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

Parliament received draft accountability and justice law- lawmaker

The Iraqi parliament received last week the draft law on accountability and justice, formerly known as the debaathification law, from the Iraqi government and referred it to the concerned parliamentary committee, MP Abbas al-Bayyati said on Tuesday.

Parliamentary blocs held long discussions on the draft law, voiced their reservations about some points and a general consensus was reached, al-Bayyati, who is also a member of the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Some blocs believe that the draft law needs further study, al-Bayyati noted, adding that the bill will be on the parliament's agenda next week.

Some parliamentarians support the current wording of the draft law, while others suggest amendments that do not change the content of the debaathification law.

Parliament received draft accountability and justice law- lawmaker | Iraq Updates

Iraq Starts Exporting 5,000 B/D Oil To Jordan - SOMO Chief

Iraq has started exporting some 5,000 barrels a day of Kirkuk crude oil to Jordan since the weekend for the first time since the U.S.- led invasion in 2003, head of Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization, or SOMO, said Wednesday.

"We are happy to start supplying brotherly Jordan with part of its needs of crude oil," Falah Alamri told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone from Baghdad.

"We want to increase that amount gradually," he said.

An Iraqi oil industry source said SOMO aims to sell Jordan 10,000 barrels a day of Kirkuk oil initially and to reach 30,000 barrels a day at a later stage.

Jordan needs around 100,000 barrels a day to fuel Zarqa, the country's only refinery.

Iraq is selling the crude to Jordan at a heavily discounted price of dated Brent minus $22 a barrel, Alamri said.

Jordan has to pay the costs of transporting the crude from Kirkuk fields to Zarqa refinery, which is some 40 kilometers south of Amman.

Iraq agreed in August 2006 to supply Jordan with Kirkuk crude at undisclosed preferential prices during a rare visit by the country's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Before the U.S.-led invasion, Baghdad was Jordan's main energy supplier, delivering over $700 million worth of crude and oil products annually to the kingdom under undisclosed concessionary terms.

Iraq's oil sales to Jordan were halted after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in 2003.

Jordan has been relying on imported Saudi and Kuwaiti crude to keep its refinery running.

Nasdaq 100 Flash Quotes

Turkey and Iraq to sign anti-terrorism agreement

Turkey and Iraq are to sign an anti-terrorism agreement aimed at increasing cooperation between the two countries against Kurdish rebels which cross into Turkey from bases in northern Iraq, the CNN-Turk television station reported on Wednesday. CNN-Turk reported that Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani confirmed that a deal had been reached and that the final details would be completed by Thursday when the agreement is due to be signed.

Al-Bolani was in Ankara for talks with his Turkish counterpart Beshir Atalay.

Turkey is seeking a deal that would allow its forces to cross into Iraq in pursuit of rebels from the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Turkey is also seeking that the Iraqi security forces arrest and deport more than 100 PKK leaders known to be in Iraq.

Turkey has threatened to launch a full-scale military incursion into northern Iraq if US or Iraqi forces do not take steps to destroy PKK bases.

Washington and Baghdad fear that any such move by Turkey could destabilize the relative calm that exists in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

More than 32,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish- populated south-east. Turkey claims that a recent upsurge in attacks is thanks in part to the smuggling of US weapons from Iraq into Turkey.

Both the United States and the European Union consider the PKK to be a terrorist organization.

Turkey and Iraq to sign anti-terrorism agreement : Middle East World

Iraq: Kurdistan-Turkey oil pipeline could become reality

Iraqi authorities are considering the construction of a pipeline connecting the oil fields of Kirkuk, a contested area in Iraq's Kurdistan region, to the seaports of southern Turkey, Baghdad's deputy oil minister Mutasim Akram has said.

The proposed pipeline would pass through Kurdistan's provinces of Erbil and Dahuk, Akram explained noting how these areas were "outside the zones of high tension where continous acts of sabotage against oil plants take place".

Akram made the announcement in an interview with the Kurdish language daily, Rozmana.

If the proposal were to be approved by the central government, then Baghdad would "need maximum co-operation" from the Kurdistan regional authorities based in Erbil, Akram said.

"The Turkish port of Jihan is the best maritime hub for the export of Iraqi crude oil", said Akram while lamenting the "terrorist attacks" in Iraq which continued to prevent his country from achieving its full oil export potential.

Akram said that crude oil would continue to be piped to Iraq's southern port of Basra "where we expect an improvement in the situation soon," he added.

