Thread: Iraq/Dinar News until 5/23/07 Midnight CST

Gulf News , 21 May 2007
Iraq's Kurdistan opens its arms to Gulf investors

By Mayada Al Askari, Staff Reporter

This is not Switzerland. But in its most enchanting spirit, high up in the Iraqi clouds and skies, is the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. It has witnessed so much pain and misery throughout its history, we actually applaud its perfect beauty today.

With stability, peace and a willingness to develop the area, the Kurdish Regional Government put down the Kurdish Regional Investment Law No 4, which was issued in mid-2006.

According to Eamad Jamil Mazouri, the Kurdish Regional Government's Representative to the UAE, the process to attract investment to Kurdistan started as early as 1992.

“When the Kurdish Parliament elections took place in 1992, we started building our regional state's establishments, we decided to tread the road of free enterprise as opposed to so******m, which did not work in Iraq as a whole. We also had to mend our devastated infrastructure,” he told Gulf News.

According to Mazouri, when Nechirvan Barzani became prime minister in 1998, he introduced a whole new vision.

“He was highly interested in Dubai as a superb model of a dynamic fast-growing metropolis,” Mazouri said.

After the end of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Iraq voted on the constitution that approved a federal model for Iraq. In 2005, the Kurdish Region constitution was issued for discussion.

Growing interest

Recent months have witnessed a growing interest in Kurdistan. In a recent economic conference in the UAE, a number of Gulf investors expressed their interest in energy supply, road and water projects, Mazouri said.

“We have actually finalised some contracts [with UAE entities] such as Dana Gas, Sharjah, which signed agreements with the Kurdistan Regional Government to study gas development and utilisation potential in Iraqi Kurdistan,” he said.

The total cost of the project is $400 million.

Dana Gas and its affiliate Crescent Petroleum will launch an industrial gas complex concept called “Kurdistan Gas City”, designed to promote private sector investment and employment.

Under a separate service contract, Dana Gas will develop, process and transport gas from the Khor Mor field on a fast-track basis. Dana Gas will also appraise the Chemchemal gas field, which is needed to supply power plants under construction near the cities of Erbil and Suleimaniah, by January 2008.

The Kurdistan Regional Government may also establish a free zone to attract more investments.

“The free zone will be established close to the Kurdish-Turkish border in Zakho,” Mazouri said.

A new $300 million airport is being built in the city of Erbil, which will be able to handle the biggest aircraft in the world, including the Russian Antonov 225 cargo plane and the American C-5 Galaxy.

The airport’s new runway 18/36 will be one of the longest in the world, at 4,800 metres.

Additionally, the Iraqi Kurdish regional government and a Dubai firm are also to build a $400 million “Media City” in Erbil.

Under the deal to create the Erbil Media City Company, the regional government will have a 60 per cent stake and a Dubai-based TV and cinema production company will hold the remaining 40 per cent. Six satellite television stations currently air from Kurdistan, which is home to hundreds of foreign companies, including 400 Turkish ones. This project is to see light in two years’ time.

Specific draft

The Kurdistan Real Estate Development Company (KREDCo) presented the specifications draft for the construction of a mall in Kurdistan valued at $120 million and on an area of 104,000 square metres; it is expected to be completed within four years.

According to the proposed plan, the mall will include a hotel, a commercial office complex, big retail market, large shopping centre, three residential apartments buildings and a recreational area.

Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq have become even more dramatic. The plains around Erbil are the location for luxury housing developments. They have names like English Village, which resembles a gated-California suburb, and Dream City, which will have a conference centre, supermarket and American-style school.

The Turkish developers of Naz City, a high-rise condominium complex, are trying to sell house-proud Kurds on modern apartment living. An American company is planning to build Iraq’s first ski resort in the mountains near the Turkish and Iranian borders.

Mazouri was optimistic about the future. “The new policy has opened great opportunities for Kurdistan Al Iraq. We will soon see a tourist destination open to all the people in the area, a prosperous entity with open arms for all,” he said with a smile.

KRG, Kurdistan Regional Government

The Examiner , 20 May 2007
Federalizing Iraq makes sense for US and Iraq

Daniel Gallington

Washington - President Bush should take a serious look at Senator Joe Biden’s proposal for a workable “solution” in Iraq, including at least looking for common ground with it.

Biden’s idea is simple: that Iraq be divided into “regions” along religious lines — he doesn’t call it a “partition” but it is the functional equivalent — similar to the solution that has worked reasonably well in Bosnia.

