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

Italian loan agreement for Iraq signed in Rome

Baghdad, Oct 28, (VOI) – An agreement to grant an Italian $600 million low-interest loan to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance was signed in the Italian capital to help boost agricultural reform in the country, according to a ministerial statement released on Sunday.

"The agreement stipulates a 40-year loan term with an interest rate of 0.04%," read the statement that was received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"Italian industrial and agricultural equipment will be sent to support Iraqi peasants and industrialists running small projects," the statement indicated.

"The equipment will help boost the agricultural and industrial process in Iraq and eliminate unemployment by providing job opportunities for several Iraqis, which will positively affect the security situation in Iraq," the statement read.

The agreement was signed by the Iraqi deputy minister for planning and developmental cooperation and the Italian under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, in the presence of an Iraqi delegation from the ministries of finance and planning and the Iraqi ambassador in Rome.

Aswat Aliraq

Demand for dollar soars in daily auction

Baghdad, Oct 28, (VOI) - Demand for the dollar considerably increased in the Iraqi Central Bank’s auction on Sunday, reaching $103.850 million compared to $40.405 million on Thursday.

In its daily statement, the bank said it had covered all bids, including $7.340 million in cash and $96.510 in foreign transfers, at an exchange rate of 1,232 dinars per dollar, the same for the tenth consecutive day.

None of the 20 banks that participated in Sunday's session offered to sell dollars.

In statements to the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), Ali al-Yasseri, a trader, said that the hike in the demand for dollar is attributed to the increase in governmental remittances during today's session.

The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.

Aswat Aliraq

MNF hands over Karbala security to Iraqi authorities on Monday

Baghdad, Oct 28, (VOI) – The Multi-National Force (MNF) in Iraq said that it would hand over security responsibilities in the holy Shiite province of Karbala to Iraqi authorities on Monday.

"Karbala will host on Monday the ceremonies to hand over security affairs from the coalition forces to the Iraqi government," the MNF said in a brief statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on Sunday.

The statement did not say where the ceremonies will take place nor did it provide further details.

Out of a total 18 provinces, Karbala is the eighth where security responsibilities are passed on from the MNF to Iraqi forces.

Al-Samawa was the first Iraqi province to be handed over in terms of security to local authorities. It was followed by the provinces of Missan, al-Nassiriya, and al-Najaf in southern Iraq.

Aswat Aliraq

Iraqi delegation's failure to contain crisis dominates Baghdad press

Baghdad, Oct 28, (VOI) – Iraqi newspapers on Sunday focused on repercussions from the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) crisis and the failure of an Iraqi political delegation to contain the situation.

The independent daily al-Zaman newspaper published a main headline that read, 'Turkish Chief of Staff: Bush-Erdogan meeting to set incursion date.' The newspaper quoted Turkish officials as denying their government's desire to undertake further discussion on the crisis with the Iraqi government. According to Turkish Army Commander Yasar Buyukanit, "The army will probably launch a strike if necessity demands." "We will await Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's meeting with U.S. President George Bush on November 5," he added.

Al-Ittihad, a daily newspaper issued by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), published the two following front-page headlines: 'Imad Ahmed denies exclusion of Kurdish delegates from Ankara meeting' and 'Kurdistan president: Kurds not part of the struggle between Turkey, PKK.'

In an article entitled, 'The Middle East's volatile barrel,' Columnist Abdul Munim al-Aasam described Iranian threats to hit U.S. bases in Iraq as "the most tragic chapter in Iraqi history." The author said that for the hundredth time the Iraqi people have to pay for felonies they did not commit.

The government-funded al-Sabah newspaper published a main headline that read, 'Summit to discuss Turkish threats, effort to heal the rift.' Citing informed source, the newspaper said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will meet next week with the presidency council to discuss vital issues, the most significant of which are Turkish threats to launch a military incursion into northern Iraq and ways of boosting the Iraqi government’s performance.

"Other issues will be raised during the meeting, including the relationship between the Iraqi government and the Multi-National Force (MNF), the detainees issue, and the Istanbul Conference for Neighboring Countries, scheduled for November 2-3, 2007," the newspaper wrote.

Al-Adala newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), published a column entitled, 'Parliamentary stage,' by Ali Khaleef in which he stressed the need for speeding up the passage of laws, which he said are essential to the country's economy and postponing other laws of less importance. "These laws include the oil and gas law, which is significant for Iraq in the coming stage," the author said.

