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

We are going to talk!

Iran, U.S. willing to hold talks on Iraq By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 31 minutes ago



TEHRAN, Iran - The U.S. and Iran said Sunday they will hold upcoming talks in Baghdad about improving Iraq's security — a historic political turnabout for the two countries with the most influence over Iraq's future.

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Expectations of progress remain low, however, with tough issues at stake and mutual suspicions running high. Even as it announced the talks, Iran lashed out at Vice President Dick Cheney's weekend warnings about its nuclear program, saying it would retaliate if the U.S. attacked it.

Yet the two sides said they were setting aside such differences to focus on a narrow issue — Iraq's continued violence and sharp political deterioration.

"The purpose is to try to make sure that the Iranians play a productive role in Iraq," said Gordon Johndroe, the White House's National Security Council spokesman.

Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, also confirmed the upcoming talks, saying the vice president supports the move as long as they focus solely on Iraq.

Iran agreed to the talks "after consultation with Iraqi officials, in order to lessen the pain of the Iraqi people, support the Iraqi government and establish security and peace in Iraq," the state-run news agency, IRNA, quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini as saying.

Iraqi leaders have leaned on the Bush administration to try to cooperate with Iran in the interest of stabilizing their country. Likewise, some Mideast Arab allies of the U.S. — increasingly distrustful of Iraq's Shiite-led government — have pushed for talks with Iran as a way to reduce sectarian tensions in the country and stop attacks against Sunnis.

The decision to talk comes at a critical time of plunging U.S. support for the war and growing pressure from Congress for Iraq's government to make some political progress, or lose U.S. backing. Many critics say the U.S.- and Iraqi-led security push and troop buildup is also struggling.

In March, lower-level U.S. and Iranian diplomats did hold rare, brief talks on the sidelines of a Baghdad gathering. At a follow-up conference a week ago in Egypt, there was a casual chat between the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

There had been speculation of a Cabinet-level meeting at that Egypt conference, but neither Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice nor Iran's foreign minister wanted to make the initial move, passing up what would have been the first high-level, face-to-face talks since the U.S. broke off relations with Tehran after the 1979 hostage crisis.

Until this spring, the Bush administration had dismissed calls for both outreach to Iran and Syria. At the Egyptian conference, Rice did sit down for a talk with Syria's top diplomat.

The timing of the upcoming talks in Baghdad was unclear, but Johndroe and Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, both said they expected them to occur sometime in the next few weeks. The talks could be between Crocker and the Iranians, Johndroe said.

The Baghdad setting will allow for "serious, quiet and focused discussions on the responsibilities and the obligations of all to help stabilize the situation in Iraq," Zebari said.

Despite the planned talks, mutual suspicion and tension between the two countries runs high.

During a visit to the United Arab Emirates, hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanded Sunday that the U.S. leave the Middle East — two days after Cheney warned Tehran that Washington will not allow it to develop nuclear weapons or dominate the region.

"We are telling you to leave the region. This is for your benefit and the benefit of your nation," Ahmadinejad told the crowd at a soccer stadium in Dubai.

Iran has stressed that it sees the U.S. military presence in Iraq as a serious threat to its security. More than 140,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq — with more expected this month as part of a stepped-up Baghdad security operation.

The U.S. sees Iran as the biggest threat to Iraq's stability, accusing Tehran of supplying Shiite militias with deadly roadside bombs that kill American troops. Iran denies the accusations.

____

Associated Press writers Tom Raum in Cairo, Egypt; Jim Krane in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Kim Gamel in Baghdad; and Ben Feller in Jamestown, Va. contributed to this report.

Deputy Chairman of the Kurdistan receives oil minister

(صوت العراق) - 14-05-2007

(Voice of Iraq) - 14-05-2007

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Mr. Kosert Rasul discussed with the Vice President of the Kurdistan region, in the presence of Mullah Bakhtiar Group member of the Politburo, and Emad Ahmed, Minister of Construction of the Kurdistan Regional government with the Minister of Oil, Dr. Hussein Shahrastani, Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, former oil minister, Muatasim Akram Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil, Mahauraadeh projects in the Oil Ministry in Kurdistan, which have not been implemented so far,

The Deputy Prime Territory to find crossings of the relations between the federal government and the government of the province through oil and gas law and the Constitution. The oil minister and the delegation accompanying him had inspected the oil fields in Shiwachuk Koysanjak in Erbil Governorate.