Even if it worked half as well, it could get our country united and behind a nearer-term resolution of the chaos that has become the war in Iraq. Perhaps just as important — the plan also allows for the longer-term protection of key U.S. interests in the region.

The Biden plan really isn’t all that far from the Bush administration — a fact that can’t have been lost on the Democratic leadership of Congress and the various Democratic presidential candidates.

The biggest difference is that the administration’s policy holds out for the hope for the central government in Iraq to be able to develop a democracy by political reconciliation between the religious factions.

If this ever was realistic — which it probably wasn’t — it now seems unattainable. Not only that, but the policy has frustrated the longer-term security mission of the U.S. presence in the region by putting it in the middle of a largely religious strife, which is being skillfully exploited by al Qaeda.

Essential for the success of the Biden plan — and any plan for that matter — is an equitable formula for dividing Iraq’s oil wealth revenues. The transparent administration of this formula would be a primary role for a loosely formed central government coalition, allowing for the most substantive governing of Iraq to be the role of the largely autonomous, religious and tribal-centric regions.

The Biden idea has a number of additional advantages, when viewed from a traditional international perspective:

First, it presents an opportunity for an international conference to embrace the solution, as it removes the most intractable elements — i.e., ethnic and religious — of the present conflict from the discussion.

Second, partition is a de-facto and long-standing way of life in the region anyway, and various plans for it have been successful over the years, even though they are far from perfect solutions.

Third, the solution invests the largest and wealthiest Sunni state in the region, Saudi Arabia, with several incentives to offset the influence of the largest and wealthiest Shiite state in the region, Iran.

Fourth, the solution gives the Turks and Kurds at least the opportunity to settle their long-standing differences.

In addition to the attractive international politics of the implementation of the Biden proposal, the domestic political advantages for the president and the Republican Party to embrace the Biden proposal seem substantial:

First, it peels Bush and Biden away from the prevailing Democratic view that we must begin leaving Iraq right away, a proposition that the Biden plan implicitly acknowledges as unrealistic; in fact, the Biden plan requires a substantial “residual force” to implement the new regions.

Second, it could turn Joe Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, into an advocate of administration policy.

Third, it gives the various Republican presidential candidates the comfort of not having to support the current policy, which is generally unpopular with voters — thus giving the Republican candidates an opportunity to focus on traditional Republican-Democrat political issues. In fact, a couple of the candidates have already endorsed a version of the Biden plan.

And, in the “what’s best for America” department, the proposal allows for our presence in the region for a period, which would be related to the various threats from terrorism.

Can Bush walk away from his current policy? This seems to depend more on timing than anything else, but there is an opportunity for a change with the administration’s upcoming review of the current “surge” operation.

The practical result will probably not be a “democracy” as envisioned by Bush. With the exception of Israel, however, there aren’t democracies in the region anyway, at least as we think of them.

As it becomes clearer that the warring factions in Iraq are simply incapable of a comprehensive political settlement, Bush should evaluate alternative policies that accomplish our primary national security objectives in the region. With some minor adjustments, the Biden plan does that rather neatly.

Daniel Gallington is a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington.

Bitterlemons International , 16 May 2007
Kirkuk: A constitutional issue

Many people, with or without a connection to Iraq, to Kurdistan or to Kirkuk, seem to have a ready-made opinion regarding the way to solve the Kirkuk issue. Some say let past injustice be past injustice and live with the new reality. Some compare the situation in Kirkuk with states absorbing immigrants, arguing that to demand any change in Kirkuk is immoral, unjust and against basic human rights. Others label the demands of the Kurds on Kirkuk as irredentism or an obvious process of annexation.

In the case of Kurdistan, we confront the Arabization of Kurdish areas. Arabization was a deliberate political strategy to change the identity of target areas and cities, not a consequence of movements of people. De-Arabization requires a counter political settlement agreed upon by Iraq's major political forces.

Kirkuk, together with other disputed territories, has become a constitutional issue in post-Saddam Iraq. Article 140 (2) of Iraq's constitution, endorsed by 82 percent of the country's voters in a referendum in October 2005, provides a clear roadmap for resolving this issue. It lays out a three-phase process, beginning with normalization, census and referendum. Normalization refers to changing the administrative boundaries of Arabized areas back to the pre-1968 borders, that is to say the date before Arabization became an official policy of the Baath party, and enabling people to return to their areas of origin. Census is the next step. It will determine who will be entitled to vote in the final phase--a referendum to be carried out no later than December 31, 2007 with the objective of determining the boundaries of each administrative unit. In the case of Kirkuk and other Arabized areas, the vote will focus on belonging to the Kurdistan region or not.

