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

Seaview and Lunar,
I noticed a few other people thanked you both again, today and yesterday, and I am still here with my same thanks a week or so ago. I appreciate all you both post. It helps me a LOT. THANKS AGAIN SO MUCH.

Parliament adopts firm position against Congress proposal

The Parliament would adopt firm position at its session on Tuesday against the nonbinding proposal of the US Senate about Iraq's division last week.

MP Abbas Bayati, Alliance, said that the council would response towards the US proposal, referred to that all blocs reject this plan and consider it as dangerous slide.

Bayati added that the proposal revealed wrong view to Iraqi political fact.
The US Senate adopted nonbinding resolution to divide Iraq to three regions with central Govt. responsible of borders' security and distributing oil revenues only.

Parliament adopts firm position against Congress proposal | Iraq Updates

Originally Posted by Seaview

Iran says it ready to help US stabilize Iraq

Iran will help the United States stabilize neighbouring Iraq if Washington sets out a timetable for a withdrawal of its troops, Iran 's chief nuclear negotiator said in an interview published on Monday.

"If they (the Americans) have a clear definition of a timetable we'll help them materialise it," Ali Larijani told Britain's Financial Times newspaper. Larijani, the secretary of Iran 's Supreme National Security Council, added that Washington's failures in Iraq should deter the US from any further foreign interventions and warned the United States to stay clear of Iran. He said any attack on Iran would be like Washington "sticking its hand into a beehive". (Reuters)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...455082,00.html

Originally Posted by Seaview

The Iranian Artillery Resumes Bombardment of Kurdistan Region Border Areas

The Iranian artillery once again resumed its bombardment of Kurdistan region Border areas in some areas of Pishder district.

The bombardment is targeting Aliye Resh, Zewke, and Sadr Mountain of Zharawe sub-district.

The shelling till now caused no casualties, hoever causing great worry to the local citizens, Azad Wsu, director of Zharawe sub—district told PUKmedia on Sunday evening.

PUKmedia :: English - The Iranian Artillery Resumes Bombardment of Kurdistan Region Border Areas

Sure, they'll help the US stabilize Iraq, just as soon as they are done bombing them!

What does Iran think the World sees here?

Sheese....

Iraq Official Critical of Iranian Move

Iraq's foreign minister says Iran is punishing the Kurdish region for something the Kurdish authorities were not responsible for — the arrest of an Iranian official by the U.S. military on Sept. 20.

Hoshyar Zebari said late Saturday that he raised the issue of Iran's closure of five border crossing points into the northern Kurdish region with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly's ministerial meeting.

Zebari said he told Mottaki "this is not a wise move, this can only undermine the atmosphere of confidence, and you're punishing the whole region for an act that they were not responsible for."

The U.S. military said the Iranian, Mahmudi Farhadi, was a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards alleged to smuggle weapons to Shiite extremists.

The arrest has raised friction between U.S. and Iraqi authorities at a time when tempers were already running high over the killing Sept. 16 of 11 Iraqi civilians allegedly by security guards from Blackwater USA, which protects American diplomats in Iraq.

Blackwater insists its guards acted legally and were returning fire from armed insurgents.

Zebari said the Iraqi government has asked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for all the facts, and reiterated Iraqi calls for the U.S. to release the Iranian official. But Zebari said the Iranian remains in U.S. custody, and the border remains shut.

"I think that was a direct response to the detention of an Iranian official by the U.S. military in Sulaimaniyah, and this was a collective punishment for the region, for something that the Kurdish regional authorities were not responsible," Zebari said.

"And I personally feel it's unfair and unjust, and it has affected the economic life of the region. Prices have gone up," he said. "The region is dependent in some way on fuel supplies from Iran, but the Iranians want to make a point here."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied in an Associated Press interview on Monday that Iran closed its border with Iraq over the arrest of the Iranian.

"On an annual basis, millions of Iranians visit Iraq and Iraq's holy sites for pilgrimage purposes," he said.

"Recently, as a result of some clashes and the explosion of some bombs, a number of Iranian civilian casualties arose. So the government has asked Iranian citizens to avoid traveling for pilgrimage purposes until security is restored. The commercial goods and freight transactions continue, and the travel across the border for those purposes continue," Ahmadinejad said.

Iraq Official Critical of Iranian Move | Iraq Updates

And again.......

Iraqi Parties denounce Splitting Country

Representatives of Iraq's major political parties on Sunday strongly denounced a U.S. Senate proposal calling for a limited centralized Iraqi government with the bulk of the power given to the country's ethnically divided regions.

