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

The Prime Minister received a telephone call from President George Bush

Luna / August 28 / Baghdad / The Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki complete a telephone call from President George Bush. Co-Maliki discussed and the results of the regional Bush by the Prime Minister of Turkey, Iran and Syria.

Mr. Prime Minister, during a telephone conversation that was this evening to get an important development in the political climate in the country.

Referring to his commitment to reinvigorate the political process, leading to the disengagement of many bottlenecks.

And Mr. Prime Minister stressed the need for participation of all parliamentary blocs in the political process and in particular the Accord Front, said sovereignty that the coming days will witness positive developments task.

The American President praised the initiatives taken by the Prime Minister and enjoys broad popular support / / completed / u p / u p / prime minister.

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Sunnis cool on Iraq political dealFrom correspondents in Baghdad

August 28, 2007 04:55am

SUNNI Arab politicians refused to end their boycott of Iraq's Shiite-led government today de****e a broadbrush deal aimed at bridging the country's bitter sectarian divide.

The accord was cautiously welcomed by the US, which faces demands to withdraw its troops and calls from MPs in Washington for Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to resign.

Leaders of Iraq's rival Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish sects squeezed out the agreement after lengthy talks yesterday, but leading Sunni Arab politicians said it failed to meet all their demands.

The leaders agreed to ease restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party taking up government jobs, to hold provincial elections - a key Washington demand - and to help security forces end the bloodshed, President Jalal Talabani's office said.

US President George W. Bush welcomed the deal but warned that much work remained.

In a hastily announced public statement in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mr Bush said the agreement showed leaders in Baghdad understand they need to pursue the "true and meaningful reconciliation" that has so far eluded them.

"While yesterday's agreement is an important step, I reminded them, and they understand, much more needs to be done. The Iraqi parliament will convene again early next month and it will need to act to codify this political progress," he said.

Mr Maliki, a Shiite; Talabani, a Kurd; Sunni vice-president Tareq al-Hashemi; Shiite vice-president Adel Abdel Mahdi and Massud Barzani, president of the autonomous northern Kurdish region, made a rare television appearance after making the reconciliation pledge.

But a leading member of the National Concord Front, the main Sunni Arab bloc, said it would continue to boycott Mr Maliki's government until its demands are fulfilled.

"The Front will not return to the government unless all its demands are met," said Khalaf al-Alayan, a leading politician and lawmaker from the bloc which quit the government on August 1.

"The government is trying to show to the world that it is working, but it is a failure and has to go. It does not have credibility."

Mr Alayan said Mr Hashemi had joined the other four leaders in announcing the latest political move in his capacity as a "vice-president and not as leader of the Front".

Even Omar Abdul Sattar, a leader of Mr Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party, dismissed the agreement as stage-managed.

"It was an irrelevant media production," he said.

Iraqi political leaders have announced broadbrush agreements in the past but have then battled to implement them or hammer out specifics.

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmud Othman said the agreement was an "important step" and hoped the decisions would be "implemented quickly and lead to more such steps".

Mr Talabani's office said the five leaders had agreed to support a new bill to replace the four-year-old de-Baathification law and make it easier for former members of Saddam's Baath party to take up government or military jobs.

The return to public life of former Baathists who have no criminal records has been a strong demand of the Sunni bloc, but the so-called Reconciliation and Accountability Law has yet to be approved by parliament.

Mr Talabani's office said the Iraqi leaders had also agreed to encourage the sharing of government jobs equally among all three communities.

"The leaders agreed to hold provincial elections and to continue dialogue over other disputed issues such as constitutional reforms and the oil law," it said.

Washington has insisted provincial elections and passage of the oil law are among the cornerstones needed to achieve progress and reconciliation.

The White House said the pledges from the Iraqi leaders were "an important symbol" of their readiness to work on behalf of all Iraqis.

They come two weeks before leading US officials in Iraq - ambassador Ryan Crocker and coalition forces chief General David Petraeus - present a keenly awaited report to the US Congress.

Since the boycott by the Sunni Arab bloc, a growing number of US politicians have spoken out against Mr Maliki, with some such as presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and Senator Carl Levin calling for him to be replaced.

An angry Mr Maliki lashed out at the two yesterday, just hours before the latest reconciliation moves emerged.

"They talk about Iraq as if Iraq is their property," he said.

They "have not experienced in their political lives the kind of differences we have in Iraq. When they give their judgment, they have no knowledge of what reconciliation means".

