Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

Iraq owes Russia 13 billion dollars

Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said that the Iraqi debt owed to Russia hit 13 billion dollars. Zebari stressed during a press conference that talks on the removal of part of these debts do not affect the prospects of Russian companies working in Iraq. It is noteworthy that Russia pledged to write off 80% of the debt owed by Iraq according to the decisions of the Paris Club.

Zebari explained that Russian officials are confident that the process will include writing off 90% of the debt and expressed his hope that the debt issue will be settled before the end of this year. He said the two sides will sign a memorandum of understanding in this regard. Zebari stressed Iraq's desire to develop relations with Russia in various areas.

Zebari, who is on a business visit to Moscow, handed over a letter from Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and he held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and the Minister of Energy, Viktor Khristenko.

Iraq owes Russia 13 billion dollars | Iraq Updates

US snipers 'baiting' Iraqis

US military snipers are "baiting" Iraqis with explosives and ammunition and then killing those who pick them up, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

Quoting military documents, the Post said Pentagon experts urged snipers to plant the items and then ambush anyone who tried to leave with those items.

The leader of an elite sniper group, Captain Matthew Didier, was quoted as saying in a sworn statement that they do put out bait "with the intention of destroying the enemy".

"If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against US forces," Didier said.

Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, criticised the baiting program as raising trouble, especially for civilians.
"If every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back," Fidell told the Post.

US snipers 'baiting' Iraqis | Iraq Updates

Blackwater remains in Iraq for now

Iraq will not take immediate steps to expel US security firm Blackwater, under investigation over a shooting which killed 11 Iraqis a week ago, a government security official said yesterday.

Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki had vowed to freeze the work of Blackwater, which employs about 1,000 people guarding the US embassy in Baghdad, after the shooting in western Baghdad last Sunday but it was back at work five days later.

The Iraqi government and US officials have agreed to set up a joint inquiry into the work of private security companies like US-based Blackwater, which many Iraqis see as private armies acting with impunity.

Softening stance

In what appeared to be a further softening of Iraq's response to the shooting, a government spokesman for Baghdad security said Blackwater and other private security companies were doing important work guarding foreign diplomats.

"If we drive out or expel this company immediately there will be a security vacuum that will demand pulling some troops that work in the field so that we can protect these institutes," spokesman Tahseen Al Sheikhly, speaking through an interpreter, told a news conference.
"This will create a security imbalance," he said.

Al Maliki's government has called the shooting a "flagrant assault" and a crime that angered the Iraqi people. Suggesting the US embassy stop using Blackwater, Al Maliki said on Wednesday he would not allow Iraqis to be killed in cold blood.

Blackwater, one of the biggest private security contractors in Iraq, has said its guards reacted "lawfully and appropriately" to an attack against a convoy it was guarding.

Its guards were back on Baghdad streets on Friday, after the US embassy eased a three-day ban on road travel by US officials outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

A senior Iraqi police source close to the investigation denied reports that the joint inquiry was examining video taken from the scene which showed that Blackwater guards had opened fire without any apparent provocation.
Iraq has said it would review the status of all private security firms, which employ between 25,000 and 48,000 guards.

Blackwater remains in Iraq for now | Iraq Updates

Iran shuts border with Iraq's Kurdish region: local official

Iran on Monday closed its border with Iraq's northern Kurdish region in protest at the arrest of an Iranian by the US military, a Kurdish official told AFP.

"All five entry points on the border between Iran and the Kurdish region have been closed by the Iranian authorities from today," said Jamal Abdallah, spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government.

There was no immediate confirmation from Iran.

The closure of the border came in protest over the detention of Mahmudi Farhadi, a civilian official, who was arrested from a hotel in Sulaimaniyah on Thursday by the US forces.

On Saturday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had demanded his immediate release, saying he was in Iraq as part of a trade delegation.

In a letter to the top US officials in Iraq, Talabani said Tehran had warned of closing the border if Farhadi was not freed.

Talabani said the Iranian was a civilian official who had been visiting with the blessing of both the Kurdish regional government and the authorities in Baghdad.

In a stern statement addressed to General David Petraeus, the head of US forces in Iraq and ambassador Ryan Crocker, he said: "I am informing you of our displeasure over the arrest of the Iranian civilian official without consulting the government of Kurdistan.

"That is a humiliation for the regional administration," said Talabani, who is himself a Kurd.

"You ignored our authority. I ask for his immediate release in order to maintain healthy relations between Iran and Kurdistan and for the prosperity of Kurdistan."

The US military charges that Farhadi was an officer in the covert operations arm of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

But Talabani insisted the detainee was an official on a "commercial mission with the knowledge of the federal government in Baghdad and the government of Kurdistan."

He said the arrest had triggered an angry reaction from Tehran which has "threatened to close its border with the Kurdish region if Mahmudi Farhadi, a civilian employee of Kermanshah (province in western Iran) is not released".

"This will handicap trade in the Kurdish region in this blessed month," he added in a reference to Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.

The US military insists that the detainee is a Quds Force officer, saying they used a photograph to identify him.

Iran's ambassador in Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, accused the US military of riding roughshod over Iraq's sovereignty.