الاتحاد العراقية

The Iraqi

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

Khalilzad intends to raise the issue of Kirkuk to the United Nations

(صوت العراق) - 14-05-2007

(Voice of Iraq) - 14-05-2007

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"Agencies : The United States representative at the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told a press the United Nations "to play a role to settle the dispute over Kirkuk in Iraq generally."

،

He said, "intends to raise the issue of Kirkuk on the United Nations to play the role of mediator between the Iraqis to deal with this issue, which involve more than the crisis of internal, regional, and he began to explore the new role of the permanent members of the Security Council and the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq."

On Iran, adding that "the Iraqis are trying to play the role of mediator between the United States and Iran, since they were trying to facilitate a meeting with Iranian officials."

الاتحاد العراقية

The Iraqi

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

US, Iran to hold breakthrough meeting on Iraq by Jitendra Joshi
Sun May 13, 4:00 PM ET



WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and Iran plan to hold landmark talks to thrash out security in war-torn Iraq, but will steer clear of the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions, officials said Sunday.

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The talks "in the next few weeks" are likely to involve Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Baghdad, and an Iranian delegation, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

President George W. Bush had authorized the dialogue "because we must take every step possible to stabilize Iraq and reduce the risk to our troops, even as our military continue to act against hostile Iranian-backed activity in Iraq," Johndroe said.

The engagement between the two arch-foes should "not be seen as a particular moment but as part of an ongoing process to get Iran to play a constructive role in Iraq," Johndroe added.

Washington said the talks will not go into Western suspicions that Iran is covertly trying to build nuclear weapons, as the US government and its European allies mount pressure on Tehran to renounce uranium enrichment.

"There are other places for a discussion on the nuclear issue, and we've been clear what needs to take place for that," State Department spokeswoman Leslie Phillips said.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Sunday Tehran had agreed to a US request for the talks on Iraq, not long after the nations failed to have substantive contacts at a conference in Egypt.

"Iran has agreed to talk to the US side over Iraq, in Iraq, in order to relieve the pain of the Iraqi people, to support the government and to reinforce security in Iraq," he said, according to the state-run IRNA agency.

Details include a date for the talks would be made public this week, he said. Iran's Mehr news agency said they would take place in Baghdad.

With the Democrats back in control of Congress, the Bush administration has been under pressure to revive engagement with Iran as part of a far-reaching policy overhaul to allow US troops to start leaving neighboring Iraq.

The Iraq Study Group, a 10-member panel of Washington grandees co-chaired by former secretary of state James Baker, said in a December report that the administration should engage both Iran and Syria "constructively."

But in a sign that almost three decades of enmity between the United States and Iran remains intact, Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday issued a stark warning from the deck of a US aircraft carrier in the Gulf.

"We'll stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region," he said aboard the USS John C. Stennis as it cruised roughly 240 kilometers (150 miles) from Iran.

Just over a week ago, hopes were dashed that Iran and the United States would hold substantive contacts at the conference on Iraq's security in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

At that meeting, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki barely exchanged pleasantries with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice while a lower-level encounter on May 4 between high-ranking diplomats lasted just minutes.

US-Iranian relations have been frozen since 1980, after radical students stormed the US embassy in Tehran in the wake of the country's Islamic revolution and held 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Washington today accuses Iran of aiding Shiite militia groups and attacking US soldiers in Iraq, charges vehemently denied by Tehran. Tensions have intensified over the arrest by the United States of seven Iranians inside Iraq.

But after the Sharm el-Sheikh conference, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari predicted that Iran and the United States would have to acknowledge each other's importance in his shattered country.

Senator Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), one of the leading Republican dissidents against Bush's Iraq policy, said Sunday that "Iran has to be part" of any regional deal on Iraq.

"Iran is not going to do us any favors, but it's in their interest to find some common denominators here," he said Sunday on the CBS network.

