Thread: Iraq/Dinar News Until 5/31/2007 7:15 PM CST..

In Iraq, key oil bill goes nowhere


May 21, 2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The nation's Sunni vice president spoke out Sunday against a proposed oil law, clouding the future of a key benchmark for continued U.S. support for the government.
"We disagree with the production-sharing agreement," Tariq al-Hashemi said in Jordan, where he was attending an international conference. "We want foreign oil companies, and we have to lure them into Iraq to learn from their expertise and acquire their technology, but we shouldn't give them big privileges."
Iraq's cabinet signed off on the oil bill in February and sent it to parliament, a move that the Bush administration hailed as a major sign of progress. But parliament has yet to consider the legislation, which would cover how to manage the country's oil wealth and distribute revenues.
The bill also faces opposition from the Kurds, who want greater control of oil in Kurdish areas.
In Iraq, key oil bill goes nowhere

23 May, 2007

Foreign Undersecretary Receives UK Deputy Ambassador in Baghdad

Mr. Labeed Abbawi, the Foreign Ministry Undersecretary for Policy Planning and Bilateral Relations, discussed during a meeting with Mr. Mathew Lodge, the UK Deputy Ambassador in Baghdad on 23/5/2007 the current discussions between US, UK and Iran on the Iraqi issue and the efforts made by the Iraqi government to bring closer viewpoints between these parties.

Mr. Abbawi pointed out the necessity of activating resolutions of Sharm Al-Sheikh Conference and the formation of the working committees that were decided in the International Baghdad Meeting of 10 March. The two sides also discussed various issues concerning bilateral cooperation and means develop it in the manner that may serve shared interests of the two countries.

Mr. Abbawi expressed Iraq’s desire to work hard to remove all the obstacles that negatively affect the Iraqi issue. For his part, Mr. Lodge promised to make efforts to achieve these goals.
http://www.mofa.gov.iq/english/news/...px?newsid=3279

Of around four million displaced Iraqis, the US let in 69 in the last seven months, Neil King and Yochi Dreazen report for the Journal. The two reporters present an update on the DC debate over the question of relocating Iraqi refugees in the US, noting the extreme difficulties and red tape that Iraqis, even those who worked with the US in Iraq, have in reaching the country legally. State and Homeland Security departments plan to develop procedures for letting more Iraqis in, and pending legislation on the Hill could allow tens of thousands of Iraqis to enter. Democrats especially have pushed the issue, while only one Republican, Chris Shays of Connecticut, currently in Iraq, has supported legislation to reform Iraqi asylum policy. The US will spend $150 million this year for “Iraqi refugee work in the Middle East,” they report.

Iraqi Refugees Create Quandary - WSJ.com

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 24, 2007; Page A01

BAGHDAD, May 23 -- More than three months into a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive designed to curtail sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, Health Ministry statistics show that such killings are rising again.
From the beginning of May until Tuesday, 321 unidentified corpses, many dumped and showing signs of torture and execution, have been found across the Iraqi capital, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The data showed that the same number of bodies were found in all of January, the month before the launch of the Baghdad security plan.
Such killings are a signature practice of Shiite militias, although Sunni insurgents are also known to execute victims. The number of found bodies is a key indicator of the level of sectarian violence, but the statistics also include some who died from causes unrelated to the political situation.
Weeks after the security plan was launched in mid-February, Bush administration and U.S. military officials began citing a decline in sectarian violence as evidence of the plan's effectiveness. Although that trend appears to have reversed, the unidentified corpses being collected this year remain far fewer than those found during the peak periods of sectarian strife last year.
Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander overseeing the security plan, acknowledged in an interview that the number of unidentified corpses is rising and said there has been a spike in sectarian assaults by Shiite militias, especially elements of the Mahdi Army, the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"We are aware of this happening, yes," Qanbar said Tuesday, seated in his office inside one of the palaces of the late ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have noticed that those gangs are again attacking people."
The rise in sectarian violence has followed a recent increase in mass-casualty suicide attacks and car bombings that have targeted mostly Shiite areas in Baghdad and other parts of the country. U.S. officials have acknowledged that they have had little success in curtailing such attacks, which have occurred with greater frequency since the start of the security plan than before.
In the 14 weeks preceding the start of the plan on Feb. 14, at least 821 people died in 11 attacks -- typically suicide car bombings -- that killed more than 20 people at a time, according to a Washington Post analysis. There have been at least 20 such attacks in the 14 weeks since the start of the plan, causing a death toll of at least 1,098, the analysis showed.
Such bombings, apparently orchestrated by Sunni insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, have prompted reprisal killings, Qanbar said. "Terrorists of al-Qaeda and the enemies of Iraq, they want to start a crisis," he said. "The objective behind this is to incite sectarian strife."
Like the numbers of unidentified corpses, other indicators of violence, such as kidnappings, remain below levels seen last year at the height of sectarian tensions. The United Nations, citing Health Ministry numbers, reported that 1,471 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad in September 2006 and 1,782 in October 2006. Bombing victims and many others who die violently in Baghdad are taken to the city's hospitals rather than its morgue.
But the recent increase in unidentified bodies raises questions about whether thousands of U.S. reinforcements can effectively halt sectarian violence.
President Bush and other senior administration officials have cited declines in sectarian killings in justifying U.S. troop increases and additional funding for the war.
washingtonpost.com

