Thread: Iraq/Dinar News to April 19, 2007 10PM CST

Newspaper : Kuwait is considering with Iraq and gas imports
Source : Reuters-17 / 04 / 2007

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas published on Tuesday that the technical committee of the Higher Kuwaiti-Iraqi oil cooperation held a meeting on Monday to discuss Iraqi plans to buy natural gas and Kuwait may begin to receive imports of gas before the end of the year.

Kuwait had agreed to buy up to 200 million cubic feet of gas daily to the Iraqi phases to meet its growing energy needs. The total volume of imports in the first phase of 25 million cubic feet.

The plan has been postponed because of political instability in Iraq and the reform of the two pipelines.

An Abbas pure, undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil of interaction spread "for the first phase of importing gas .. There are no technical obstacles prevent the full completion of the remaining obstacles, however, limited the pace of reform in the pipeline, but will be very limited overcome in the near future. "

Pure and chairs the Kuwaiti side in the talks with Iraq. He continued that the committee would hold another meeting after three months for further talks.

He did not rule out the possibility of exporting gas Iraqi before the end of the year if the talks made progress.

<Me. B> looks to play a role in Iraq and to see the oil
Source : statement UAE-17 / 04 / 2007

An official of a prominent executive at me. Bi oil giant said that the company is interested in working on a series of oil and gas projects in Iraq, but was awaiting confirmation by the Parliament of the Law on Oil and the security situation improves before enhance its role there. The international companies competing for a foothold in Iraq looking to share profitably in the future of the country's oil.

, Includes Iraq's third largest oil reserves in the world and needs billions of dollars to invest in increased production and renewal of infrastructure obsolete. Said Steve Peacock Chairman of the Joint exploration and production in the Middle East at the end of the matter, the areas where we will participate laid down in Iraq ... I believe that we can help in all areas of the discovered fields and non-developed or in prospect.

It is expected the draft law adopted by the government last February parliamentary ratification. Peacock said that it will take some time after the ratification of the law to negotiate contracts and to send me. Bi people to work in Iraq because of the security situation in the country. He added the actual situation on the ground ... It may be something that takes a longer time. He went on to say that to me. Bi is also awaiting confirmation that a contract agreement would not be affected by a change in government.

He said that to me. Bi has been providing assistance to the Iraqi oil company in the south near the Rumaila field. And up North and South Rumaila been developed and already partially operational productivity potential of about 500 thousand barrels per day. He went on to say that the company is not looking to participate in the Kurdish area in northern Iraq until the ratification of the law despite the fact that the security situation in the region better than in the rest of the country. The company said Dana Gas Emirates on Sunday that it had signed agreements with the government of the Kurdish region to study the development of gas reserves there.

The report .. Annual inflation index rises in Iraq during the year by 36% 6 R.
Source : KUNA-17 / 04 / 2007
She said the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation of Iraq that the annual inflation index rose in one year (from March 2006 to March) by 6 t 36%.

Stated in the report that the monthly indicator of inflation also rose last March by 3 per 1%, a record that reflects the prices of goods and services provided to the consumer.

The report was prepared in the Central Agency for Statistics and Information Technology at the ministry on the basis of data collection in the field on the prices of goods and services components of the basket of consumer retail prices in selected markets in Baghdad and other governorates.

The report said that the rise was the outcome of the high index of food and clothes, fabrics, footwear, furniture, transport, communications and medical services and medicines, rent, which is spending by 4 t 94% of the total domestic consumer spending.

Iraq deaths overshadow Sunni-Shiite talks


18 April 2007


Iraq's government is holding talks with some insurgent groups, including members of the former regime, as part of a reconciliation plan, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Tuesday, as at least 58 people were killed or found dead. The latest violence came amid claims by a top Iraqi insurgent leader that his Al-Qaeda-linked group had begun manufacturing its own rockets.

Maliki did not name the groups with which his government is in contact, but predicted that when an Iraq conference is held in Egypt early next month, "we will have good chances for reconciliation."

"We are having meetings with groups that are not part of the political process ... They asked us not to reveal their names," Maliki told reporters at his office in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. "The talks are still going and they are part of the national reconciliation."