Appologize if previously posted.


parliamentary sources : the extension of the work of the amendment to the Constitution ten days.

Revealed the proposal to deport Article 140 to the Federal Court

بغداد - الصباح

Baghdad-Sabah.
The MP from the Iraqi List Nassif high that the Commission amend the Constitution to extend its work from week to ten days to resolve some remaining points of contention.According to the decision of the committee is supposed to complete its work by the middle of this month (tomorrow), but

Nassif stressed that the Commission needed more time. Her member of the constitutional amendments to "Assabah" that the meeting yesterday witnessed a convergence of views on most points except Article 140 of Kirkuk, pointing out that the Accord Front threatened to withdraw if the amendments are not made to the article at the time rejected the Kurdistan Alliance bloc that strongly.
The Nassif, a proposal for the referral of article 140 to the Federal Court for the issuance of a special resolution by. For his part, Abdullah Salim deputy compatibility and committee member of the "morning" : that the contentious points will be introduced to the House of Representatives in order to gauge how to deal with them. Abdullah stressed that the almost complete unanimity happened yesterday on the number of points without reminding. The meeting yesterday to attend the Arab and foreign experts as representatives of the Arab League and the United Nations.
The sources within the Commission had confirmed that the controversial points are : federalism and uprooting the Baath, the article (41) the personal status and oil.

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

Baghdad and Washington seek agreement for the security forces to identify functions

(صوت العراق) - 14-05-2007

(Voice of Iraq) - 14-05-2007

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Baghdad and Washington are searching for a security agreement defining the functions of the coalition forces

The Supreme Council : the ambiguity of the functions of foreign forces causing violations of national sovereignty

BAGHDAD : Ali helper
The Iraqi Deputy of the Supreme Council Iraqi Islamic, there are now talks between Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi and American actors, for a convention defining the functions and powers of the coalition forces in Iraq and positions, and setting a schedule for the rehabilitation of the Iraqi security forces, which will replace the coalition forces after leaving.

Pointing out that the uncertainty in identifying the functions of those forces has sometimes led to «violation of Iraqi sovereignty». The head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the House and the Rapporteur - General of the Supreme Council, the Iraqi Islamic Sheikh Humam Hamudi in a statement yesterday that «Mahdi was presented during his recent visit to Washington, some of the claims are the most claim multinational forces to set a timetable set Zaman readiness Iraqi security forces and the formulation within the convention, He is now writing this Convention.

And about the motive which called for a security agreement with American forces, Hamoudi pointed out that the presence of foreign forces in Iraq if proven in the decisions of the United Nations, The modus operandi, powers and limits of their duties and did not specify that it exists only to assist the Iraqi government in establishing security», He said that days have proved that the lack of clarity of mission and the lack of coordination between them and Iraqi forces, the latest problems which violated the sovereignty and distress to some symbols, prompting Iraqi officials to reach conclusion : the need for a convention defining the functions, powers and limits of the work and through the association of foreign troops with Iraqi forces».

On putting members of the Iraqi Parliament to a draft resolution on setting a timetable for the withdrawal of multinational forces, explained that «there is a way to illustrate the disengagement of foreign troops from Iraq, is the first exit to a timetable, we may disagree in determining the time may be useful for determining the time the parties hostile to Iraq; It might defer battle until the exit of foreign forces, and the followers of this opinion They feel that the exit light at the end of the tunnel, and believe that sovereignty is the departure of foreign forces. The perception is another who sees the exit, however, the Iraqi government must lead to the exit crises ».

Hammoudi revealed that members of the House calling for Iraqi cooperation with the government to develop a plan for the control of Iraqi forces to hot spots after training well trained, and stressed that «in the event feeling that the Iraqi government is capable of controlling the security file, they will be able to demand that the multinational force to leave Iraq even before the expiry of the prescribed period of exit. Hamoudi noted that there are plans future government does not want to divulge «even Tbagt enemy». Hamudi emphasized that the Iraqi Islamic Supreme Council «Prime Minister agrees not to set a timetable for the exit of foreign forces», Hamoudi said that most members of the House and the National Security Council have supported the idea of the Prime Minister.