Authorities in Kurdistan claim the oli-rich Kirkuk area as part of their autonomous region's territory, but local Arab and Turkmen ethnic minorities, supported by Turkey, dispute this.

AKI - Adnkronos international Iraq: Kurdistan-Turkey oil pipeline could become reality

Iraq Sunni party drafts new political principles

The largest Sunni Arab party in Iraq unveiled a set of political principles on Wednesday that it said would hopefully unite the country's feuding politicians.

Senior officials in the Iraqi Islamic Party told a news conference that copies of the platform, called "The Iraqi National Compact", would be given to all political parties as well as senior clerics and neighbouring countries.

The deep sectarian divide in Iraq has hobbled decision making and slowed progress on key laws that Washington wants passed to boost reconciliation between warring majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been hit by the defection of a dozen Shi'ite and Sunni Arab ministers, while parliament has also had to cope with boycotts.

Vice president and leader of the Islamic Party, Tareq al-Hashemi, said the 25 principles aimed to remove deep mistrust among politicians.

"The true reason behind the difference of opinion originates in mutual fear, the lack of confidence and distrust not only between those involved in the political process and those outside of it, but primarily between those parties in the process," Hashemi said.

The compact's broad principles cover issues such as ending sectarianism, ensuring weapons are only in the hands of the state, guaranteeing that power is transferred through peaceful, democratic methods and promoting human rights.

The Islamic Party is part of the Sunni Accordance Front, which pulled out of the government early last month, accusing Maliki of ignoring their demands, which included a greater say in security affairs and the release of detainees.

Hashemi suggested international and regional bodies such as the United Nations or the Arab League could act as guarantors of the 25 principles, although he did not elaborate.

Several initiatives in the past two years to provide broad political and religious agreements have failed to produce effective results on the ground.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26861655.htm

Iran border closure costing million dollars a day: Iraq

Iran's closure of its frontier with Iraq is costing the autonomous Kurdish region one million dollars a day, a government minister said on Wednesday, as trucks remained stuck at the border.

"There are goods costing millions waiting across the border," Kurdistan trade minister Mohammed Raouf told AFP, referring to the Haj Umran frontier post near the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil.

Efforts were now under way to redirect the trucks, many carrying frozen goods such as chicken, meat and eggs, through neighbouring Turkey into Iraq, he said.

"The Kurdistan region is losing one million dollars per day because of the closure."

Iran said on Monday it was closing its frontier with Iraq in protest at the detention last week of Iranian national Mahmudi Farhadi by US troops.

The US military charges that Farhadi is an officer in the covert operations arm of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, accused by American commanders of helping Shiite militias involved in Iraq's bloody sectarian conflict.

Iran has made clear that it regards Iraqi sovereignty as at stake in Farhadi's continued custody, after both the regional and national authorities of Iraq said he had been visiting with their consent.

Angry Kurdish merchants in Arbil said they were being forced to search for other sources of foodstuffs and electronic goods, the main items imported from Iran, possibly in Turkey or Syria.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, on Tuesday declared the arrest of the Iranian "illegal" and again demanded his release.

"We have asked the US authorities to release the arrested man," Talabani told reporters in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah.

"Arresting a person in Kurdistan is illegal because his security file was under the jurisdiction of the provincial government," said Talabani.

Iran border closure costing million dollars a day: Iraq - Yahoo! News

Iraq's al-Maliki appears to have weathered political crisis

Nearly two months after Sunni Arab ministers walked out, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appears to have weathered a political crisis that once threatened to bring down his government.

Using a mix of brinkmanship, political cunning and strong U.S. support, the Shiite leader now appears to have seized the political initiative from his opponents.

"I am victorious whether I stay in office or someone else takes over the helm," al-Maliki told Alhurra television in an interview aired Monday night.

He confidently dismissed charges by his Sunni Arab critics that he was pursuing sectarian policies. And he brushed aside criticism that he has failed to win over the Arab world's Sunni-dominated regimes.

The prime minister also took credit for the U.S.-backed revolt by Sunni tribal chiefs against al-Qaida in Anbar province, a one-time stronghold of insurgents. He blamed parliament for blocking legislation and holding up the appointment of new ministers by often failing to muster a quorum.

Al-Maliki, who met President Bush this week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings, owes his survival in no small part to White House support and the failure of his critics to close ranks against his rule.

Six Sunni Arab ministers quit al-Maliki's government in early August over his failure to meet demands that included the release of security detainees not charged with specific crimes, disbanding militias and wider inclusion in decision-making on security issues.