Maliki announced a 24-point national reconciliation program in June that offers amnesty to members of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency who were not involved in "terrorist activities," and amends a law that removed senior members of Saddam's Baath Party from their jobs.

"Some groups that were involved with the [Saddam] regime are talking with us now," Maliki said Tuesday.

Last week, President Jalal Talabani said five insurgent groups have expressed readiness to join the political process, and negotiations with them have reached final stages. Talabani also did not give their names - "because we are still negotiating," he said.

There are many insurgent groups in Iraq, most of them Sunni. Among the well-known groups are the 1920 Revolution Brigades, the Mohammad Army and the Islamic State of Iraq - an umbrella group for eight other militant factions, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The security conference is to include ministers from Iraq's neighboring countries, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and several other industrialized nations.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday it was still too early to decide on whether Iran would take part in the conference, an AFP correspondent reported.

Mottaki arrived in Damascus, where he met with President Bashar Assad and his Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem, Iranian sources said.

Mottaki flew from Ankara, where he also held talks about the forthcoming conference on Iraq, officials said. Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency reported that Iran has relayed its reservations to Turkey about attending the Iraq talks, but did not say what the reservations were. The agency, citing unidentified Turkish diplomats, said Iran was disturbed that the conference had been expanded to include several other countries and not only neighbors of Iraq.

In separate attempts to ease sectarian tensions, a group of senior Sunni clerics visited Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, in the holy city of Najaf. They emerged from the meeting to say that followers of the two sects were "brothers."

Iraq's Sunni mufti, Sheikh Jamaleddine al-Dabban, said Sistani sent his regards to all Sunni scholars in the country.

"Everybody's aim is to extinguish the fire of strife in our country. This is our call to everyone," said Sheikh Mohammad Talabani, head of the Clerics Association in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Sunni clerics have frequently visited Sistani in the past. They also visited three other top Shiite clerics in Najaf.

In a sign that Shiite death squads are on the move again after more than two months of quiescence, 25 bodies, most tortured, were found dumped in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Police in Ramadi uncovered 17 decomposing corpses buried beneath two school yards in a district of the Anbar provincial capital that had until recently been under the control of Al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters.

At least 16 people were killed, among them a senior police officer and a child, in a range of attacks across Iraq on Tuesday, security officials said.

On Monday, hard-line Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his six Cabinet ministers to quit the government.

Maliki said the withdrawal of the ministers had not weakened his government, and he would name technocrats to replace them soon.

Maliki praised Sadr for asking him to choose the ministers, saying the move "give us more freedom in choosing."

"In the near future, the names of the ministers will be announced ... from the independents, technocrats and those who believe in a new Iraq," Maliki said.

He said the appointment of technocrats would help the government "escape from [sectarian] quotas."

Senior Shiite lawmaker Haider al-Ebadi said that the prime minister would present candidates for the vacant posts, which include the health and transport ministries, to Parliament by next week.

In an Internet message a voice said to be that of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State of Iraq, which is linked to Al-Qaeda, said the group has "entered the military manufacturing stage with a high level of range and accuracy."

Baghdadi said the rockets were called Al-Quds 1, after the Arabic word for Jerusalem.

Separately, Baghdadi's group posted a Web statement Tuesday saying its religious court issued a verdict to execute 20 kidnapped Iraqi soldiers.

But there were no reports of any Iraqi troops missing, and an Interior Ministry official said Tuesday that all troops were accounted for.

Separately, a top Iraqi military spokesman said 30 containers of nitric acid were found in a raid in Baghdad's central Karradah district last Thursday.

Brigadier General Qassem al-Moussawi said no one was arrested and authorities were still investigating who owned the house where the chemical was found. - Agencies


Article originally published by The Daily Star 18-Apr-07

Published: 18/04/2007 12:00 AM (UAE)

UAE tries to end revaluation talk
Reuters



Abu Dhabi: The UAE moved yesterday to quash speculation about a currency revaluation, saying Gulf Arab rulers had agreed to keep exchange rates pegged to the dollar and that it would not change policy unilaterally.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and four other oil producers of the Gulf Cooperation Council pegged their currencies to the dollar to prepare for monetary union in 2010.