Announcement No.(931)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 931 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Thursday 2007/5/24 so the results were as follows :

Details NotesNumber of banks12-----Auction price selling dinar / US $1259-----Auction price buying dinar / US $-----------Amount sold at auction price (US $)43.535.000-----Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) ------ Total offers for buying (US $)43.535.000-----Total offers for selling (US $)-----------

EU interested in importing Iraqi natural gas National - Voices of Iraq

Wednesday , 23 /05 /2007 Time 5:04:09 </B>

By Dergham Mohammad Ali EU-Gas
EU interested in importing Iraqi natural gas
By Dergham Mohammad Ali
Baghdad, May 23, (VOI) - A visiting European Union delegation said that EU countries are interested in importing Iraqi natural gas from the Ekas field in southern Iraq, the spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry said on Wednesday.

"EU representatives held talks this week with oil ministry officials, headed by oil minister Hussein al-Shahrestani, and expressed EU countries’ interest in importing Iraqi natural gas from the Ekas field, a huge field that extends from Ninewa province to the southern borders of Saudi Arabia," Essam Jihad told the independent news agency voices of Iraq (VOI).
"Ekas is one of the fields included in the ministry's development plan. It has a production capacity of 100,000 barrels per day, in addition to possible large amounts of gas in the western region that may turn Iraq into one of the largest natural gas producers in the Middle East region," he added.
"The delegation expressed desire to transport gas through the joint Arab pipeline that passes through a number of Arab countries: Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and through Turkey towards the EU," he also said, noting that the delegation expressed interest in importing the whole production.
"Large steps have been taken towards concluding the agreement and the EU delegation is interested in participating to develop Iraq’s oil fields," the spokesman affirmed.

Aswat Aliraq

Iraqi VP meets Kurdistan Premier on oil draft law, Kirkuk Baghdad - Voices of Iraq

Thursday , 24 /05 /2007 Time 11:54:09 </B>

Baghdad, May 23, (VOI)- Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi met with Kurdistan Prime Minister Negervan al-Barazani on oil draft law and Kirkuk in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Mahdi's office said on Wednesday.

"Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi discussed with Iraq's Kurdistan Premier Negervan al-Barazani several political, security and economic issues, including oil draft law and the implementation of the Iraqi constitution's Article 140 on normalizing the situation in Kirkuk city," Mahdi's office said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Iraqi cabinet adopted a draft law on oil investment in Iraq including Kurdistan region and sent it to the Iraqi parliament for debate and voting. The proposed law gives the central government in Baghdad more powers to control investment contracts of oil in the country, a matter rejected by Kurds who demand more jurisdictions be given to the local government when conducting contracts with companies concerning oil in the region.
Also the Kurds urged Iraqi leaders to implement Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution regarding the statues of oil-rich-Kirkuk. Kurds claim that the former regime had changed the demographic distribution of the population by alluring more Arabs to settle in Kirkuk and drive out Kurds during 70-80s.
Article 140 stipulates that situation in Kirkuk should be normalized as it was before the alleged Arab migration to the city, to conduct a census and to hold a referendum to decide whether or not the city would join Kurdistan region.
Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad, is a mixed city of Arabs, Kurds and Torkmans.
According to the statement, Abdul Mahdi said "we have no differences as to the agreed principles but we need to work out solid mechanisms to secure the good implementation of the article."
The meeting also touched upon issues related to the budget of the Kurdish local fighters (Peshmerga) within the Iraqi national budget, the statement added.
"Both sides stressed the importance of continuing concerted efforts to gain security and stability as well as supporting the ongoing political process in the country," the statement added.
Abdul Mahdi, according to the statement, said "we should adhere at the mechanisms set up by the constitution to solve all disputable issues."

Aswat Aliraq

Iraqi newspapers warn against overthrowing national unity government Baghdad - Voices of Iraq

Thursday , 24 /05 /2007 Time 11:54:09 </B>

By Saad Obeid Baghdad-Press
Iraqi newspapers warn against overthrowing national unity government
By Saad Obeid
Baghdad, May 23, (VOI) - Iraqi newspapers on Wednesday discussed the tragic situation in Iraq and the possibility of extending Baghdad's security plan to all Iraqi provinces, and quoted several parliamentarians as warning of the repercussions of overthrowing the current national unity government, led by Nouri al-Maliki.