The groups, which represented both Shiites and Sunnis, said the plan would hamper Iraq's future stability, and they suggested parliament draft a law permanently banning the splitting of Iraq along sectarian or ethnic lines.

"This proposal was based on the incorrrect reading and unrealistic estimations of Iraq's past, present and future," according to the statement read by Izzat al-Shahbandar, a representative of the Iraqi National List, a secular political party.

The nonbinding Senate resolution calls for Iraq to be divided into federal regions under control of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis in a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., was a prime sponsor of the measure.

The Kurds in three northern Iraqi provinces are running a virtually independent country within Iraq, while nominally maintaining relations with Baghdad. They support a formal division, but both Sunni and Shiite Muslims have denounced the proposal.

The majority Shiites, who would retain control of major oil revenues under a division of the country, oppose the measure because it would diminish the territorial integrity of Iraq, which they now control. Sunnis would control an area with few if any oil resources. Kurds have major oil reserves in their territory.

Al-Shahbandar said at a news conference the proposal "opposes all laws of the international community and its legitimate institutions which protect all the rights of people in self-decision, building their future and defending their unity and sovereignty."

He added that the international community should denounce the proposal and "support Iraq in its crisis and its efforts to restore security and stability in all its areas."

On Friday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press that "dividing Iraq is a problem, and a decision like that would be a catastrophe.

Iraq's constitution lays down a federal system, allowing Shiites in the south, Kurds in the north and Sunnis in the center and west of the country to set up regions with considerable autonomous powers.

Nevertheless, ethnic and sectarian turmoil have snarled hopes of negotiating such measures, especially given deep divisions on sharing the country's vast oil resources. Oil reserves and existing fields would fall mainly into the hands of Kurds and Shiites if such a division were to occur.

Also Sunday, a judge delayed court proceedings for a second U.S. Army sniper accused in the deaths of two unarmed Iraqi civilians a day after a military panel sentenced a 22-year-old spe******t to five months in prison for his role in the crimes.

Jorge G. Sandoval was convicted Thursday of planting evidence on one of the unidentified Iraqis who died last spring. He was acquitted of two murder charges.

Sandoval had faced five charges in the deaths of the two unidentified Iraqi men. In dramatic testimony during the four-day court-martial, his colleague, Sgt. Evan Vela, testified he had pulled the trigger and killed one of the men Sandoval was accused of murdering.

Vela said the sniper team was following orders when it shot the men during two separate incidents near Iskandariyah, a Sunni-dominated area south of Baghdad, on April 27 and May 11.

Vela, 23, was expected to undergo a pretrial hearing Sunday until a military judge decided to postpone those proceedings for at least a month. Vela's civilian defense lawyer had asked that the hearing be closed to the media because of classified information expected to be discussed.

Iraqi Parties denounce Splitting Country | Iraq Updates

And again.....

96% refuse decision of dividing Iraq

In a poll made by as-Sabah newspaper in Kerbala province on US nonbinding congress decision to divide Iraq into three districts depending on sectarian and national base, for each one of it a central government, protect boundaries and manage the oil revenues to get Iraq out of the current mess and the gradual withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq.

The overwhelming majority of the citizens who not support the decision and consider it as an interference in Iraq's internal affairs and US plan put before the US occupation.

http://www.rolclub.com/newreply.php?...ote=1&p=241625

And again.............seems it's all there talking about today

Iraqi political parties flay 'advice' from Capitol Hill

Representatives of Iraq's major political parties on Sunday strongly denounced a US Senate proposal calling for a limited centralized government with the bulk of the power given to the country's ethnically divided regions, saying it would seriously hamper future stability.

The groups, which represented both Shiites and Sunnis, said the plan would diminish Iraq's sovereignty and suggested Parliament draft a law permanently banning the splitting of Iraq along sectarian or ethnic lines.

"This proposal was based on the incorrect reading and unrealistic estimations of Iraq's past, present and future," according to the statement read by Izzat al-Shahbandar, a representative of the Iraqi National List, a secular political party, during a news conference.

"[The proposal] opposes all laws of the international community and its legitimate institutions which protect all the rights of people in self-decision, building their future and defending their unity and sovereignty," he said, adding that the international community should denounce the proposal and "support Iraq in its crisis and its efforts to restore security and stability in all its areas."

Syrian President Bashar Assad brushed aside the US Senate plan, instead pledging support for Baghdad's "sovereignty" in talks on Saturday with Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi.