With that deadline increasingly in doubt, markets have been piling pressure on the UAE dirham and Kuwait's dinar, betting that central banks will allow them to appreciate against the dollar, which touched a two-year low against the euro last week.

"There was consensus among the governors and among the rulers to keep the peg and there is no undoing of that decision," Sultan Nasser Al Suwaidi, UAE Central Bank governor, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi.

"We have to go along with other Gulf Cooperation Council countries in all issues including monetary policy," he said. "Nothing will be done unilaterally."

The dirham, one of two candidates for a revaluation according to a Reuters poll last month, fell to 3.6728 from 3.6721 against the dollar after his remarks.

Momentum

Speculation about Gulf currency revaluations gathered momentum after Oman said last year it had decided not to meet the 2010 deadline for monetary union.

Gulf central bankers met in Saudi Arabia this month to hammer out a deal to put the currency union plan back on track, but failed to achieve a breakthrough.

The governors appeared to be divided on currency policy with Oman's central bank chief telling Reuters after the meeting that any agreement to maintain pegs to the dollar was purely informal.

Kuwait, considered the most likely country to revalue in the Reuters poll, has said it may widen the band in which the dinar trades against the US dollar or move to a basket of currencies to contain inflation.

Kuwait's official news agency appeared to be building a case for a revaluation when it blamed the dinar's peg to the dollar for rising inflation on Monday.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar have ruled out any changes to their dollar pegs.

A Crude Look at Iraq’s Wealth



Henry Thompson



Iraq is a wealthy country and every Iraqi is a present value millionaire. Wealth in the world is shifting toward owners of crude oil making Iraqis wealthy.



Over the next two decades, total world energy consumption will almost double. Serious alternatives to oil energy are decades away requiring a doubling in the underlying price of crude oil. In the US, oil consumption is expanding, oil production is declining, and imports are climbing. Oil prices and the energy share of GDP will certainly increase over the next 50 years.



The energy bill will have to be paid with profits going to the owners of energy resources, not the oil companies. Owners of the oil reserves will profit as the price of oil rises due to increasing scarcity. Oil extraction and refining are very competitive with profits slightly higher than the average industry but with higher than average risk.



The price of a barrel of crude oil now ranges up to $70 with extraction cost in the Middle East $2. The owners of the oil get the difference. Extraction costs are rising but much slower than the price of oil.



The Arab Gulf has 65% of the world’s proven oil reserves. Iraq has 360 billion barrels of potential reserves, and 12% of the world proven reserves. Oil in the ground is like money in the bank making Iraqis wealthy.



Iraq can easily produce 6 million barrels of oil a day or 2 billion barrels per year out of its working oil fields. At $50 per barrel, that oil would sell for $100 billion. The population of Iraq is 24 million and that oil income translates to $4000 per capita per year.



For some crude conservative idea of the wealth if Iraq, suppose Iraq sells 1/4 of its potential reserves at an average price of $50 per barrel over the next 20 years. That would generate 90 billion x $50 = $4.5 trillion. If the population of Iraq grows to 30 million, that would be $150,000 per capita for 20 years, or $7,500 annual per capita income.



Estimated productive assets in the US according to the World Bank are $60,000 per capita, and in the world $5,000 per capita. If Iraq invests only 1/4 of its oil revenue for the next 20 years, it would match current US productive assets per capita.



The total value of Iraq potential oil reserves at an average profit of $75 per barrel over next 100 years would be 360 billion x $75 = $27 trillion or $900,000 per capita, making every Iraqi a millionaire. These calculations do not include natural gas revenue, lately about equal to oil revenue for producing fields.



In the entire Arab or Persian Gulf, proven oil reserves are 195 trillion barrels. Selling this at an average profit of $75 per barrel over the next 100 years would generate $15,000 trillion income. If half of that is invested, it would amount to $7,500 trillion or ¼ of the present total productive assets in world.