Many argue that the issue of Kirkuk could determine the fate of Iraq as a newly recreated state. Some would say that if this roadmap, as laid out in the constitution, is implemented, the Kurdistan region will face unprecedented difficulties both internationally and regionally. Kurdish leaders argue that postponing this process, especially the referendum, will by no means lead to an easier solution. Rather, honoring the constitutional timetable is the federal government's obligation as well as a condition for its survival as a coalition government. Thus one reason for the Kurdish leadership's unwillingness to delay the process is to avoid a constitutional crisis. Once you open up the constitution for such a dramatic change, several issues, including federalism and the powers of the regions, will be subject to change.

Another argument is that the issue of Kirkuk is not about oil revenues. The Kurdistan Regional Government has agreed to share all oil revenues. Control and management of currently-producing oil fields is already settled in Article 112 of the constitution: the federal government will take responsibility together with producing regions and governorates, and not the KRG alone. For oil revenues from future fields, the KRG has proposed a revenue-sharing mechanism throughout Iraq, including potential fields in Kirkuk. If adopted by Iraq's Council of Representatives, the oil revenue issue is not behind Kurdish insistence on the implementation of the constitutional mechanism for Kirkuk.

What has become obvious in the last three years is that the focus of Kurdish leaders and opinion-makers in Kurdistan is on the issue of justice and rights. Until now several thousands returnees have been patiently waiting, in awful camps, for a peaceful settlement of the issue. Returnees have not attacked people who still occupy their properties and belongings. People seem to have accepted the idea that what has been taken way from them by force must be returned to them in a legal, peaceful and constitutional way. Among the returnees there is no obvious desire for revenge. On the contrary, many have shown a remarkable understanding that people who were part of the Arabization program should be compensated and provided with safety, protection and security as well as jobs and re-housing programs.

Politically, the Kurdish leadership and ordinary citizens seem to have accepted the idea that a peaceful settlement in Kirkuk and other Arabized areas is the only way forward, as provided by the constitution. There is also a great degree of awareness that the constitutional mechanisms also mean political uncertainties, since no one can predict with absolute certainty the outcome of any referendum.

The most important message from Kurdistan is to avoid any violent clash over Kirkuk and other Arabized areas. Many in Kurdistan argue that patience and a peaceful resolution are needed to convince all inhabitants of these areas that joining the KRG administration is a viable alternative. Discussion is well underway to ensure that once Kirkukis decide to join the KRG, an inclusive power-sharing arrangement will help to ease any potential tension. The KRG has already absorbed many Christian and other displaced persons. The KRG also has a similar internal power-sharing formula according to which diverse political actors have meaningful representation in the parliament and government.- Published 10/5/2007 © bitterlemons-international.org

Khaled Salih is the Kurdistan Regional Government's spokesman. He is also a senior lecturer in Middle East politics at the University of Southern Denmark. He is coeditor (with Brendan O'Leary and John McGarry) of The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005). The views expressed here are personal.

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

the only problem with IRAQ UPDATES articles is they were taken from other papers and sometimes are 2 weeks old. please note this when reading and posting these articles.

Thanks Susie for that statement,there is alot of those articles that are recycled over and over.Thanks again Ronnie

tripartite reconciliation, reconstruction and security

Morning talk

Mohammed Abdul Jabbar carp
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in an interview with the American President George Bush on three things : the national reconciliation and national dialogue, and to continue the reconstruction, and finally implement the plan to impose law and security in the country.

The injured Abu father in these words intensified in diagnosing the basic needs of the country.It was possible to add to public services, but it can be assumed that these falling in the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation. And if so, this is the urgent needs of the people at this stage.