Assad pledged "Syria's support for the political process under way in Iraq and national reconciliation between all the Iraqi peoples," the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

On Sunday Mahdi traveled to Jordan, where King Abdullah II urged Iraq's Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite leaders to reconcile,.

"King Abdullah II expressed hope that a reconciliation agreement between Iraqi Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders would be a serious step toward Iraqi unity," a palace statement said. "Jordan supports Iraq's reconciliation efforts to restore stability through the participation of all segments of the Iraqi people in the political process to help them preserve their unity and end violence."

Also Sunday, a judge delayed court proceedings for a second US Army sniper accused in the deaths of two unarmed Iraqi civilians a day after a military panel sentenced a 22-year-old spe******t to five months in prison for his role in the crimes.

Jorge G. Sandoval also received a reduction in rank to private and a forfeiture of his pay after he was convicted Thursday of planting evidence on one of the unidentified Iraqis, who were killed last spring. He was acquitted of two murder charges.

Violence, meanwhile, claimed dozens lives across Iraq over the weekend, with a flurry of attacks around the northern city of Mosul, where bombs, gunmen and mortar fire killed 14. Two US soldiers were killed by gunfire, one in Diyala Province north of Baghdad and one in a southern district of the capital.

Sandoval had faced five charges in the deaths of the two Iraqi men. In dramatic testimony during the four-day court-martial, his colleague, Sergeant Evan Vela, testified that he had pulled the trigger and killed one of the men Sandoval was accused of murdering.

Vela said the sniper team was following orders when it shot the men during two separate incidents near Iskandariyya, a volatile Sunni-dominated area about 50 kilometers south of Baghdad, on April 27 and May 11.

Vela, 23, had been expected to undergo a pretrial hearing Sunday until a military judge decided to postpone those proceedings for at least a month. Vela's civilian defense lawyer had asked that the hearing be closed to the media because of classified information expected to be discussed.

Gary Myers, one of Vela's lawyers, claimed this week that US Army snipers hunting insurgents in Iraq were under orders to "bait" their targets with suspicious materials, such as detonation cord, then kill those who picked up the items. He said his client was acting on those orders.

Asked about the "baiting program," Captain Craig Drummond, Sandoval's military defense attorney, said it was unclear "what programs were going on out there and when," especially "if there were things that were done that made the rules of engagement not clear."

Vela's hearing was delayed until November 10. Hensley, who has already faced such a hearing, goes on trial in Baghdad on October 22.

In violence Saturday, Iraqi soldiers acting on a tip tried to intercept a suicide driver as his pickup truck headed toward Mosul, 360 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. As the Iraqi Humvee neared the truck, the driver detonated his explosive payload, according to an officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Three soldiers and three civilians were killed, the official said.

Forty kilometers northeast of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, a parked car bomb exploded in Hamdaniyya, killing four policemen and two civilians, according to police Brigadier Mohammad al-Wagga.

Iraqi political parties flay 'advice' from Capitol Hill | Iraq Updates

More.................

US administration backs up Iraq unity against partition - American Embassy

The American embassy in Iraq stressed Sunday that the U.S. administration backed up a unified and stabilized Iraq, warning any plans to segregate Iraqis would lead to more bloodshed and suffering.

The Statement by the embassy was released this evening hours after the Iraqi parliament rejection to the US Senate decision to separate Iraq, citing the U.S. administration stance over the decision.

The embassy said "In view of the non-binding resolution concerning Iraq passed by the United States Senate on September 27, the Embassy wishes to make clear that it remains the firm policy of the American Administration to support a stable, secure, and unified Iraq." "Our goal in Iraq remains the same: a united, democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself. Iraq's leaders must and will take the lead in determining how to achieve these national aspirations," indicated the statement, adding "As we have said in the past, attempts to partition or divide Iraq by intimidation, force or other means into three separate states would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed. The United States has made clear our strong opposition to such attempts." The U.S. Embassy indicated "The Iraqi people adopted a constitution in October 2005, which includes provision for possible expansion of federal structures in Iraq. Iraqis are now considering ways to amend that constitution, but partition is not on the table. The United States fully supports the Iraqis in their efforts to achieve peace and stability." The Senate resolution was met by refusal by the Iraqi parliament and government, the U.S. administration, and the Arab League.

The Senate indicated that the plan would defuse sectarian tension through providing Iraqi Sunnis with part of the national oil revenues, increasing reconstruction efforts, debt relief, in addition to gathering support from world leading countries and neighboring states to support a federal Iraq.

US administration backs up Iraq unity against partition - American embassy | Iraq Updates

Security may trump ethnicity in Kirkuk
Kurds have long sought the mixed city and its environs for their semiautonomous region. Now some Arabs think that may not be so bad.