The six come from the Iraq Accordance Front, parliament's largest Sunni Arab bloc with 44 of the house's 275 seats. It is made up of three parties - Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi's moderate Iraqi Islamic Party and the hard-line Congress of the People of Iraq led by Adnan al-Dulaimi and the National Dialogue Council headed by Sheik Khalaf al-Ilyan.

However, one of the six ministers who pulled out, Planning Minister Ali Baban, returned to his post last week. He was expelled by the Iraq Accordance Front and is currently in New York with al-Maliki.

Another Accordance Front member, deputy prime minister Salam al-Zobaie, met with al-Maliki on Thursday against the advice of his comrades and is said to be considering a comeback.

Lawmakers and al-Maliki aides say Washington's strong support was key to his survival.

Al-Maliki solidified his position when his Dawa party joined the "alliance of moderates," comprising the two main Kurdish parties and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the country's largest Shiite party.

The move by those groups to continue their support for al-Maliki quashed months of speculation that a new political alliance would be formed to oust him.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker surprisingly refrained from direct criticism of al-Maliki when he testified before Congress on Sept. 11, ignoring a flurry of negative U.S. reports on issues ranging from the capability of Iraq's security forces to corruption and political reform.

"Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the other Iraqi leaders face enormous obstacles in their efforts to govern effectively," Crocker said. "They approach the task with a deep sense of commitment and patriotism."

Crocker had repeatedly complained of the lack of progress by the Iraqi government in meeting political benchmarks set by Washington. Those include an equitable distribution of oil wealth, holding provincial elections and constitutional reform.

"The Americans support al-Maliki because they have no substitute," said Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish lawmaker who is close to President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd.

"But it's a failed government," he said.

Still, al-Maliki needs Sunni Arab participation or his administration would permanently loose its claim to being a "national unity" government.

Without it, his government is a Shiite-Kurdish coalition that falls short of the wider political inclusion Washington has been calling for.

But al-Maliki appears to be confident he can fill the vacant Cabinet jobs, and aides say he is expected to make a decision on the issue on his return from New York later this week.

Until then, al-Maliki has sought to put pressure on the Sunnis, saying that the Cabinet jobs they left could not remain indefinitely vacant and threatening in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday to fill the posts by other Sunnis: specifically, U.S.-backed tribal chiefs in Anbar.

He did it again Monday, telling Alhurra he was considering the formation of a government of "technocrats" that would be smaller than the 40-member cabinet he has led since May last year.

"We reject blackmail," al-Hashemi, the Sunni Arab vice president, told reporters Monday.

Iraq's al-Maliki appears to have weathered political crisis | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

CAIRO, Sept 26 (KUNA) -- Security conditions in Iraq are improving as a result of government efforts, the visiting Iraqi Vice President Dr. Adel Abdel Mehdi said on Wednesday.

The senior official, during a meeting with Al-Azhar Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Sayed Tantawi, said the number of bombing attacks was subsiding and the security conditions in the country were improving.

Al-Mehdi warned of the perils of terrorism, radicalism and religious fatwas of deviation as they pose a threat to security not only in Iraq but in all countries of the region.

The Egyptian supreme religious authority affirmed necessity of reaching a consensus among scholars of the diverse religious schools to renounce terrorism and prohibit attacks on sanctities.

The visiting Iraqi official held talks with Prime Minister Ahmad Natheef, two days ago.

Kuna site|Story page|Security conditions in Iraqi improving -- Iraqi of...9/26/2007


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Signs of progress in a corner of Iraq


IRBIL, Iraq — Billboards in Kurdistan's capital boast that luxury malls and hotels are on the way, but banking and insurance systems barely function. Cranes loom over building sites, but few government inspectors check the quality of construction.

This is economic development, on the fly. A sign at the office of a trade association sums up the freewheeling business environment in the part of Iraq controlled by a Kurdish administration.

"Please leave your gun at reception," it says.

While much of Iraq is a patchwork of factions at war with U.S.-led troops or one another, the Kurdish zone north of Baghdad is mostly peaceful. The relative stability is fostering development. But the Kurdish economy is weak, dependent on imports and prone to political uncertainty and concerns about transparency.

Some investors are diving into this poor region full of untapped oil wealth, taking risks that would be unacceptable in a Western-style business environment. They include Kurdish businessmen based in Europe and the United States, Turks, Persian Gulf Arabs and a smaller number of Europeans and Americans.

Sigma International Construction, a Chantilly, Va.-based company, is building more than 350 luxury homes on the outskirts of Irbil. Right now, the "American Village" development is little more than leveled earth and shells of half-completed houses, designed with walk-in closets, back doors of sliding glass and fully equipped kitchens.

