed program in stages to revive Iraqi industries to become more productive and competitive to be able to start programs and the allocation of the state monopoly industries.

.It was attended by minister Hariri and members of the delegation accompanying him to London Airport from Washington, where he held talks with American officials and international companies specialized in industrial areas with a view to cooperation agreements with Iraq is the same objective of the visit to Britain.

.In response to a question by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) Iraqi minister said that talks were underway with a number of Egyptian and Gulf investors to cooperate with Iraq in the fields of industry and minerals.

مستقبلا.He is scheduled to witness the next month, a panel discussion was held with a number of Arab and Gulf investors to discuss cooperation and joint investment to assist Iraq in the future.

كما .He also expressed the hope that in the Gulf region play a role to help developing Iraqi industries including attracting investments from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Oman.

وكالة الأنباء الكويتية (كونا)- صÙ�Ø*Ø© الخبر - وزير عراقي يعرب عن امله Ù�ÙŠ اجتذاب استثمارت خليجية ...22/01/2007

1. Rockefeller: Iraq drains security funds
Rockefeller: Iraq drains security funds - Yahoo! News

2. Republican opposition to Iraq plan grows
Republican opposition to Iraq plan grows - Yahoo! News

3. Key GOP senator opposes Bush's Iraq plan
Key GOP senator opposes Bush's Iraq plan - CNN.com

4. U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit 3,061
U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit 3,061 - Yahoo! News

5. More senators disagree with Bush's Iraq plan
More senators disagree with Bush's Iraq plan - Yahoo! News

6. Tony Snow Previews 'State of Union' Speech -- And Says Iraq May Not Be Most Important Issue Facing U.S.
Tony Snow Previews 'State of Union' Speech -- And Says Iraq May Not Be Most Important Issue Facing U.S. - Yahoo! News

7. Zawahri taunts Bush over Iraq troops plan
Zawahri taunts Bush over Iraq troops plan - Yahoo! News

8. Va. senator criticizes Iraq spending
Va. senator criticizes Iraq spending - Yahoo! News

9. Iraq Qaeda cell planned new attack in US
Iraq Qaeda cell planned new attack in US - Yahoo! News

10. US 'copter in Iraq possibly shot down: US official
US 'copter in Iraq possibly shot down: US official - Yahoo! News

does anybody have a transcript or video stream of repentant GWB's speech, or a link for that? i have only seen some nice quotes from articles but finding it hard to locate the complete item... love 2 see it.

please if you do, post the link, mayb others would also like to see. if they are non U.S and dont have cable TV might have missed it. it affects all of Earth what this man does, or can do, if we let it, so i would like to see some honesty in Politics (finally!), for a decent length of time tho, not just 1 speech... still could be a good start.

this will go a long way to reducing syria/iran/US tensions, take the wind out of the sails of all this needless hatred. this will directly affect the motivation of those sending in extermists to bomb selves and cars in Baghdad. hopefully we wont hear traditional GWB style 'axis of evil' type playground name calling again... just winds em doesnt it?

anyways, as ive heard anyway, Heaven has run out of Virgins. they all came to Earth to be part of this great awakening, and of course, lose their Virginity in the process.

Iraq to neighbors: Butt out
Posted on : Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:24:01 GMT | Author : World News Editor
News Category : World

New ( News Alerts by Email click here )


BAGHDAD, Jan. 22 The Iraqi government has called on its neighbors, mainly Turkey, to stop trying to intervene in Iraq's internal affairs.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh, said some regional countries have been hosting meetings and conferences that promote wrong messages intended to foment discords in Iraq and deepen the divide among the Iraqis.Al-Dabbagh warned the Baghdad government has considered cutting off diplomatic ties with those countries who host gatherings to promote political ideas against Iraqi legislative authorities, the Kuwait News Agency reported Monday.


The Iraqi government has taken steps to maintain good relations with its neighbors, such outlawing the anti-Turkish Kurdish group, the Labor Party of Kurdistan, and the Iranian opposition, Mujahedeen Khalq, the report said.


Copyright 2007 by UPI

Energy crisis threatens Kurdistan investment
Investors in Iraqi Kurdistan say escalating fuel costs are trying their patience.

By Fazil Najeeb in Erbil for IWPR (22/01/07)


Since the fall of the Saddam, foreign investors have flocked to Kurdistan and Iraq’s northern provinces thanks to the north’s relative safety - but business development even in these relatively safe parts of the country is fraught with problems.