We can say that this is not the first time that the trap is to refer to these three items that are about to form a tripartite acquired in the minds of the Iraqi political and citizen alike, It also recalls this or that manner in texts related to the war on Iraq, such as the International Covenant document, which was launched in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The launch of these three words Kmahmat urgent is not new. The concept has been raised of reconstruction and improved services in the first days following the fall of the tyrant dead - and-buried. The embargo that the United States has had many projects or projects to do so. A draft Maliki reconciliation after assuming the presidency of the ministry, with a plan to impose law came about three months ago in a sequential series of security plans aimed at restoring security and stability and combating terrorism, which creates havoc in the land.
But quick inventory of what has been achieved and accomplished on the ground of these three items indicate that what has been a very small, to the degree that makes this accomplished little unconscious to the color, smell and taste difficult for the citizens as well as outside observers feeling and the sense of its existence. If we assume that these three items constitute the practical foundations of the state and government at this stage, it proceeds, we can say that the current assessment says : We are still very far from the day when the declaration could achieve insight into what the vocabulary of many details, despite the report boring and surface which Sadran Information Office of the Prime Minister on their achievements during the year.
This is not to speak to blame anyone, with the oversight and accountability are legitimate, but required, in a democratic system, but the meaning, after the completion of the fact that the bulk of requirements, is directing attention and interest to study the reasons and factors that led and continues to lead to the obstruction effort towards national reconciliation and reconstruction and security, to address the root factors, and work to overcome the impediments and obstacles. It is needless to say recalled that the government needs a group of experts to study this issue from a scientific, objective and Alambriekaya away from the accounts and political sensitivities.

Translated version of http://www.alsabaah.com/

in the rejection of sectarianism and the role of religious leaders

Najaf tribal elders called for the integration militias in the State organs

Baghdad-up morning

Tribal elders called Najaf to integrate militias in the state bodies and end armed rallies and support the initiative of national reconciliation plan to impose law and rejecting sectarianism and all kinds of violence.

A statement issued by the tribal elders yesterday held under the slogan of preservation (working for an Islamic, democratic and unified Iraq), a news agency that dozens of tribal elders and dignitaries in Iraq in general and in Najaf and the surrounding regencies and met yesterday, Tuesday, particularly in the Conference represents tribes revolted decisions in the forefront of emphasis on the role of the religious authority in the leadership of the nation and clan will hand corps of religious reference. The statement added that the Iraqi clans called for the speedy creation of arming Iraqi forces to be able to control the security of the country which will help in the departure of the occupation forces as soon as possible. The statement added that the clan expressed its categorical rejection of sectarian fighting all kinds of promoted and endorsed a plan to impose law and support national reconciliation should not be tarnished by their hands with Iraqi blood Tahir addition to integrating the militias in the Ministries of State and ending armed rallies. The statement pointed out that the clan stands by the elected government and support and support for the elimination of terrorist groups





Translated version of http://www.alsabaah.com/

Parliament discusses the security situation in its yesterday

The ratification of a law that bans use of children in armed

Baghdad-Sabah.

Council discussed at its deputies yesterday several issues concerning the security situation in addition to the vote on the Convention for the Protection of the Rights of the Child and the completion of the first reading of the draft law on Iraq's accession to the Convention on International Railways in the Arab Mashreq. With the lifting Speaker Dr. Mahmoud Almchidani meeting today, Wednesday, to.

On the occasion of her forties MP Mohammad Hussein Awad, who was martyred in the bombing the cafeteria of the parliament last month, the deputy Fawzi Akram Incidentally speech in which he called members of the Council to forget their differences.

.

She also spoke about the developments Nazneen Mendallawy security situation in the town of Mandali attacks last week to a terrorist act carried out by a terrorist group led to the fall of the number of victims, the government called for speeding up the application of Article 140 of the Constitution, as well as the accounting brigade and take the necessary security measures and working to rebuild the city.

MP Alaa Makki of compatibility has been announced fall mortar shells at the College of Education in the area hung what led to the martyrdom of four students, asking the government to provide special security measures to protect educational institutions, particularly in the current season examinations.

As he pointed out in his speech to an incident in the parade Dr. Adnan Al-Dulaimi head of the Iraqi Accord Front to the shooting of a military unit in a suburb of Justice, noting at the same time rejecting the front of each of indiscriminate shooting.

During the meeting yesterday to MP Samia Aziz SOS on behalf of the people of the city of chest due to the interruption of water and electricity to the area for more than a month, asking the government need to provide the services listed.
For his part, the deputy Khaled Al-Bader wondered reached in the investigation of the bombing incident parliament, where Almchidani answer that the final investigation is not yet complete and the case reaches the House will be closed so.
With regard to topics on the agenda of the meeting, Council members had voted on a bill Iraq's accession to the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came in the text causes therefor (... in order to protect the rights of the child in the face exploited for the purposes of trade and means of exploitation or prostitution and pornography is to prevent involvement in armed conflicts) initiated this law was also the first reading of the draft law on Iraq's accession to the Convention on International Railways in the Arab Mashreq.

Translated version of http://www.alsabaah.com/

the coalition will discuss the political situation in the country and expand the plan to impose law

Baghdad-Sabah.