Jim Covert, Sigma's director in Kurdistan, said 80 homes had been sold in advance, and several regional Cabinet ministers were clients. The most expensive residence, the "Palace," sells for $580,000.

"People don't blink," said Covert, who employs Serb foremen and Bangladeshi laborers because they are more skilled than Kurdish workers. "People have money here and they have nothing nice to spend it on."

The same optimism is visible at construction sites across the city, though most of them seem a long way from the billboard images of gleaming office towers and five-star hotels bordered by lush lawns.

The regional investment board has licensed 51 projects with a total value of $5 billion since last year. But implementation is still in the early stages, with only about 20 percent of that money spent.

Two decades ago, most of Kurdistan's villages were systematically destroyed during Saddam Hussein's Anfal campaign against the Kurdish population. U.N. sanctions imposed on Saddam's regime also hurt the Kurds, even though they enjoyed a U.S.-backed safe haven after the 1991 Gulf War.

Although uneven, development since the fall of Saddam in 2003 has yielded real benefits in the territory of about 4 million.

The two main cities, Irbil and Sulaimaniyah, have new airports and are building roads, housing, malls and schools. De****e a recent outbreak of cholera in Kurdistan, many Irbil residents have access to clean water from a treatment facility built with help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

One new gasoline station in Irbil looks as good as anything in an American suburb or freeway stop. It takes credit cards and has 16 pumps and a minimarket that sells potato chips, chocolate bars and other junk food from neighboring Turkey.

Hundreds of Turkish companies operate in Kurdistan, even though their government has threatened to stage a cross-border attack on a separatist rebel group of Turkish Kurds who have bases in remote parts of northern Iraq.

Another source of political uncertainty is Kurdistan's relationship with Baghdad, where disputes over drafts of oil and revenue-sharing laws have blocked progress toward a unified, central government. Kurdistan's leaders signed an exploration deal with Hunt Oil of Texas after drafting their own oil law, and the national oil ministry quickly questioned its legality.

Nazaneen Muhammad Wusu, regional minister of municipalities, said international bank loans for Kurdistan have to be approved by the central government — a bottleneck on progress.

"Baghdad is not in a normal situation," she said. "They are more busy with security issues, political difficulties. We are suffering indirectly from the situation there."

Kurdistan is also on the national power grid and suffers constant blackouts that force people to use private generators.

Kurdistan passed an investment law last year that allows foreign investors to get free land, as well as import materials and repatriate profits without paying tax. But the banking system is so basic that it is difficult to wire money out of the country, and insurance is virtually nonexistent.

Foreign agencies are helping to build up Kurdistan's institutions, teaching basic skills such as how to use a computer. Still, a culture of transparency has yet to take hold, and business deals often rely on the power of personal connections.

"There may be some corruption here and there, we don't deny it," said Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the foreign-relations department of the regional government. But he said Kurdistan was committed to an open business environment that could eventually make it an economic "gateway" to the rest of Iraq.

The Seattle Times: Signs of progress in a corner of Iraq

Iraqi oil exports to north rise
Attacks fall sharply on oil pipeline to Turkey thanks to new security measures.

A campaign to stop sabotage on the key Iraqi oil pipeline running north from Kirkuk to Turkey has led to sustained oil exports for the first time since the war began, say US officers and Iraqi officials.

Iraq's state oil company now has 15 million barrels of crude for sale at the Turkish port of Ceyhan this month, the biggest amount at least since the war began. And foreign oil investors are taking notice.

When measured against Iraq's vast oil reserves (the world's second largest), the precious crude flowing north these days is modest. But the ability to sell – and generate revenues for the nation – is directly connected to the ability to secure the pipelines. In the first three months of this year, the pipeline from the central Iraqi refinery at Bayji (one of three in Iraq) suffered 30 attacks that caused "significant" financial loses, Iraqi officials say. But in the past six months, there have been fewer than 10 attacks.

The key, says Col. Jack Pritchard, has been the successful training of 3,000 Iraqi soldiers to guard the pipeline. A year ago, when the 3rd battalion of the US Army's 7th Field Artillery Regiment arrived in Kirkuk, many of the Iraqi guards were suspected of working with insurgents to attack pipelines, says Colonel Pritchard, the battalion commander. The bad apples were replaced, and Iraqi Army units from Baghdad were brought in. The great challenge now for the Iraqis, Pritchard says, lies in "sustaining their army and keeping themselves free of corruption."