A staunch Arab nationalist, Ismail Hadidi once dreaded the possibility that his ethnically diverse city would be swallowed up by the neighboring semiautonomous Kurdish region and cut off from the Baghdad government.

But the provincial councilman is also a practical man. And when he compares the chaos and violence in the Iraqi capital with the prosperity and peace next door in the three-province Kurdistan Regional Government area, teaming up with the Kurds doesn't seem like such a bad idea. He's even considering buying some property in the Kurdish enclave.

"The people of Kirkuk were afraid of this," said Hadidi, a Sunni Arab tribal leader. "But given the situation, I believe most people will move toward being part of Kurdistan, because what the people want above all is security."

Uncertainty clouds Iraq's future, but not so much here. The Kurdish region's exploding economic and political power has begun to shape northern Iraq's reality.

Oil-rich and ethnically diverse Kirkuk, the capital of Tamim province, was billed as northern Iraq's most contested prize in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and its fate was to be resolved by the new Iraqi Constitution, which instead mandated a referendum. But that hasn't happened yet. And now, just as medieval peasants clung to local warlords who could protect them from looters and bandits, this gritty city's war- and poverty-ravaged population has begun gravitating toward the Kurds, who are hungrily reclaiming territory lost to successive waves of Arabization.

Few doubt what will happen when U.S. forces exit. Grown strong and rich in their enclave of more than 16,000 square miles, Iraq's Kurds will rush to annex Tamim and other areas in Diyala and Nineveh provinces they have laid claim to, which could double the size of their de facto state.

"The Kurdistan region will include all parts of Iraq that are historically and geographically part of Kurdistan," predicted Omer Fattah, deputy premier of the Kurdistan Regional Government, which is based in Irbil.

Hussein and leaders of earlier Arab-dominated Baghdad governments sought to upend the oil-rich region's ethnic balance by forcibly evicting tens of thousands of Kurds and other non-Arab minorities and replacing them with Arab settlers. A referendum on whether Kirkuk and its outlying province will join the Kurdish region is scheduled to take place by year's end.

However, many doubt the vote will be held. Politicians in Baghdad said this week it can't be held until well into 2008. Kurds blame the delays on U.S. reluctance to address an explosive Iraqi political issue. At the same time, Kurds say the Americans are increasingly less of a factor in the north. Kirkuk security officials say U.S. forces have already moved from the city to more volatile Baghdad and central Iraq.

A U.S. Army spokesman in Kirkuk skirted the question of redeployment. "Our brigade remains committed to providing security and partnering with Iraqi forces to maintain stability in the Kirkuk province," said Maj. Derrick W. Cheng of the 31st Brigade Combat Team in response to an e-mail query.

Kurds say they don't mind the Americans leaving. "We are thinking about it and preparing for it," said Abdul-Salaam Berwari, who runs a think tank close to the Kurdish leadership. "It's OK for us if they do that."

Kurdish officials suggest that it might be better if the U.S. pulled out of day-to-day operations in the north. Without Washington's political obligations to fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization member Turkey, which fears Kurdish regional ambitions, many Kurds believe they can resolve the Kirkuk dilemma themselves.

"You'll never find a single Kurd willing to give up Kirkuk whether the Americans are here or not," said one official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq. He spoke anonymously because he said his view and that of many others was not the official Kurdish position.

Just as Kurds exploited Iraq's chaos after the 1991 Gulf War to build their enclave, they've begun quietly incorporating Tamim province and reversing the Arab migration.

Kurds have also in effect taken up security duties in other traditionally Kurdish lands and villages, including oil-rich Makhmour, northwest of Kirkuk, and Khanaqin, farther south in Diyala province. Kurds emphasize that the bombings that killed at least 400 Yazidis, a religious minority that is ethnically Kurdish, last month fell just outside the zone of Kurdish control.

Already at least 58,000 Arabs have left the Kirkuk region, said Kamal Kirkuki, deputy speaker of the Kurdish parliament. He said the Kurds have collected a trove of documents to determine who belongs in Kirkuk and who does not, including records of all Arabs who arrived in Kirkuk from 1968, when Hussein's Baath Party consolidated power, to the Iraqi leader's ouster in 2003.

"We could solve the Kirkuk issue in one minute," Kirkuki said. "All we need is a political decision."

The Irbil-based regional government bankrolls the teaching of the Kurdish language in Kirkuk schools. New housing sprouts on the no-man's land that served for 12 years as a buffer between Hussein's Iraq and the three Kurdish provinces, Irbil, Dahuk and Sulaymaniya, that were protected by American and British air power.