الشرق الاوسط

Middle East

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

it was on good morning america , monday or tues, they were playing back a news tape . neno ,i just hope someone else saw it to. i hope you can confirm this.

revdan

cris como on good morning america quoted bush

Friday, April 13, 2007 1213.6 IQD

Saturday, April 14, 2007 1214.5 IQD

Sunday, April 15, 2007 1209.5 IQD

Monday, April 16, 2007 1215 IQD

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 1209.9 IQD

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 1212 IQD

Thursday, April 19, 2007 1209.4 IQD

Friday, April 20, 2007 1213.8 IQD

Saturday, April 21, 2007 1212.5 IQD

Sunday, April 22, 2007 1212 IQD

Monday, April 23, 2007 1210.1 IQD

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 1204.7 IQD

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 1211.1 IQD

Thursday, April 26, 2007 1211.7 IQD

Friday, April 27, 2007 1208.4 IQD

Saturday, April 28, 2007 1211.4 IQD

Sunday, April 29, 2007 1209.7 IQD

Monday, April 30, 2007 1208.6 IQD

Tuesday, May 01, 2007 1211.7 IQD

Wednesday, May 02, 2007 1209.3 IQD

Thursday, May 03, 2007 1213.5 IQD

Friday, May 04, 2007 1208 IQD

Saturday, May 05, 2007 1206.1 IQD

Sunday, May 06, 2007 1205.2 IQD

Monday, May 07, 2007 1207.8 IQD

Tuesday, May 08, 2007 1206.7 IQD

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 1206.1 IQD

Thursday, May 10, 2007 1209 IQD

Friday, May 11, 2007 1199.3 IQD

Saturday, May 12, 2007 1199.9 IQD

Sunday, May 13, 2007 1198.7 IQD

Originally Posted by Hkp

Leading Iraqi Shia party rebrands
13 May 2007 (Aljazeera)


Iraq's largest Shia party has pledged its allegiance to the country's most senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, distancing itself from Iran where it was formed. The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) also changed its name to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), dropping the word Revolution on Saturday.
Party officials said they had introduced significant policy changes.

They said the changes were aimed at giving the party more of an Iraqi flavour and to reflect the changing situation in the country since the US-led invasion overthrew Saddam Hussein, then president, in 2003.

They said the party had been close to al-Sistani for some time, but a two-day conference on Baghdad that ended on Friday had formalised relations with the influential cleric.

Rida Jawad al-Takki, a senior group member, read out the party's decisions to reporters.

"We cherish the great role played by the religious establishment headed by Grand Ayatollah Sayed Ali al-Sistani ... in preserving the unity of Iraq and the blood of Iraqis and in helping them building a political system based on the constitution and law," he said.

He also said the party pledged to follow the guidance of the Shia establishment.

Spiritual leadership

Al-Sistani, a reclusive figure who lives in the Najaf, is the spiritual leader of Iraq's majority Shia. He rarely makes public statements but his utterances are closely monitored by his followers.

Officials said the party, which was formed in Iran in the 1980s to oppose Saddam, had previously taken its guidance from the religious establishment of Welayat al Faqih, led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran.

Islamic experts say the authority of the Faqih, who "surpasses all others in knowledge" of Islamic law and justice, is not limited to his home country, but extends to all Shia Muslims who pledge obedience and believe in the Faqih.

The Faqih has the final word on matters related to Islam from political, social and religious issues.

Al-Hakim

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of SIIC, is a powerful religious leader who has good relations with the US.

A key player in post-Saddam Iraqi politics, SIIC holds around a quarter of the seats in parliament occupied by the ruling Shia Alliance of Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister. Iraq and Iran fought a bitter war for eight years in the 1980s.

Relations have improved since the fall of Saddam, although Iraqi leaders have to walk a delicate line between the United States and Iran, which are at loggerheads over Tehran's nuclear programme and the violence in Iraq.

Leading Iraqi Shia party rebrands | Iraq Updates

Iran is losing influence in Iraq that's why they are coming to the table to talk to the United States.