Aswat Aliraq

Who holds the American card in Iraq?

It is not difficult for any analyst to find out how the U.S. tried to ally itself with almost all Iraqi factions with their different hues in the past five years.

The alliance with these parties has usually come as they were seen by the U.S. to be at the apex of their power. The ultimate aim has been to appease almost everybody as a means to extricate itself from the Iraqi debacle.

Initially, the U.S. implicated itself in the woes of the ethnic and sectarian strife in Iraq by siding and backing one particular group against the other. This policy continued while at least one important part of the country was burning.

And not long ago, it realized it had to extend a helping hand to opposite groups, too. So it is clear now that the U.S. is not sympathetic to one sect only. It wants to have a foot in the disparate worlds of Iraq’s uncompromising sectarian, tribal and political factions.

Even the groups resisting U.S. presence in the country have come to realize that almost everyone in Iraq now relies on U.S. assistance to maintain its share of power and influence.

Therefore, Iraqi resistance has wisely chosen to ignore the Iraqi government and any other group whose existence depends on America. If they wan to talk, these groups say, they will only talk to the U.S.

This shows that both friend and foe in Iraq see the U.S. as the common denominator. Without U.S. occupation troops, the government cannot survive. The tribes now need U.S. support to maintain the surge in their standing, influence and power.

Resistance groups need to talk to the U.S. and explore a diplomatic and political avenue to achieve their target of driving its occupation troops without shedding more blood.

This shows that the only option the parties in Iraq have including the resistance is talking to Washington on how to end its occupation and at the same time making utmost benefit from the massive capabilities of the world’s most powerful economic power to reconstruct their war-torn country.

In other words, they will need to persuade the U.S. to turn its formidable occupation army into an investment to rebuild their imploded state.

America has destroyed the foundations of Iraq and it is under moral obligation to have them rebuilt.

Azzaman in English

Jobless in southern City given loans to start business

The Professional Training Center in the southern city of Nasiriya is extending small loans to 3,000 jobless Iraqis to start new businesses.

The center, a nation-wide employment and training body, did not give exact figures of the jobless in Nasiriya, but said unemployment was a ‘real headache’ in the city.

The center’s director, Abdulhadi Ajeel, said he had received 15 million U.S. dollars from the ministry of labor and social affairs to help extend as loans to the jobless.

Each unemployed person will get up to 10 million Iraqi dinars, approximately 7500 U.S. dollars.

The most vulnerable in the society will be eligible, he said.

The loans will go to those who had their businesses destroyed during military operations, unemployed university graduates and Iraqis suffering disability due to the latest fighting in the city.

Azzaman in English

Iraq's Sunni team in US talks over rebuilding restive province

A delegation from Iraq's Sunni province of Anbar left for the United States for talks over US aid to rebuild the province, a Sunni politician said on Sunday.

The delegation includes members of the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front and tribal and local government officials from Iraq's western province of Anbar, front spokesman Salim al-Juburi told the Iraqi Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Al-Juburi ruled out the team's asking for US military backing in Anbar, which has been the hotbed for Sunni insurgency since the US- led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

A member of the team, Sheikh Ahmad Abu-Risha, told VOI before leaving for the US that the visit came at the request of the US State Department.
The team would also discuss with US President George Bush and members of Congress interference by Iraq's neighbouring countries in Iraqi affairs and US military aid to the country's army to confront this interference.

Bush visited Anbar in September. The province's tribal chief, Abdel-Sattar Abu-Risha, who headed an anti-al-Qaeda council, was killed in a deadly attack days after his meeting with Bush.

Iraq's Sunni team in US talks over rebuilding restive province - Middle East

Kurds keep their eyes on main prize

TURKISH threats to invade northern Iraq to track down Kurdish rebels are part of an emerging conflict that could lead to the break-up of Iraq and even spark a regional war. The Kurds of northern Iraq are seeking control of vast oil reserves that could allow them to declare independence eventually, and the possible emergence of a Kurdish state worries the neighbours.

Turkey's parliamentary vote earlier this month sanctioning an invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels dramatically increases the risk of a regional conflict involving Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, each with a significant Kurdish minority seeking self-rule, with US forces caught in between.