Iraq is a wealthy country.

President Masoud Barzani: Failure to implement Article 140 could spell disaster
18 April 2007 (Kurdistan TV)


A conference focusing on the forces of democracy in Iraq was held in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, on Tuesday. At the conference, President Masoud Barzani gave a speech in which he stressed that democracy is Kurdistan’s main concern. The Kurds are renown for their tolerance, ability to co-exist with others, and acceptance of other points of view. The Kurds have always respected human rights, in particular women’s issues.
President Barzani stated that any forced unification or division would fail just like the former Czechoslovakia and Germany. He reiterated, “We don’t threaten to interfere in the affairs of other countries and we don’t expect other countries to threaten us.”
President Barzani said the Kurds wanted no part in the current religious and ethnic disputes, adding that they have always regarded themselves as part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem. The president also reiterated that Kurds would never be party to any kind of division of states.
The president continued, “We are not saying Kirkuk should be exclusively for the Kurds, but it is an Iraqi city with a Kurdish identity and all historical facts confirm this. The Kirkuk question is an Iraqi issue and no foreign country has the right interfere. Failure to reach a consensus on Article 140 would spell disaster.” The president extended a hand of friendship to all countries and factions on the basis of mutual respect and common interests.”

President Masoud Barzani: Failure to implement Article 140 could spell disaster | Iraq Updates

Syria renews condemnation of terrorist acts in Iraq, Minister Bilal stresses
DAMASCUS, 18 April 2007 (SANA)


Minister of Information Muhsen Bilal on Monday renewed Syria's condemnation of terrorist acts which target Iraqi civilians, stressing that Syria stands by Iraq's unity and territorial integrity, Iraqi people reconciliation and the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
"We reiterate Syria's commitment to achieve the just and comprehensive peace in the region according to international relevant resolutions, Madrid Conference and the Arab peace initiative," Minister Bilal said in a press conference on the forthcoming 'International Conference on Arab-Islamic Media to Support Palestinians' due in Damascus on April 30.
He added "the Conference will tackle a number of researches on the Arab media discourse, the concept of resistance in the Arab media and the role of media in distinguishing between terrorism and the right of resisting occupation".
More than 350 intellectuals and media men will take part in the Conference which will be held under the patronage of President Bashar al-Assad from April 30 to the second of May.

Syria renews condemnation of terrorist acts in Iraq, Minister Bilal stresses | Iraq Updates

Shiite bloc discusses Sadrists' exit
18 April 2007 (Voices of Iraq)


The Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) has discussed recent political developments in the country, including the exit of the Sadrist Movement (Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr) from the Iraqi government.
According to a statement by the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), part of the UIC, and received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), "a meeting was held by the UIC on Monday under the bloc chief Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim at his office in Baghdad with incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari."
The statement discussed the issue of the Sadrist ministers' exit from the government of Nouri al-Maliki, but did not contain any results for the meeting.
Maliki had welcomed Sadr's decision to authorize the prime minister to select new ministers to replace the six who quit the government.
The Sadrists occupy 30 seats within the UIC, which has the largest number of seats in the Iraqi parliament, 130 out of the total 275 seats.
The Sadr Movement’s ministers were withdrawn upon orders from leader Sadr in protest against the government's failure to set a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq, the movement chief in Iraq's parliament Nassar al-Rubaie, said on Monday.
Reading out a statement by Sadr at the Iraqi Parliament on Monday, Rubaie said "for the sake of public interest and easing burdens from the Iraqi people, we deemed it necessary to inform Sadrist ministers to quit the Iraqi government and steer clear of any sectarian, ethnic, partisan or political calculations."
Sadr, in his statement, called on the six ministers to "continue serving the people" from outside the government, adding "I pray for God Almighty to bestow on the Iraqi people a government that is independent from occupation and one that works hard in the service of its people."
The Sadrist ministers' withdrawal from the government is expected to double pressures on Maliki as the Sadr Movement is considered a powerful supporter of him since he came to power in mid-2006.
The Sadrist ministers held important portfolios in the Iraqi government: health, agriculture, transport, tourism and antiquities, provinces' affairs and civil society.
Rubaie, during a press conference he held earlier on Monday in Baghdad, said the ministers quitted the government due to Maliki's failure to positively respond to the "million-man demonstration," which was staged by Sadrists on April 9 in the holy Shiite province of Najaf, to demand the departure of occupation troops.
A Sadrist official had told VOI on Sunday that the withdrawal "does not aim to bring the government down but we just want to declare our position towards this government, which is reluctant to conform to the people's will."
The Sadrist bloc had suspended its membership in both parliament and government in November 2006 in protest against Maliki's meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in the Jordanian capital Amman and failure to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
It returned to the Iraqi government and parliament in January 2007 after reconciliation efforts were exerted.