"This kind of action violates the sovereignty of Iraq," he said in an interview with AFP.

"This is an example of American mistakes in Iraq."

The US military is also continuing to hold five Iranians it detained in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil in January on suspicion of aiding insurgents.

The five have never been charged and Iran insists they are diplomats.

The US military also briefly detained eight Iranians, including two diplomats, from a Baghdad hotel last month.

But it later released them following protests from the Iraqi government in what it described as a "regrettable incident."

Iran shuts border with Iraq's Kurdish region: local official | Iraq Updates

U.S.: Iran Smuggling Missiles to Iraq

The U.S. military accused Iran on Sunday of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops. The new allegations came as Iraqi leaders condemned the latest U.S. detention of an Iranian in northern Iraq, saying the man was in their country on official business.

Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said.

An American soldier was killed Saturday and another wounded when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad, the military said.

Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, a denial that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes aired Sunday.

"We don't need to do that. We are very much opposed to war and insecurity," said Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York Sunday to attend the U.N. General Assembly. "The insecurity in Iraq is detrimental to our interests."

Tensions between Iran and the United States have worried Iraqi officials — many of whom are members of political parties with close ties to Tehran.

A 240 mm rocket was fired this month at the main U.S. headquarters base in Iraq, killing one person and wounding 11.

U.S. officials said the rocket was fired from a west Baghdad neighborhood controlled by Shiite militiamen.

On Thursday, U.S. troops arrested an Iranian in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. U.S. officials said he was a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that smuggles weapons into Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the Iranian's arrest, saying he understood the man, who has been identified as Mahmudi Farhadi, had been invited to Iraq.

"The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa, it is responsible for the visa," he told The Associated Press in an interview in New York. "We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, also demanded the Iranian's release.

The U.S. military said the suspect was being questioned about "his knowledge of, and involvement in," the transportation of EFPs and other roadside bombs from Iran into Iraq and "his facilitation of travel and training in Iran for Iraqi insurgents." The military said no decision had been made about whether to file charges.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Farhadi was in charge of border transactions in western Iran and went to Iraq on an official invitation.

He said Iran expects the Iraqi government to provide security for Iranian nationals there and warned the arrest could affect relations between the two neighbors as well.

Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, said a shipment of chlorine had crossed the border from Jordan after concerns were raised about shortages of the chemical needed to prevent an outbreak of cholera from spreading.

Officials said earlier that as much as 100,000 tons of chlorine was being held up at the border for fear it would be hijacked and used in explosives. Several chlorine truck bombs blamed on suspected Sunni insurgents earlier this year killed scores of people.

Naeem al-Qabi, the deputy chief of Baghdad's municipal council, said warehouses in the capital were preparing to accept the chlorine, which would help purify water supplies.

"There is some administrative work needed to be done and it will be finished very soon," al-Qabi said.

U.S.: Iran Smuggling Missiles to Iraq | Iraq Updates

UN to host key meeting on rescue plan for Iraq

Iraq and its neighbours are to meet with major powers and donors on Saturday to review a UN-backed blueprint to rebuild the war-ravaged country riven by sectarian violence and divisions.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will co-chair the ministerial session which will consider how to bolster the UN presence in Iraq and weigh a five-year plan to stabilise the country on the political, economic and security fronts.

Organizers said the meeting aims to build on the momentum generated at the international conference on Iraq in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last May.

Some 20 countries, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and eight neighbors of Iraq -- Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey, are to attend.

Participants are to examine "challenges and opportunities" in implementing UN Security Council resolution 1770 adopted last month, as well as support for the Baghdad government's efforts to curb sectarian strife through an inclusive political dialogue and national reconciliation.

Resolution 1770 extended the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) by one year and urged it to "advise, support and assist" the Iraqi government on a wide range of issues.

The UN was specifically tasked with assisting Baghdad in pursuing national reconciliation and facilitating dialogue with its neighbors on issues of border security, humanitarian aid and the return of the estimated 4.5 million Iraqi refugees.

Ban told a press conference on Tuesday that he planned to discuss with Maliki "how to strengthen the UN role" in Iraq and review the "International Compact," the five-year rescue plan adopted last May at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference.

The International Compact with Iraq (ICI) is a joint initiative by the United Nations, the World Bank and Baghdad.

"The United Nations wants to do what it can to help in Iraq, subject to what the security situation permits and what the Iraqis themselves want us to be doing," UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe said on Wednesday.

"This meeting should be an important opportunity to exchange views with them in order to chart out the way forward," Pascoe said.

The UN allowed a maximum of 65 staffers to reside in Iraq after its Baghdad office was hit on August 19, 2003 by a truck bomb that killed 22 people, most notably its special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Currently there are 95 UN international staffers in the country -- 65 in Baghdad and 30 in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil -- in addition to several hundred international security personnel.

Some 235 UN-affiliated staffers also work out of Jordan and Kuwait.

"Even with only a small increase in UN staff on the ground, we believe we can do more for Iraq, in addressing the humanitarian needs, for example, but also in fostering dialogue and reconciliation," said Pascoe, who will attend the meeting.

