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

Iraqi oil for Jordan

Jordan is to receive oil from Iraq at a discounted rate of $18 below international prices, reported the KUNA citing the Jordanian Arabic newspaper, Al Ghad.

Initially, Jordan will receive around 30,000 barrels per day from Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields.

The oil will cover about a third of Jordan's daily needs and it should begin arriving within days.

Iraqi oil for Jordan | Iraq Updates

Iraq plans petrochem plant

Iraq is planning to build a $2bn petrochemicals plant and is looking to start negotiations with potential international investors before the end of the year, reported Reuters citing Fawzi Al Hariri, the country's Industry Minister.

The facility, which could be 100% privately owned, would have a capacity of 1m tonnes of ethylene and derivatives per annum and could be located in the north or centre of Iraq.

Iraq plans petrochem plant | Iraq Updates

BP ready for Iraqi operations

BP is looking to move into Iraq's energy sector once the war-torn country finally passes its controversial and much delayed oil law, reported Reuters citing Steve Peacock, President of BP's Middle East and South Asia Exploration and Production unit.

But Peacock said BP would not send any personnel to Iraq until the security improves.

He also said the firm is looking at opportunities in Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE and Oman.

BP ready for Iraqi operations | Iraq Updates

1300 loans for industrial projects in Baghdad

An official source at the General Directorate for Industrial Development, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, said that the Directorate granted nearly 1300 loans for small and medium industrial projects for the industrialists of Baghdad as a result of Cabinet's allocation of $20 million for facilitated loans to support industrial enterprises in the private sector.

As the source explained in a statement issued by the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, “The loans ranged between ID10 and 25 million dinars for each project across all industries, with repayment over four years at 2% interest," but didn't specify when they were disbursed.

The statement added that "these loans apply to just 20% of the total enterprises registered in the Directorate in Baghdad, with eight thousand fully incorporated industrial projects in its database of detailed and exhaustive information."

He explained that there is a specialized committee within the Directorate of Industrial Development called the Federation of Industries and Internal Ministry Inspection which scrutinizes information provided by the owners of those projects in conjunction with existing Directorate data. The Directorate ceased distribution of applications for the loan program, begun last April 29, after it reached nearly two thousand forms.

1300 loans for industrial projects in Baghdad | Iraq Updates

Sunni AMS denies dialogue with U.S.

The Association of Muslim Scholars has never had any dialogue with the U.S. administration, a spokesman for the Sunni AMS said on Sunday.
"The AMS, however, does not mind having this dialogue provided that Washington would show genuine intentions about leaving Iraq through a serious and clear timetable," Sheikh Muhammad Bashar al-Faydi told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) by telephone.

"We are in favor of the departure of U.S. forces from Iraq but first of all the current security agencies, which proved a failure and perpetrated heinous crimes against the Iraqi people, have to be dismantled," said Sheikh Faydi.

He said the AMS would joint "the political process and will have a key role to play on the same day a guaranteed pullout timetable is laid."
On Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's statements about plans to send Iranian forces to Iraq to replace the U.S. troops if they withdrew, Faydi replied that the statements were "frustrating for us. We don't want to get rid of occupation just to have another. In both cases the Iraqi people would be stripped of their will."

On Saturday, the AMS condemned statements by Ahmadinejad in which he said his country was ready to fill the security vacuum in Iraq in case U.S. forces withdraw.

"Iranian President Ahmadinejad's statements have caused concern to all groups of the Iraqi people," according to an AMS statement published on its web site on Friday.

"These statements would not be understood by the Iraqi people as a form of help. Iran's interference in Iraq since the (U.S.) invasion was negative and not in line with good neighborliness," it read.

The AMS, the largest organization for Sunni Muslims in Iraq, is outspokenly opposing foreign military presence in Iraq and the governments that ruled the country successively since the U.S.-led invasion in march 2003.

The AMS also supports armed operations targeting foreign troops in Iraq.

"Statements of the Iranian officials during the past period were not encouraging to establish good neighborly relations because they involved maximizing the supremacy of a nation at the expense of another," noted the statement.

It pointed out that the Iranian statements also "would make the occupation forces linger in our country by keeping their military bases under the pretext of lessening Iranian interference and influence."

Sunni AMS denies dialogue with U.S. | Iraq Updates

U.S. Senator says Iraq should be divided into 3 independent states

US Republican presidential candidate Sen. Sam Brownback told high school students in this tornado- ravaged city Thursday that the United States needs a "political surge" in Iraq that will divide that country into three independent states with a weak federated government in Baghdad.

Responding to a question from a student, the Republican presidential candidate drew in blue marker on a dry-erase board a rough sketch of Iraq divided into a Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions.

Amid the ruins of the students' Kansas town that was all but destroyed by a May 4 tornado, Brownback gave them an impromptu lesson on rebuilding Iraq.

"Baghdad is the biggest problem of this right now," he told about two dozen juniors and seniors crowded into one of the modular classrooms that has become their school.