Like other parts of the country, foreign and Iraqi investors alike are plagued by power outages. State energy plants only provide electricity for a few hours per day - even in Kurdistan’s capital, Erbil - and shortages force business to buy expensive fuel-powered generators.

But the problems do not end there because fuel is itself in short supply and rising demand means that it has become prohibitively expensive.

Some investors warn they will lose profits and be forced to leave Kurdistan if power cuts persist and fuel prices continue to rise.

Zewar Alknach, head of a Kurdish branch of a Turkish construction company known as Renas, said generator fuel for their three offices and a construction site comes to more than US$5000 a month. The government, he complained, should grant subsidies for such costs.

Yassein Sheikh Qadir, owner of another construction company based in Erbil, warns that if the energy crisis continues there may be little point in doing business in the area.

"Building costs have already increased 20 percent due to high fuel prices,” he said. “If they […] increase further, we will reach a stage where construction is not profitable anymore."

Qadir said profit from a current project was already less than he expected, though he was not prepared to say what this amounted to.

In Erbil, the government currently provides electricity for a maximum three hours per day. Some days, it goes down to two and on others there’s none at all.

Escalating energy prices have affected the local economy in myriad ways - one of the main causes of concern is that it drives inflation, which in turn impacts on the cost of living, even the price for basic goods like flour is affected.

Aso Yassein, owner of Sebar, a company that imports flour from Turkey to Kurdistan, said up until the end of 2005, it used to cost four dollars per tonne for the trip from Zakho at the Turkish-Iraqi border to Erbil. "Now it costs us 12 dollars," he said.

The fuel crisis here dates back to 1991, when the autonomous Kurdish region was established and Iraq’s central government stopped supplying energy. Prior to this, Kurdistan enjoyed a relatively stable power supply, thanks to a small population and limited demand.

Following the fall of Saddam regime in 2003, the region has witnessed an economic boom. Demand for power has increased and has become a serious threat to local economic growth.

Officials say one of the main reasons for the fuel shortage is instability in Iraqi areas that supply Kurdish region with fuel. Kawa Abdulla, head of Sulaimaniyah City Council, said that tankers are constantly attacked and oil pipelines blown up by insurgents.

To solve this problem, said Abdulla, the Iraqi government imports fuel from Turkey and the Kurdish government does so from Iran. But he warned that there were no guarantees that supplies would continue or that they will be sufficient.

"There could be shortages at any time,” said Abdulla, "because there’s no major solution to the problem, like the construction of refineries.”

For Alknach, the Kurdistan business sector would improve if it enjoyed the same investment laws that exist in Turkey, where, he said, the government compensates companies when fuel prices rise; an important reassurance for investors.

"So far there is no such a law in Kurdistan and this worries us," said Alknach.

Nooradin Hamid, general manager of Erbil Fuel Distribution, maintained that the regional government does not plan to reimburse companies for higher energy costs.

"When they [the companies] sign a contract, they have to take into consideration that fuel prices might rise,” he said.

Until the beginning of 2006, the regional government did allocate fuel to private companies in order to foster investment.

"But now, as we ourselves suffer from a fuel crisis, we do not help them,” said Hamid.

Alknach says he is close to giving up on the region.

"When a liter of diesel costs one dollar, all of our projects will lose,” he said. “And we will be obliged to leave Kurdistan

Iraq to refrain from increasing oil exports: minister


BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq will not increase oil exports in support of fellow OPEC member states which want to underpin world crude prices, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said on Sunday.

"We do not want to dump crude on to the market while it is suffering from surplus production because we are keen to maintain world prices," he told a press conference in Baghdad.

"Iraq is now able to increase exports to 1.9 million barrels per day from the previous level of 1.6 million per day," Shahristani said, as a result of the installation of modern metering equipment at an export terminal in the southern city of Basra. But he added: "We will not insist on exporting that quantity in solidarity with OPEC."

Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the country was exporting around 3.5 million barrels per day under a UN-supervised oil-for-food program.

Iraq is a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries but its production has not been included in official OPEC output quotas since the UN imposed sanctions for its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

On Friday, world oil prices rebounded from a plunge below 50 dollars a barrel after a U.S. government report showed a bigger-than-expected rise in American inventories of crude oil.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi had said Tuesday there was no need for an emergency OPEC meeting to discuss a possible output cut since the situation in the crude oil market was "healthy".