Mr Maliki meanwhile won an apology from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner over similar calls he made in an interview with US magazine Newsweek for a new Iraqi prime minister.

Sunnis cool on Iraq political deal | NEWS.com.au

House to Hold Hearings on Two New Reports on Iraq

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The House will hold hearings next week on two key reports assessing political and military conditions in Iraq, jump-starting the debate over President Bush's strategy even before long-awaited testimony by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, due the following week.

A completed 70-page report by the Government Accountability Office, to be delivered to Congress next Tuesday, paints a bleak picture of prospects for Iraqi political reconciliation, according to administration officials who have seen it. The second report, by an independent commission of military experts, is being drafted. But a scorecard on the Iraqi security forces released yesterday by an adviser to the group concluded that the Iraqis are years away from taking over significant responsibility from U.S. combat forces.

The two reports -- and hearings on them in the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees -- will set a largely negative backdrop for Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Crocker, who are expected to testify together in a joint hearing before the two House committees and in a separate session in the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has objected to a Pentagon proposal that they appear on Sept. 11, a Pelosi spokesman said, and the exact date remains under negotiation.

Administration officials said yesterday that the Petraeus-Crocker testimony will closely follow the National Intelligence Estimate judgments released last week, which predicted continued political deterioration in Iraq but cited "measurable but uneven improvements" in the security situation.

The NIE, requested by the White House Iraq coordinator, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, in preparation for the testimony, met with resistance from U.S. military officials in Baghdad, according to a senior U.S. military intelligence officer there. Presented with a draft of the conclusions, Petraeus succeeded in having the security judgments softened to reflect improvements in recent months, the official said.

Bush continued his efforts to frame the debate yesterday, congratulating Iraqi politicians on an agreement they announced Sunday in Baghdad. The accord reached by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish representatives "reflects their commitment to work together for the benefit of all Iraqis," Bush said in a visit to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The agreement called for the release of thousands of detainees being held without charge, reform of a law barring members of Saddam Hussein's party from government jobs, regulation of the oil industry and provincial elections. Those elements are among a set of congressionally mandated benchmarks, and all require approval of Iraq's parliament. No details of the accord were released, and Sunni politicians expressed skepticism yesterday that Maliki's Shiite-dominated government would push for enactment of the measures.

Bush is scheduled to deliver today the second of two speeches designed to describe Iraq as caught between two forces that threaten U.S. security -- Sunni extremism, personified by al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Taliban, and the Shiite extremism of Iran and its Mideast proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. The president plans to tell an American Legion convention in Reno, Nev., that an increase in U.S. combat forces in Iraq begun early last spring has been operational only for 75 days, a senior administration official said, yet gains are apparent. "It's understandable that political progress has been slower than security," the official said.

In a speech last week to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bush compared the Iraq conflict to the Vietnam War, arguing that a U.S. troop withdrawal would lead to widespread death and suffering as he said it did in Southeast Asia three decades ago.

After the Petraeus-Crocker testimony, Bush will deliver his own written report to Congress assessing progress toward 18 congressionally mandated political and security benchmarks in Iraq. An interim report in July painted a mixed picture, and the White House is depending heavily this time on Petraeus to head off calls from congressional Democrats, and a number of influential Republicans, to begin withdrawing U.S. troops and turning security over to the Iraqi military.

In its benchmark legislation last spring, Congress arranged for its own security report, appointing a commission headed by retired Marine Gen. James Jones to assess the Iraqi forces. Strategic and military expert Anthony Cordesman, a commission adviser, previewed that assessment in a report yesterday saying it will be years before the Iraqi army and police forces will be capable of taking over.

Progress was slowed this year as U.S. forces increased their own operations and turned attention away from Iraqi training and force modernization, Cordesman wrote. Although the Iraqi army has shown improvement, he said, corruption and sectarianism continue in police forces. White House and military projections of a timetable for transition from U.S. troops to Iraqi security forces have been often revised in recent years and have proved unrealistic, he said.

washingtonpost.com

Kouchner says worse could happen in Iraq

The media spokesman for the Iraqi government said on Monday that the government had not receive any official apology from the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner following the recent criticism of the Iraqi premier, while Kouchner said that the worse could happen if the Iraqi political blocs did not assume their responsibilities regarding the current crises.

"Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office received a copy from the recent statements made by Kouchner, in which he said if the Iraqi premier wants me to apologize, I will apologize gladly," Yassin Majid told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Al-Maliki said on Sunday "We received French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and we were so optimistically pleased with the new French stance, but then he gave statements that can never be up to diplomatic courtesy when he called for changing the (Iraqi) government."

On Sunday, Maliki asked France to apologize for Kouchner's statements that he gave to U.S. Newsweek Magazine in which he said Maliki should be turned out and replaced by another person.

"We want an official apology from the French government, not from the French foreign minister," added the spokesman commenting on apology offered by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner apologized for what he described as "direct meddling in Iraq's domestic affairs".

France is even ready to play the mediator role in Iraq, Kouchner also said.

Kouchner urged the U.N. and Iraq's neighbors to work seriously to get Iraq out of its current ordeal.

"This does not change the situation...I'm not the only one who criticizes the situation in a war-torn country," the minister affirmed.

He said "the situation could worse if every party escapes from assuming its own responsibilities".

The minister expressed belief that the Iraq's crisis is international, noting that "France enjoys special responsibilities as a permanent member in the U.N. Security Council and it could not avoid such a crisis in Iraq."

He described Iraq "as a democratic country with a constitution, but in war with itself, a country contradicted and torn up."

Kouchner says worse could happen in Iraq | Iraq Updates

Iraqi dinars delivered to rural banks in Diyala

A shipment of more than 49 billion Iraqi dinars arrived by truck convoy in Baqouba, Iraq recently to be used by the Diyala provincial government to pay salaries and pensions to around 70 percent of the local residents.

The money, which equals about $38 million, was escorted by the Iraqi Army from the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad and was delivered to an undisclosed location in Baqouba. From the capital city, the money will then be transported to rural banks to be distributed to roughly 1.3 million residents of the province.

This is the first time the Iraqi Army has completed a money delivery without the help of Coalition Forces.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say the resumption of money deliveries to the Diyala banking system will aid stabilization efforts in the region, energizing what is mostly a cash economy.

Iraqi dinars delivered to rural banks in Diyala | Iraq Updates

Iran-Iraq trade expected to rise up to $1.8 billion

Iran-Iraq trade is expected to rise up to $1.8 billion a year, Director General for Public Relations Department of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines Jahan Bakhsh Shirazi said on Saturday.

Speaking prior to setting up the first exhibition on Iran-Iraq economic capabilities, he said the volume of exports of goods from Iran to Iraq has exceeded $1.2 billion and the trade balance has been registered 20 percent.

Trade balance between Iran and Iraq in the year 2006 stood at the same level as the past three years, he said, adding that this indicates that proper grounds for expansion of trade are prepared.

According to a 10-year strategy plan, trade between Iran and Iraq is envisaged to reach $10 billion a year, he added.

The first Iran-Iraq joint economic and trade exhibition is slated for September 5 to 7. Some 300 companies will take part in the exhibit in Tehran.

Iran-Iraq trade expected to rise up to $1.8 billion | Iraq Updates

High demand for the dollar in daily auction

Demand for the dollar was higher in the Iraqi Central Bank’s auction on Monday, reaching $96.935 million compared with $43.315 million on Sunday.

In its daily statement the bank said it had covered all bids, including $8.35 million in cash and $88.900 in foreign transfers, at an exchange rate of 1,238 dinars per dollar, unchanged for the third session in a row.

The 13 banks that participated in Monday's session offered to sell $15 million, which the bank bought at an exchange rate of 1,236 dinars per dollar.

In statements to the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), Ali al-Yasseri, a trader, attributed the drop in cash bids for the second day running to the Shiite pilgrimage scheduled for this Wednesday. The overall higher demand for the dollar was linked to the increase in government remittances, he explained.

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

High demand for the dollar in daily auction | Iraq Updates

Iraq, $13bn from UK tax payers

British tax payers have contributed around $13.3bn towards the reconstruction of Iraq, following the US led invasion in 2003 and the subsequent conflict, reported the UK's Financial Times.

The money has been mostly allocated to aid, debt relief and security expenses and the sum is at least $3bn more than that allocated to the military to finance its campaign in the war-ravaged country.

Iraq, $13bn from UK tax payers | Iraq Updates

PM's statements on strategic agreement dominate Iraqi press

Baghdad newspapers on Monday highlighted Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's recent statements in which he called for a strategic agreement between the five main political blocs.