The United States should "facilitate the movement" of people in that city into ethnic neighborhoods, he said. "It is the reality of what is on the ground. If you don't do it, it happens by death squads," he added.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. talks to students at Greensburg High School in Greensburg, Kan. Thursday, Aug 30, 2007 AP. Sam Brownback, the Republican presidential 2008 candidate official website.

The conflict between the Shiite and Sunni communities has gone on for a thousand years, and the United States can't resolve it, Brownback said, adding that the American people are tired of the Iraq war.

Outside the classroom later, Brownback said he is a supporting a bipartisan bill to split Iraq, with a Kurdish region in the north and separate Shiite and Sunni regions in the south.

U.S. Senator says Iraq should be divided into 3 independent states | Iraq Updates

Sunni clerics condemn Iranian president's statements to fill Iraq vacuum

The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) condemned statements by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in which he said his country was ready to fill the security vacuum in Iraq in case U.S. forces withdraw.

"Iranian President Ahmadinejad's statements have caused concern to all groups of the Iraqi people," according to an AMS statement published on its web site on Friday.

"These statements would not be understood by the Iraqi people as a form of help. Iran's interference in Iraq since the (U.S.) invasion was negative and not in line with good neighborliness," it read.

The AMS, the largest organization for Sunni Muslims in Iraq, is outspokenly opposing foreign military presence in Iraq and the governments that ruled the country successively since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in march 2003.

The AMS also supports armed operations targeting foreign troops in Iraq.

"Statements of the Iranian officials during the past period were not encouraging to establish good neighborly relations because they involved maximizing the supremacy of a nation at the expense of another," noted the statement.

It pointed out that the Iranian statements also "would make the occupation forces linger in our country by keeping their military bases under the pretext of lessening Iranian interference and influence."

Sunni clerics condemn Iranian president's statements to fill Iraq vacuum | Iraq Updates

Bush on surprise visit to Iraq for 'war council' talks

AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFP) - US President George W. Bush paid a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday for a "war council" meeting ahead of a crucial report to Congress on Washington's strategy in the war-torn nation.

The trip coincided with the withdrawal of British troops from their last base in the southern city of Basra amid tensions between Washington and its top ally Britain over their policy in Iraq.

"This is the last big gathering of the president's military advisors and the Iraqi leadership before the president decides on the way forward," said Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman.

The White House is to make a formal report to Congress by September 15 aimed at convincing US lawmakers to continue funding the Iraq war, four and a half bloody years since the US-led invasion of 2003.

Bush, who is on his way to Australia for a meeting of leaders from the Asia Pacific region, arrived at the desert air base of Al-Asad in the restive western province of Anbar along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

Waiting for him were US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William Fallon, the commander of US forces in the Middle East, and General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq.

"He's assembled essentially his war council here and they are all meeting with Iraqi leaders to discuss the way forward," Morrell said. "This is very much a decisional meeting. This meeting will put him much closer to a decision if he hasn't made one yet."

On his first visit to Iraq since June 2006 and his third since the invasion, Bush met Petraeus and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker before talks with embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other top officials.

He was also meeting tribal sheikhs from Anbar province who have given his administration hopes of a turnaround in the deadly Sunni insurgency unleashed after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

The conclave comes just days before Petraeus and Crocker go before a sceptical Congress to report on whether a buildup in US forces has succeeded in setting the conditions for political reconciliation.

Opposition Democrats who control the House of Representatives and Senate have been pushing for months to force a deadline for US troops to leave.

But Bush and his generals have argued for time to make the so-called troop "surge" work after the US military deployed tens of thousands of extra soldiers in February to try to end the violence.

Travelling to Anbar rather than Baghdad gave Bush an opportunity to highlight the dramatic shift in sentiment in the province, where former Sunni insurgents have joined with US forces to fight Al-Qaeda.

But security officials said that shortly before his arrival, two car bombs went off in Anbar's provincial capital of Ramadi, killing four people and wounding 10.

His visit came just hours after 500 British troops slipped out of their last base in Basra under cover of darkness, leaving behind a city in the grip of a brutal militia turf war.

Iraqi soldiers were seen hoisting the Iraqi flag and posting guards outside the palace complex and General Mohan Farhad, commander of Basra military operations, said it would remain under Iraqi military control until Maliki decides its fate.

The evacuation of troops from Saddam Hussein's former palace on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab waterway to a desert airbase west of Basra paves the way for a full British handover of security in the region to Iraqi authorities, which could take place in the autumn.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown stressed that British forces stood ready to "reintervene" if the security situation demanded, telling BBC radio: "This is a pre-planned and this is an organised move."

"This activity completes part of the agreed transition process developed in conjunction with the Iraqi government and is indicative of the increasing willingness and capability of the Iraqi security forces," Britain's defence ministry said.

"UK forces will retain security responsibility for Basra province until it is transferred to provincial Iraqi control."

Basra residents cheered the withdrawal, de****e warnings the city could descend further into chaos.

"We are happy to be rid of the British. They were harassing us in the streets and raided our houses and arrested our sons. We now want to see them out of greater Basra," said army officer Sadoun Hami.