One of the reasons for the parliamentary vote is Turkey's perception that the US troops occupying Iraq and the new Iraqi army are not doing anything to curb Kurdish rebels. However, US and Iraqi troops have limited control over the region in which the rebels are based. These rebels, who belong to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), use as their base the Kurdish autonomous region, a chunk of northern Iraq that has been more or less self-governing since 1991, when a no-fly zone backed by the US and Britain was established to protect the Kurds from Saddam Hussein.

The PKK is fighting for the same kind of autonomy in Turkey; 30,000 people have died in 20 years of conflict there, and tension escalated dramatically after PKK rebels killed more than 50 Turkish troops and civilians this month and took several troops hostage.

Turkey, Syria and Iran fear the Kurdish autonomous region is the first step towards an independent Kurdish state that could inflame their Kurdish minorities and make territorial claims beyond Iraq's borders.
The US is caught between two alliances: Turkey is a crucial member of NATO, while the Kurds have become a staunch ally for the Americans in a region full of enemies.

Washington has urged the Iraqi and Kurdish regional governments to surround the PKK's camps and stop cross-border raids into Turkey. But Kurdish leaders in Iraq say they will refuse to hand over any rebels to Turkey. They warn that any incursions would be fruitless against Kurdish guerillas and could encourage Iran to adopt a similar strategy.

The fear of an independent Kurdistan has been tempered by questions about the economic viability of a landlocked nation. We found the answer. On the southern fringe of the autonomous region is Kirkuk, capital of an ethnically mixed province that sits on 40per cent of Iraq's known oil reserves.

The Kurds claim it as ancestral Kurdish land and an article in Iraq's new constitution guarantees them a referendum on whether Kirkuk remains a part of the rest of Iraq or joins the Kurdish autonomous region.

"For Kurds, Kirkuk is a holy land," I was told by Rizgar Ali, chairman of the Kirkuk provincial council and a leading Kurdish politician. "It is not because of the oil, it is because this is our land and for that reason we love Kirkuk."

Arabs in the area strongly disagree.

The referendum relies on a majority vote. So, to guarantee success, the Kurds are busy undoing what they see as a historical injustice forced on them by Saddam, under whom, according to Human Rights Watch and other groups, more than 250,000 Kurds were killed or expelled from Kirkuk and its province and more than 100,000 Arabs brought into Kirkuk in an effort to Arabise it and ensure control of its vital oil fields.

The senior US State Department official in Kirkuk, Howard Keegan, says that since the US-led invasion, the Kurds have been rapidly repopulating the city. He estimates that 400,000 to 500,000 Kurds have moved into the province since 2003, while 50,000 to 75,000 Arabs have moved out.

In the Kirkuk provincial council compound, a senior Kurdish official showed me the files of thousands of Arabs who were moved here under Saddam and are now, it seems, ready to go back to where they came from in central and southern Iraq. They are offered $US15,000 (about $16,500) for each family, to be paid by the central Government. Kurds are offered $US8000 to resettle in Kirkuk.

An Arab working for the US forces, who does not want to be identified, tells me some Arab families have been threatened and intimidated by the Kurds. The provincial council's Ali denies this. But there is little doubt that the Kurds are increasing their control over the city, the province and ultimately the oil.

While the Kurds push ahead with preparations for the referendum, Kirkuk's Arabs strongly oppose anything that could take Kirkuk and its oil from central control. In the town of Hawijah just outside Kirkuk, Sunni Arabs all warn of new violence if the Kurds try to take Kirkuk. "The people of Hawijah will fight," says one man. "There will be violence if the Kurds try to take Kirkuk because the people of Hawijah want Kirkuk, they want it to be part of the rest of the country because of the oil."

Hawijah's Mayor, Amir Abdul Ahmed, issues an even stronger warning: "The referendum on the future of Kirkuk should not happen ... because that will lead to much more violence. The Kurdish attempt to take Kirkuk will not be allowed because Kirkuk is for all Iraqis."

The battalion commander of a US base near Hawijah, Colonel Drew Meyerovich, says American success against nationalist insurgents has allowed the rise of an al-Qa'ida-linked umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq, which claims responsibility for many of the attacks in northern Iraq. Separatist sentiment among Kurds, especially with reference to Kirkuk, is increasingly a target of these Islamists.

Meyerovich is effectively keeping the lid on a potential new front in Iraq's civil war. "When you get the extremist Kurds saying, 'We want Kirkuk and we want it to be part of Kurdistan and we want Kurdistan to be its own nation', that excites the 5per cent (of the population who are) Sunnis to say, 'We need to destroy Kirkuk and we need to kill all the Kurds and we need to take control of Kirkuk'," he says. "Well, there's this 95 per cent that are sitting in the middle who just want peace.".