Discussed the bloc United Iraqi Alliance possibility of expanding the security plan (to impose the law) applied in Baghdad to include other regions. A statement by the Supreme Council issued yesterday received (morning) copy : The bloc United Iraqi Alliance held a routine meeting yesterday in the office of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, head bloc and the presence of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a number of members bloc to discuss conditions in the country.

He added : was at the meeting to discuss the security situation and ways to the success of a plan to impose law and expanded to extend to areas where security has deteriorated. "

The statement pointed out that the meeting discussed the important laws under consideration which led the oil and uprooting the Baath Party and the provincial and constitutional amendments and the need to expedite the completion and submission to the House of Representatives. Between that meeting explored the political situation in Iraq and the importance of supporting the political process and to stand by the government and the parliament, stressing the need for unity of all the Iraqi people in these difficult circumstances.

Translated version of http://www.alsabaah.com/

Sudanese : the completion of the requirements for joining the World Trade Organization

Baghdad morning

The Minister of Trade, Dr. Hassan Abdalvlah Sudanese : "Iraq completed all mechanisms and requests WTO to accept Iraq in the organization."
He added in a press statement received "Assabah" copy : "has been updated set of laws and legislation and sent to the State Consultative Council and the Council of Ministers to be studied in order to keep abreast of Iraq's participation in the WTO."

The Sudanese : "The negotiating team formed by the government for three years and succeeded in completing all the requirements for joining the World Trade Organization and to develop appropriate responses to each organization offers Therefore, we are optimistic that the outcome of future talks to be held in Geneva with a team represented by the exit of the recommendations of the task could accept Iraq in the light of the implications of the results. " He stated : "The government has adopted many laws that serve the Iraqi economy and facilitate coordination with the global economy as the form of investment law major turning point future results will be significant movement to a market economy and to develop most of the governorates of the country and which has been severely damaged as a result of negligence and reliance on central control of the State the economic movement. He stressed the Sudanese : "the importance of Iraq's presence in international organizations being shunned for many years and it was unacceptable that this move away from what is happening in the world of enormous economic developments will seek to make use of it to serve the Iraqi economy, and thus determine the feasibility of presence in these international organizations

Translated version of http://www.alsabaah.com/

Originally Posted by Hkp

Aswataliraq , 23 May 2007

Adnan Mufti : not in the Kurdish leaders flexibility in federal issues and the application of Article (140)

The representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in Iraq, on Tuesday, he met with Kurdish leaders to discuss constitutional amendments in the future Iraqi constitution, said Adnan Mufti, head of the Kurdistan Parliament did not have the Kurdish leaders flexibility in the federal issues and the application of Article 140 of the Constitution.

Mufti explained in a joint press conference in Arbil, Tuesday, with Ashraf Qazi, representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in Iraq that "with regard to key issues, we do not have the flexibility, especially democracy and federalism and the application of Article 140 of the Constitution." He added : "With regard to expanding the political process to include all the parties we are with them."

Paragraph 140 of the current Iraqi constitution will be the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk to the Kurds and Turkmen citizens displaced to their areas of origin, and re-entrants to the Arab citizens of the central and southern governorates in the time of the former regime added to the original, The conduct of a comprehensive census is beyond decide in a referendum to maintain the fate of the citizens to preserve and whether to join the Kurdistan region.

"The Mufti continued "We discussed with the representative of the Secretary-General Rule oil law, and informed him of our readiness to show full cooperation for the success of the political project in Iraq."

The Iraqi Parliament is currently discussing draft of a controversial law on the distribution of the proceeds of natural resources in Iraq, especially the oil and gas between the provinces and territories.

Meanwhile, the representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, that he met Kurdish leaders in the Kurdistan region and discussed with them the forthcoming constitutional amendments, expressing optimism on the success of the process of drafting constitutional amendments. The International Committee of the competent Iraqi Parliament from all parliamentary blocs to discuss amendments to the current Constitution aid from the United Nations, and is supposed to submit these amendments to the Parliament for approval and then hold a referendum in order to recognize it.

The new judge stressed that the role of United Nations mission is to provide advice and cooperation with the Iraqis, said : "We have no special agenda us."

The judge noted that he discussed the role with the Kurdish leaders (Ionami) of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq to support the institutions of the territorial government, announcing the continuation of the mission to provide support to these institutions.

The representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations that he told greetings of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon to the President of the Kurdistan region Masoud Barzani, congratulating him on the occasion of the anniversary of the Declaration of formation of the Kurdistan unified government.

KRG, Kurdistan Regional Government