During a press conference held in Baghdad after the inauguration of the cabinet's press center on Sunday, the government-funded al-Sabah newspaper quoted al-Maliki as highlighting partnership as a key decision-making mechanism for the Iraqi political process.

In response to recent calls by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for ousting the current Iraqi government, al-Maliki demanded an official apology from the French government and described the minister's statements as void of "diplomatic courtesy."

In an interview for Newsweek magazine, Kouchner said it was unlikely that al-Maliki would be ousted "because it seems President Bush is attached to him. But the (Iraqi) government is not functioning."

Al-Maliki also delivered a stinging rebuke to Democratic senators Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin for "meddling in Iraqi affairs." "They spoke of Iraq as if it were part of their possessions… They are both Democrats and have to respect the outcome of democracy," al-Maliki said in reference to Levin and Clinton.

Al-Ittihad newspaper, issued by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), focused on a recent meeting of Iraqi political leaders and its implications for the political process. "The five-way meeting tackled the bills on justice and accountability and municipal council elections," the newspaper quoted Iraqi President Jalal al-Talabani as saying. "The withdrawal of some political parties from the government, which is a common thing in a democracy, was not discussed though," al-Talabani added.

Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, who attended the meeting, said that his participation does not mean his party will join the four-way agreement.

Al-Adala newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), previously known as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), revealed a working document will allegedly be announced by the Iraqi government in the coming two weeks to settle unresolved political issues.

On the British withdrawal from the joint coordination center in central Basra, the newspaper quoted a media spokesman for the Multi-National Forces (MNF) in Southern Iraq, Major Matthew Bird, as describing the troop pullout from the center as a prelude to a wider withdrawal from the British bases in the former presidential palaces in southern Basra. "British forces will only remain at Basra International Airport after handing over the security file for other places," Bird indicated.

The independent daily al-Iraq newspaper quoted MP Osama al-Najifi, a member of the Iraqi National List (INL), as blaming the current Iraqi government for its "failure to achieve any progress towards national reconciliation." "Many conferences have been held in this respect, but they were all for media consumption," al-Najafi said.

PM's statements on strategic agreement dominate Iraqi press | Iraq Updates

Depleted uranium threatens thousands of lives in Basra, government turns blind eye - researcher

Radiation levels in selected regions of Iraq's southern province of Basra warn of imminent danger to thousands of local residents who might be more prone to cancer and birth deformities, according to Khajak Vartanian, an environmental radiation measurement spe******t from the province.

"Basra has experienced an unprecedented rise in solid cancer cases during the past four years: 62 cases per 100,000 persons compared to 35 in 1997," Vartanian explained.

Exposure to military depleted uranium (DU) pollution has not only increased solid cancer cases in the province, but caused severe birth deformities in newborn babies, he added. "Other cases of renal failure, skin disease, allergy, infertility and recurrent miscarriages were also attributed to DU pollution," he indicated, adding that most of the reported cases were close to the contaminated sites.

According to Vartanian, the problem began during the second Gulf War in 1991 when the U.S.-led coalition forces used depleted uranium weapons to bomb Iraqi military sites and economic infrastructure. During the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, depleted uranium shells and ammunition were also used against Iraqi military targets in Basra, which were close to residential areas.

Totaling the number of radiation sites in Basra by 2004 as 100, the environment researcher accused local and central governments of negligence in dealing with the problem. In 2004 the Iraqi government allowed residents and traders to sell iron waste from the battlefield, which added to the increasing incidences of cancer in the province.

When asked about the highly contaminated sites in Basra, Vartanian said that most reported cases were from neighborhoods close to radiation sites, particularly from the neighborhoods of al-Zubair, Abu Khaseeb, al-Qarna and other overcrowded districts.

Commenting on the proper measures for alleviating a potential disaster, Vartanian said that all contaminated materials must be removed from Basra and buried in uninhabited areas. "A proposal was submitted to the Iraqi government to temporarily designate Maqbarat al-Dabbabat (Tanks Cemetery), 200 km west of Basra, for this purpose… but it went unheard," he added.

Recent statistics show that 1,400 armored vehicles belonging to the Iraqi army were destroyed by DU shells in 1991 and were reused by the Iraqi forces during the U.S.-led war in 2003.

Basra is a Shiite province with a 20% Sunni population. It is located 590 km south of Baghdad.

Depleted uranium threatens thousands of lives in Basra, government turns blind eye - researcher | Iraq Updates