Shiite bloc discusses Sadrists' exit | Iraq Updates

Withdrawal of al-Sadr Movement from government makes headlines in Iraqi press
By Hamid al-Hamrani
Baghdad, 18 April 2007 (Voices of Iraq)


Iraqi newspapers published on Tuesday focused on the withdrawal of al-Sadr Movement from the Iraqi government. While some newspapers described the withdrawal as an attempt to dismantle the quota system and adopt a correct parliamentary and political approach, others expressed their concerns that the action may open the door to similar withdrawals from other political movements.
Under a main headline reading, 'Al-Sadr Movement chooses the parliament and gives up the quota system in the government,' the semi-official al-Sabah newspaper wrote, "Some political analysts considered the withdrawal of al-Sadr Movement from the government as the first serious attempt to dismantle the quota system and adopt a right political and parliamentary approach."
According to the newspaper, "Other politicians believe that it will certainly serve the Iraqi political process, which they say is suffering from the burdens of the quota system, if other political blocs followed suit."
Al-Sabah quoted a spokesman from the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), Saleem Abdullah, as saying that the withdrawal of al-Sadr Movement will affect the political situation and asserting that the IAF has no intention to quit the government.
Quoting Nassar al-Rubaie, a spokesman for al-Sadr bloc in parliament, al-Bayyina al-Jadida newspaper said that the bloc had quit the government in reaction to the non-response of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to the one-million strong demonstration organized by the bloc in Najaf on April 9. Following calls from Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, more than one million people demonstrated in Najaf on the fourth anniversary of the entry of foreign troops into Iraq, calling for the withdrawal of the troops from their country.
Commenting on the repercussions of al-Sadr bloc's withdrawal, al-Bayyina al-Jadida published a headline reading, 'Al-Maliki agrees to dismiss the minister of defense to avoid the withdrawal of IAF.'
"A source close to the prime ministry revealed that al-Maliki had dismissed defense minister Mohammed Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi, while personally filling in for the coming two months. The source did not indicate a time for the dismissal, but asserted that the action was taken in response to the IAF's strong demands to replace the minister," the newspaper explained.
Al-Mutamar newspaper quoted Maryam al-Rayis, an advisor to the prime minister, as saying, "By quitting the government, al-Sadr movement has made a democratic choice and exercised its constitutional right." Al-Rayis called on other political blocs to follow suit, leaving the final decision to the prime minister, nothing that the political process is in dire need of reform through peaceful opposition.
On the recent violent attacks that targeted al-Sarafiya Bridge, Wissam al-Najafi wrote an article in the same newspaper, entitled 'Was al-Sarafiya Bridge an agent?!' "It was history more than a bridge. It was more a retreat for the exhausted. It was one of Baghdad's masterpieces. My question to the depraved murderers is: Why did you kill al-Sarafiya Bridge? Was it an agent for the government or the Americans?" al-Najafi wondered.
On its front page, al-Taakhi newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), published a main headline reading, 'Al-Sadr Movement announces official withdrawal from the government after prime minister refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq.' The newspaper quoted MP Bahaa al-Araji as saying, "The withdrawal is a clear and explicit message to the Iraqi people that we have had enough of the quota system. It is also a message to the government that the timetable of the withdrawal should be set by the parliament," al-Araji added.

Withdrawal of al-Sadr Movement from government makes headlines in Iraqi press | Iraq Updates