The United States and Britain have been at odds over Iraq recently, with General Jack Keane, a former vice-chief of staff of the US Army, saying last month there was "frustration" in Washington at the deteriorating security situation in Basra.

On Saturday, General Sir Mike Jackson, the head of the British army during the invasion, also launched a fierce attack on Washington, branding its post-invasion policy "intellectually bankrupt."

There are about 5,500 British troops in Iraq, most of whom are based in and around Basra, although that number is set to drop to around 5,000 by the end of the year.

Almost 160 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the invasion.
The International Crisis Group think tank warned in June that the withdrawal would be seen as a victory by the Shiite militiamen who bombard British bases daily and who control much of the city's economic and political life.

"Basra's residents and militiamen view this as not an orderly withdrawal but rather as an ignominious defeat. Today, the city is controlled by militias, seemingly more powerful and unconstrained than before," it said.

Bush on surprise visit to Iraq for 'war council' talks - Yahoo! News UK

Bush says U.S. Iraq troop cut possible with success

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday his top officials in Iraq had told him the present level of security could be maintained with fewer forces if what he called current successes continued.

Bush raised the prospect of a troop drawdown during a visit to a desert air base in restive Anbar province in western Iraq, where he said violence had fallen after local Sunni Arab tribal leaders had turned against al Qaeda militants there.

The president flew to Iraq with his security team to meet with U.S. commander General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker for a final review of the war before a showdown in Congress over troop levels.

"General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we are seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces," Bush told reporters travelling with him.

Speaking later about troop levels in an address to hundreds of cheering Marines, Bush said:

"Those decisions will be based on a calm assessment by military commanders on conditions on the ground, not a nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results and the media."

Bush is visiting Iraq a week before Petraeus and Crocker testify to Congress on September 10. They will report on the impact of Bush's decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. soldiers to Iraq, a move that increased force numbers to 160,000.

The White House is required to submit its own report to Congress on the situation in Iraq by September 15.

Bush has signalled that he wants to maintain a troop buildup in Baghdad and Anbar for now, and he cautioned members of Congress not to "jump to conclusions" ahead of the reports from his top officials in Iraq.

The president is under pressure from opposition Democrats and some Republicans who want U.S. troops to start leaving after more than four years of war in which 3,700 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed.

He flew secretly to the al Asad Air Base in Anbar, once a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold but now regarded by the U.S. military as a success story.

Bush also met Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who some Democrats in Congress want replaced because of his inability to push through political benchmarks.

The president urged the Iraqi government to "follow up" on what he termed progress on the security front.

"The military successes are paving the way for the political reconciliation and economic progress that Iraqis need to transform their country," Bush said.

ATTACKS DOWN

The U.S. military says sectarian attacks have fallen since the U.S. reinforcements deployed to give Iraqi leaders the chance to heal the deep sectarian divide between warring majority Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs.

But while some security gains have been achieved, no key laws have been passed, and Maliki's cabinet has been hit by the withdrawal of nearly half his ministers.

Bush was accompanied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Steven Hadley. Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived separately.

"This is very much the meeting of the war council," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said before Bush held his talks.

"I would anticipate that after Petraeus and Crocker address the Congress that the president will articulate in some fashion the way forward."

The decision to meet in Anbar is symbolic. Such a trip by Bush would have been unthinkable just months ago, when the province was the most dangerous in Iraq for U.S. troops.

But a rebellion by Sunni Arab tribes against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda has pacified Anbar and will likely be held up as a success of U.S. military strategy when Petraeus addresses Congress in one week.

Bush said the change in Anbar was an example of what could happen in Iraq, noting he had been told last summer that the province was lost.
"Today Anbar is a really different place," he said.

Bush's stopover in Iraq had not been announced in advance. The president, who visited Iraq in June last year and previously in November 2003, was on his way to a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Sydney and was due to spend six hours in Iraq.

Bush says U.S. Iraq troop cut possible with success - Yahoo! News UK

Serbia, Iraq to resume military cooperation

BELGRADE (AFP) - Serbia and Iraq agreed Monday to resume military cooperation, as the first top Iraqi official visited Belgrade since the end of dictatorial regimes in the two countries.

Serbia's Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac and his Iraqi counterpart Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi signed a letter of intent to resume cooperation, a statement from the Serbian defence ministry said.

During the decades-long dictatorship of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Baghdad had closely cooperated with Belgrade. Yugoslavia was ruled by communist dictator Josip Broz Tito and his successor in Serbia, late president Slobodan Milosevic.

After Milosevic's fall Serbia was suspected of having supplied Saddam's army with weaponry during the UN arms embargo, a charge Belgrade has persistently denied.

The cooperation ended after Milosevic was ousted in a popular uprising in October 2000. He died last year in his cell in the Hague, where he had been tried by a UN war crimes court for his role in the 1990s Balkans wars.

Saddam was finally toppled when US-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 and executed last year for crimes against humanity.

Serbia, Iraq to resume military cooperation - Yahoo! News UK