Meanwhile Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special advisor on the International Compact, is to brief participants on Iraq's humanitarian, reconstruction and development needs and on pledges made by donors so far.

The meeting will also be attended by representatives of Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as by the European Union, the European Commission, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

UN to host key meeting on rescue plan for Iraq | Iraq Updates

Parliament session resumes in Baghdad

Iraqi parliament resumed on Saturday its 8th session within the 2nd legislative term this year, with the presence of 150 legislators out of a total of 275.

"The session is expected to make readings and vote on a number of draft laws including a draft law on amending the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Court Act, a law obstructed by the Presidential Council," a media source from the House told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

According to the Iraqi constitution, laws passed by the House should be ratified by the Presidential Council, the president and his two deputies, by majority, otherwise, the law will be sent back to the parliament for reconsideration.

The media source added "the session will also witness the reading of a report by a team of legislators who visited Diala province to probe into the security situation there."

"A reading of a draft law on offering compensations for AIDS patients who were infected because of the policies of the former regime will be made during today's session," he said.

The source expected a possible change in the session agenda if some lawmakers proposed discussing a given topic as soon as the session started.

Parliament session resumes in Baghdad | Iraq Updates

Baghdad seeks wider UN role in Iraq

Iraq urged regional and world powers on Saturday to back an expanded UN role in Iraq but UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said there was more to be done on security before he could increase UN staff.

Ministers from Iraq, its neighbors and world powers met at UN headquarters, with Washington pressing for implementation of a Security Council resolution passed last month on raising the role of the world body in Iraq.

The meeting brought US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice together with her Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, at a time of tension over Iran's nuclear ambitions but they did not address each other. Washington also accuses Iran of backing militants in Iraq.

Ban told the meeting regional cooperation was vital to reinforce Iraqi efforts at reconciliation and "avoid exacerbating tensions."

He said it was the duty and responsibility of the United Nations to help and he proposed setting up a small support office in Baghdad and possibly sending staff to the cities of Basra and Arbil in the future.

But when he was asked at a news conference whether security was sufficiently improved to actually commit more UN staff, Ban said: "The security situation, politically, socially ... (is) unstable at this time.

"I would really hope that security will be ensured as soon as possible," he said. "It's true that ... security has been improving, but I think much more has to be done."

Many UN officials are deeply concerned about working in Iraq, remembering a bomb that destroyed its office in Baghdad in August 2003 and killed 22 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Maliki said his government was making progress toward national reconciliation and played down defections by Sunni Arab political parties from his government. "When we talk of improvement, this doesn't mean that we don't have some problems but these problems are very small," he said.

"We are going to be able to provide security to the UN in a way that will allow it to perform its role in an effective manner," Maliki told reporters earlier after meeting Ban.

Rice described the talks as an "excellent meeting," saying there was an understanding that "it's the international community's responsibility to help."

"The security situation in Iraq is difficult but improving and certainly the security of UN personnel will be a very high priority for all of the forces there," she told reporters.

Saturday's meeting included members of the Security Council, Iraq's neighbors, members of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations and representatives of regional and international organizations.

Baghdad seeks wider UN role in Iraq | Iraq Updates

Parliament speaker announces establishing feminist bloc

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani announced the establishment of a feminist bloc with the aim of activating the role of women in the political decision-making process.

"The objective of this bloc is to underline the issues of the widows, orphans, the displaced, and families whose providers were killed," Mashhadani told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on Sunday.

Member of Parliament Safiya al-Suhail said the idea was intended to resist a male-dominated parliament, noting that the feminist bloc would seek solutions for problems the legislative and executive authorities could not reach.

The Iraqi parliament held a session on Sunday under Speaker Mashhadani to debate several important draft laws, a parliament's media source said.

"The parliament began its ninth session within the second legislative term on Sunday, and was attended by over 150 deputies from different blocs to vote on the drafts on retirement rights for consultants and the housing units rent allowances for the state and public sector departments," the source told VOI.

The agenda also includes the first reading of the draft on the Iraqi Central Bank and the resumption of the second reading of the draft on the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities, the source added.

Parliament speaker announces establishing feminist bloc | Iraq Updates

Technocracy to cancel 10 state ministries – UIC legislator

A member of parliament from the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) said on Sunday that the technocracy planned by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would cancel ten state ministries and merge two into one.

"The Iraqi Constitution ensures that no canceling or merging of ministries can take place except by virtue of a law passed by the parliament," Abbas al-Bayyati told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Maliki reiterated on Wednesday his plans to set up a technocratic government and trim his current one, criticizing the quota system upon which the government was based.

Regarding the dialogues by the UIC with the blocs that withdrew from it, Bayyati replied that the UIC was having a dialogue with the Islamic Fadhila (Virtue) Party.

"Our dialogues with the Fadhila have come a long way. The UIC will soon send a delegation to the Najaf province to negotiate with the political board of the Sadrists," or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, said Bayyati.

Fadhila, which holds 15 out of a total 275 seats in the Iraqi parliament, broke away from the UIC in March 2007 after rejecting what he called "the sectarian quota system policy," while the Sadrists quit earlier this month.

Technocracy to cancel 10 state ministries – UIC legislator | Iraq Updates