Almost all the Kurds we meet see the Americans as saviours, while many Iraqi Arabs here see them as occupiers. The American troops trust the Kurds but rarely view the Arab police and soldiers in the same way. This becomes clear during an American patrol along the vital pipeline that takes Kirkuk crude to the outside world. It has been hit many times by insurgent bombs. We reach a place where an entire valve was blown out and the pipe cut just a few weeks earlier. Giant pools of oil surround the jagged pipe.

Patrol leader Sergeant Eduardo Juarez points to an Iraqi army checkpoint less than 100m from the bomb site. "It's frustrating because there are these soldiers here at these checkpoints, you see the damage, and they're like, 'Well, I don't know, I didn't see nothing'. Well, it's right in front of your checkpoint: how come you didn't see nothing?"

In recent weeks, the Americans imported a solution. The road and most of the pipeline is now secured by Kurdish peshmerga fighters. Juarez says that since the Kurdish fighters have been in place, bomb attacks along the pipeline have all but stopped.

At a police station validation ceremony, Colonel Sam Whitehurst explains US concerns over some Arab police and soldiers: "I wouldn't say they are infiltrated but there is a certain level of complicity. Many of these policemen come from the same villages that they are supposed to be policing; there are insurgent groups operating there or that will move through these villages. I wouldn't say they are actively working with the insurgent groups but there is certainly pressure on them because their families live in the same villages, they feel pressure to allow things to happen."

On a night raid to be conducted by US troops with Iraqi police, the Americans refuse to tell the police where they'll be going until we reach the station. The US troops then demand that the police officers hand in their mobile phones before the briefing. Only then are they told which village will be raided.

A Kurdish officer tells me me: "Only the Kurds work with the Government. The Arabs work with Islamic forces." The village raid is led by Kurdish officers.

In the longer term, the Kurds have their eye on Kirkuk's oil. Soon after we left, the autonomous region's administration signed four oil deals with foreign explorers. Baghdad says the deals are illegal. A new oil law has yet to finally determine how much the oil-rich regions of Iraq's north and south will take. But if Kirkuk were to join the Kurdish autonomous region, the Kurds would stand to get the lion's share if Iraq stays together, and all of it if it falls apart.

An oil-rich Kirkuk as the capital of the autonomous region would be a big step towards that region becoming economically viable and able to declare independence.

A hostile Turkey is unlikely to stand idly by.

Kurds keep their eyes on main prize | The Australian

Thousands rally in New York against Iraq war

Thousands of protestors took to the streets Saturday along Broadway in Manhattan to demand an end to the Iraq war and prevent another on Iran.

Organized by the United for Peace and Justice coalition, the protestors braved rain to march from Union Square to Foley Square, chanting slogans like "What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!"

De****e the rain, organizers said up to 45,000 people, including war veterans, military families, labor activists, community leaders, and students, turned out to demand an immediate end to the Iraq war, and to call on the government to avoid another war on Iran.

"This war must end. It must end now," said Leslie Cagan, national coordinator for United for Peace and Justice. "Not one more dollar, not one more death."

Cagan accused the government of pursing a foreign policy "based on war and militarism," demanding one "based on respect to the people that we share this planet with."

"It is time to turn this country around," she said.

Saturday marked the five-year anniversary of the U.S. Senate vote that authorized President George W. Bush to invade Iraq.

The march ended with a "peace fair" on Foley Square, during which a two-minute silence was observed to honor those who lost their lives in the war.

Similar protests were also held in 10 other U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Boston, and Philadelphia.

LexisNexis News - Latest News from over 4,000 sources, including newspapers, tv transcripts, wire services, magazines, journals.

British troops on standby for Iraq

Britain will raise its troop level in Iraq to about 5,850 before scaling back to 2,500 next year, The Sunday Times of London reported.

Nearly 1,000 British soldiers are on standby for deployment to Iraq before year's end to help in handing off Basra to Iraqi security forces, the Times reported.

Senior officers described Basra as relatively peaceful de****e some continued violence.

"Attacks are down and the Iraqi army and police who are now running downtown Basra are doing a great job," one officer told the Times.

British troops on standby for Iraq - UPI.com