Soon, 5,000 overwhelmingly Kurdish Iraqi army troops will begin patrolling the countryside around Kirkuk, ostensibly to protect oil and electricity lines, but also to form a de facto barrier between the area and the rest of Iraq. The controversial patrols were approved by the Baghdad government.

"Our problem is coming from the terrorists who are outside the city," said Police Chief Gen. Jamal Taher, a Kurd. "What we want to do is to protect ourselves from the rest of the provinces where the terrorists are."
The proposal has outraged some of the city's Turkmen and Arab leaders, who see it as a ploy to extend Kurdish control.

"This is a barrel of TNT," said Hassan Torhan, an ethnic Turkmen politician and a member of the Turkmen Front, which is backed by Turkey. "Saddam Hussein tried to Arabize Kirkuk, Now the two parties are trying to 'Kurdize' Kirkuk."

Torhan frequents Irbil's new international airport. He drives there through newly constructed tunnels and freshly asphalted streets and past shiny new hotels, restaurants, office buildings and apartment blocks.

Kurds boast that not a single non-Iraqi has been killed in their semiautonomous region since April 9, 2003. They say they've drawn on decades of intelligence experience from their dealings with Western and Middle Eastern spy agencies to keep militants at bay.

They've also incorporated into the political process many of the Kurdish Islamist groups that share the same extremist religious outlook as Al Qaeda.

Around Irbil, they've strengthened a gigantic earthen berm to keep militants out. Ironically, the trench was dug by Hussein during the 1980s to keep the city out of the hands of Kurdish guerrillas now running much of the north.

Meanwhile, in the 4 1/2 years since the invasion of Iraq, life inside Kirkuk has only become more dangerous. Grinding poverty persists. Insurgent bombings and gunfire daily target soldiers, police officers and civilians. Barbed wire and concrete blast barriers line the city's unkempt boulevards as Black Hawk helicopters hover above.

Fifteen minutes into a day-long foray into the city, a visiting Western reporter was accosted by a burly man who drew a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun on him and taunted his driver. It was an off-duty police officer venting frustration over a minor traffic incident.

Kirkuk officials believe Kurds can do a better job of providing security than either the Iraqi or U.S. security forces.

"There will be bloodshed if the Americans leave," said Brig. Gen. Hamid Salar, head of Kirkuk's traffic police. "But if the Kurdish authorities would be given responsibility, the terrorist activity would immediately drop 50%."

Looking at life without the Americans, some Arabs in Kirkuk whisper that at least the Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslims, whereas the Baghdad government is dominated by Shiite Muslims with close ties to Iran. The Kurds also generally have a much better record on human rights and treatment of minorities than does Baghdad, where security forces are full of Shiite militiamen and sectarian death squads have run rampant.

But some worry as to how the Kurds might behave without U.S. scrutiny. Recently, Arabs who fled to Kirkuk to escape sectarian killings elsewhere in Iraq have reported being rousted from their homes by Kurdish-dominated security forces and ordered to move again, lest they upset the city's ethnic balance ahead of the referendum.

"We were informed that we have to leave our houses that we have rented for over a year and a half," said Radhi Mohammed, who fled Baghdad's Bayaa neighborhood for Kirkuk with 13 family members.

"Police arrested one of my sons and told us to leave or they will detain my son until we do so."

A special correspondent in Kirkuk contributed to this report.

Security may trump ethnicity in Kirkuk | Iraq Updates

KRG Appreciates the Decision of the US Congress

Kurdistan region Council of Ministers, headed by PM, Nechirvan Barzani and in attendance of deputy PM, Omar Fattah, held a normal meeting yesterday evening.

Council of Ministers welcomed the decision of US Congress about supporting the federalism of Iraq, which is not contrary to the Iraqi permanent constitution.

Council of Ministers also discussed several draft laws, after adding their notes and suggestions accepted them in order to be sent to the Kurdistan region parliament for ratification.

The draft laws include:

* The draft law of road systems and dealing with the problem of roads.
* Attaching Darbandikhan district which belongs to Garmiyan administration to Sulaimani city and formation of a committee to deal with the administrative and financial problems of the district.

* Draft law of organizing right of using lands in Kurdistan region.

Council of Ministers expressed its consent on the system of designating salaries of Martyrs families’. It also discussed works, activities and projects of the KRG ministries and stressed the need for changing health ministry’s system of working.

PUKmedia :: English - KRG Appreciates the Decision of the US Congress