Expressing their concern about the potential repercussions of overthrowing al-Maliki's government, a number of Iraqi members of parliament told the government-funded al-Sabah newspaper that any attempt to target the current government would prove futile. Parliamentarians from the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), the Sadrist bloc and the Fadhila Islamic Party categorically denied that their blocs were attempting to overthrow the government. MP Hassan al-Saneed from the Shiite United Iraqi Coalition (UIC) indicated that any attempt to topple the government would plunge Iraq into a civil war that he said would serve no one's interests.
Criticizing several political groups for propagating an overthrow of al-Maliki's government, Falah al-Mashal, the editor-in-chief of al-Sabah wrote, "The calls for overthrowing the current government are desperate attempts to realize dreams that are unattainable in the light of the current Iraqi political landscape."
Al-Taakhi newspaper, issued by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Iraq's Kurdistan region's President Massoud al-Barazani, published two main headlines that read, 'An expanded meeting between KRG's delegation and the Iraqi government to discuss several issues' and 'Parliamentarians and politicians: U.S.-Iranian talks are useless unless they positively affect the Iraqi situation.'
According to the newspaper, a number of Iraqi politicians said that the Washington-Tehran talks scheduled to take place in Baghdad late this month would be meaningless unless they have a positive impact on the security situation in Iraq.
The newspaper also published the following headlines: 'Bush: September is set for evaluating increase of U.S. troops,' 'Najaf tribal leaders call for merging militia with state apparatus' and 'Anbar governor: Our problem is with ministries, not with MNF.' Criticizing what he described as the poor performance of several Iraqi ministries, the governor of Anbar said that the Interior Ministry has so far not appointed new recruits, or provided arms and ammunition for the police in the province. The governor also slammed the Ministry of Trade for its "negligence" in supplying Anbar with provisions.
Under the front-page headlines reading, 'Gunmen slaughter family, including four children at fake checkpoint south Baaquba,' 'Butchery in al-Aamel neighborhood market, four students from the Faculty of Ibn al-Haytham killed in mortar attack and 12 hostages released in Anbar' and 'Ammar al-Hakim asserts his father will beat cancer,' the independent al-Mashriq newspaper quoted Ammar al-Hakim, a son of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq, previously known as the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), as saying that his father's condition is stable and he is currently receiving medical treatment for cancer in Iran. Quoting doctors from the United States who examined al-Hakeem, Ammar said that his father has minor lung cancer, which is under control.
Al-Adala newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq, published a front-page headline reading, 'With the attendance of Iraqi PM: UIC considers the possibility of extending security plan.' Highlighting the statement released by the council, the newspaper said that while acknowledging the serious security situation facing several Iraqi provinces, the coalition discussed the possibility of extending Baghdad's security plan to other hot spots in Iraq.
In an article entitled, 'The Iraqi Cabinet is ready to provide full support to protect Christians,' the newspaper quoted Ali al-Dabbagh, an official spokesman for the Iraqi government, as saying, "The Iraqi Cabinet addressed the issue of the forced displacement of Christian families in Baghdad by terrorist groups during a session held on Tuesday." Al-Dabbagh expressed the Iraqi government's complete support for those families, adding that the cabinet will provide all reasonable assistance to them.


SS/TP

Originally Posted by fredgwest1999

EU interested in importing Iraqi natural gas National - Voices of Iraq

Wednesday , 23 /05 /2007 Time 5:04:09 </B>

By Dergham Mohammad Ali EU-Gas
EU interested in importing Iraqi natural gas
By Dergham Mohammad Ali
Baghdad, May 23, (VOI) - A visiting European Union delegation said that EU countries are interested in importing Iraqi natural gas from the Ekas field in southern Iraq, the spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry said on Wednesday.

"EU representatives held talks this week with oil ministry officials, headed by oil minister Hussein al-Shahrestani, and expressed EU countries’ interest in importing Iraqi natural gas from the Ekas field, a huge field that extends from Ninewa province to the southern borders of Saudi Arabia," Essam Jihad told the independent news agency voices of Iraq (VOI).
"Ekas is one of the fields included in the ministry's development plan. It has a production capacity of 100,000 barrels per day, in addition to possible large amounts of gas in the western region that may turn Iraq into one of the largest natural gas producers in the Middle East region," he added.
"The delegation expressed desire to transport gas through the joint Arab pipeline that passes through a number of Arab countries: Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and through Turkey towards the EU," he also said, noting that the delegation expressed interest in importing the whole production.
"Large steps have been taken towards concluding the agreement and the EU delegation is interested in participating to develop Iraq’s oil fields," the spokesman affirmed.

Aswat Aliraq

Another supporting article that Natural Gas is becoming more important. Decrease EUs dependence on gas from Russia? "Largest Natural Gas producers in the ME". Interesting!

Originally Posted by bigred52

With all the delays and now the middle east is heating up fast and Iran
is about to get crushed: If it doesn't r/v by the end of June
its all over. BUT I AM NOT SELLING JUST IN CASE !

Hold onto it Red. As long as Iraq isn't drawn into the skirmish between us and Iran (i.e. we clean Iran'a clock) you may get your $3/dinar rate sooner than later....

If Iran is going through a rebuilding process that only makes Iraq's oil all the more attractive. That would eliminate a major competitior, eh.