"The benefits that can be gained from Iraq's oil potential are now starting to exceed the potential costs of instability in the North because the North has shown itself to be more stable over time," says Steve Yetiv, a professor of political science at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and author of "Crude Awakenings: Global Oil Security and American Foreign Policy."

US units and the Iraqis have also been hard at work building fortifications to make it more difficult to attack the pipeline between Kirkuk and the refinery at Bayji. The 50-mile Bayji to Kirkuk "pipeline exclusion zone" (PEZ) is to be a maze of concertina wire, ditches, high berms, and guard towers.

The "obstacle alone cannot keep people away, but it will slow them down enough so they can be captured," said Lt. Col. Bob Ruud of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The pipeline fortifications are scheduled for completion by March at an estimated overall cost of $30 million – about the same as the estimated value of one day's oil flowing through the Bayji to Kirkuk pipeline. Most of Iraq's vast pipeline network is above ground. Early in the war, US officials explored the option of burying existing pipeline, but that was found to be too expensive.

But some are skeptical that the pipelines long-term safety is assured. James Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum in New York, closely follows the Iraqi oil situation.

While attacks may have gone down on the northern pipeline, Mr. Paul says that the real question is if American and Iraqi security forces can maintain the relative peace. "It's a matter of whether they can keep this thing going," he says. "They don't have a very good record anywhere in the country of maintaining these pipelines."

"It's a shell game," says Paul. He argues that when the US floods an area with troops, the insurgents simply relocate. "The insurgents are not stupid; they don't do stand-up battles with the United States."

Iraqi oil officials in Kirkuk say the region's fields are producing 520,000 barrels a day at the moment, 320,000 of which are piped to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Ministry of Oil officials say current national production is 2.4 million barrels a day – nearly prewar levels – though outside analysts estimate production is close to 2 million barrels.
Iraqi officials say the security improvements in the Kirkuk area could help them lure investment to an industry that is saddled with outdated equipment.

At a recent meeting in Amman, Jordan, Iraqi oil officials discussed the possibility of developing fields in southern Iraq with Chevron, the Kirkuk fields with Shell, and the eastern Baghdad fields with Japex.

The Russian company Ivanov is looking at Ghiada in northwest Iraq, while Conoco Phillips and the Iraqi government's Northern Oil Company (NOC) have an agreement to share information that could lead to the development of a new field in the Kirkuk area, says Manaa Abdullah, the director general of Northern Oil.

Plans are being discussed to build three new major refineries in the north, center, and south. The intent is to produce 6 million barrels a day, and to export 5.2 million barrels by 2010. The NOC would contribute 1.5 million to 2 million barrels, Mr. Abdullah says.

The greatest obstacle to oil production and oil export in Iraq is security, and then investments, says Abdullah. Iraq's oil industry needs investment in two areas – rebuilding oil infrastructure now and field development in the future. And this depends on "how companies look at Iraq, because any company wants profit," he added.

However, oil legislation has been stalled in Iraq's parliament for over a year, with Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis fighting to divide the national oil wealth in a manner that favors their ethnic or sectarian interests. In the meantime, the regulatory framework remains unclear to foreign companies.

Iraq's Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani told Reuters earlier this week that his ministry will start to sign development deals by the end of the year, whether the legislation is finished or not.

But the legal vacuum has already created a great deal of confusion, particularly with the semiautonomous Kurds signing a number of recent oil deals that Mr. Shahristani alleges are illegal. The most prominent of the deals signed with the Kurds was made by Hunt Oil, whose owner, Ray Hunt, has been a key fundraiser for President George Bush.

The deals being made by the Kurds are predicated on the fact that the region is much safer than the rest of the country. But there, too, oil companies should take care, argues Amy Myers Jaffe, energy fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston.

"The Kurds would like to give the impression that it's this stable oasis in the state, but it's much more complicated than that," says Ms. Jaffe.

Given Turkey's concerns about a separate Kurdish state, Jaffe says that if the north of Iraq begins to break away from the rest of the country, Turkey, and even Iraq's south, may not allow the Kurds to export oil through their territories. "If you're an international oil company, you have to be concerned with the politics of the north," says Jaffe.

As a member of the Iraq Study Group, Jaffe interviewed people about the Bayji oil refinery nearly a year ago. At the time, the plant was subject to so many attacks that those Jaffe spoke with suggested that the best option would be to close down the refinery. "So if [the security situation there] has changed, it's a big improvement."

Iraqi oil exports to north rise | csmonitor.com