Iraq's estimated reserves of crude oil amount to 115 billion barrels, the third largest worldwide behind Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Jordan and Syria Refuse to Accept Iraqi Refugees
16:12 Jan 22, '07 / 3 Shevat 5767
by Ezra HaLevi


Arabs forcibly expelled from their homes in Iraq are stranded in a no-man's land as both Syria and Jordan refuse to accept them.



The Arabs, to whom the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) refers as Palestinian refugees, were forced out of Iraq by rival militias. They are 735 people living in two tent camps called the Al-Hol and Al-Tanaf camps

Almost 150 people have been living for over three years in the Al-Ruweished refugee camp on Jordan’s border.

Most are far younger than the State of Israel. Even so, their status as descendants of Arabs who left or were transferred from the fledgling Jewish state during the War of Independence has seen them labeled "Palestinian refugees" by aid organizations and the Arab states that refuse to rehabilitate them.

Despite the fact that these Arabs were just recently expelled by fellow Arabs and denied entry or aid by the Arab regimes bordering their camps, the UN, as well as NGOs writing about their plight, focus on their status as Palestinian refugees.

“Largely as a consequence of their expulsion from their own homeland by Zionists upon the imposition of the state of Israel in 1948, about thirty-four thousand Palestinian refugees lived in Iraq,” writes an organization called al-Awda, which works to win return for Arabs who left Israel and all of their descendents and relatives. “According to the UNHCR, a total of about 19,000 Palestinians have left Iraq since 2003, and only 15,000 remain.”

In the years following the War of Independence, more than 600,000 Jews were forcibly evicted from Arab countries. Israel accepted the Jewish refugees, gave them citizenship and rehabilitated them.

The Syrian and Jordanian US embassies can be emailed at:
Syria: "[email protected]"
Jordan: "[email protected]"

Iraq seeks help from Corus


Mark Milner
Tuesday January 23, 2007
The Guardian


Anglo-Dutch steel-maker, Corus, has been approached by the Iraqi government to help reopen an iron and steel plant in Basra.
Corus officials have met Iraqi industry minister, Fawzi Hariri, who is visiting London as part of a trade delegation seeking international partners for state-owned enterprises. "They were trying to find out what we need. We also listened to what they offered. We are looking at another meeting later on this week to discuss further details," Mr Hariri said, describing initial discussions as "positive".

Corus, at the centre of a near-£6bn bid battle between India's Tata Steel and Brazil's CSN, responded cautiously, saying that it routinely met trade delegations visiting the UK. The Basra plant is out of action and Mr Hariri estimated that it would cost around £75m to restore production. "All the major steel structures, and the mills and ovens, are intact," he said. "The system controls were damaged or looted, which we will need to rebuild."

The Basra plant was built in the 1970s and would be able to produce around 400,000 tonnes a year. A new plant is also being considered to increase capacity to 1m tonnes. Mr Hariri said Iraq was looking to rebuild state-owned companies in the construction, engineering, petrochemicals, food, pharmaceutical and textile sectors with a view to privatisation. However it was not considering selling oil wells or oil infrastructure projects.

Goooooooooooooooood Morning RolClub

My last post was on the 10th of January. I'm glad to see things coming back together on the forum, I must admit I missed being here. What I've done is compile all the info from the auctions from the 10th until today and update the statistics to bring everything current. It's exciting to see the number of dinars pulled from circulation approaching 4 trillion just since Oct 1st. Remember, SGS and Michael 16 have researched this even further (perhaps back to as early as May of last year, and they believe the totals are closer to 5 trillion). Soooooooooo these are the current numbers.


(Auction Monday 1/22/07)
Number of banks 16 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1298 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1296 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 104.240.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 3.540.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 104.240.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 3.540.000 -----


1. A 2 point change in the dinar today. Was 1300, now 1298

2. A (net) worth of dinars, (IQD - 755,357,585,000) pulled out of circulation from Jan 11th until today, 1/22/07

3. 16 banks participating today

4. 66th auction since the beginning of CBI's reval plan

5. 114 days into the CBI's reval plan.

6. 3,716,728,655,000 dinars pulled from circulation !!

7. 4,471,899,840 Dinars back into circulation today !!

8. 179 dinar change since Oct 1st (baseline was 1477) 12.119% increase in value of the dinar since beginning of reval plan (Approximatly Oct 1st).

9. 2 point reduction in the rate so far this week. Was at 1300 at the end of last week, 1298 this week.

10. 27 point drop so far in the month of Jan. Ended at 1325 in Dec, now stands at 1298

Welcome back Socata. We look forward to your daily post and we have missed you.
Cheers kaz