Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 01/01/08 - 14/04/08

Supreme Committee of Implementating Article 140 to ask Iraqi Government to continue its works

Deputy Chairwoman of Supreme Committee of Implementation Article 140, Narmin Othman told PUKmedia on Tuesday that the Finance Committee of Supreme Committee of Implementation Article 140 will sing the compensations checks to the deportees next week in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan region.

“900 dossiers from Khanakin, 1000 from Kirkuk and a number of checks will be brought to Erbil and will be signed on.” She added.

Regarding the delay in the second stage of the compensating the deportees she said that any dossier less than 1000 files will not be signed by the Finance Committee of Supreme Committee of Implementation Article 140,and that the committee needs time to audit the facts.

She concluded by indicating the meeting of the Supreme Committee of Implementation Article 140 in Baghdad today, saying “During the meeting it has been decided to raise a formal request to the Iraqi Council of Ministers so as the council formally asks the committee to continue its works in 2008.”

PUKmedia :: English - Supreme Committee of Implementatig Article 140 to ask Iraqi Government to continue its works

President Bush Meets with President Gul of Turkey

On the morning of January 8, President George W. Bush met with President Abdullah Gul of Turkey.

Prior to their meeting, White House Spokesperson Dana Perino told reporters, "One of the things that the President will do is to talk to President Gul about this opportunity now to work with the Iraqi officials, including President Talabani and President Maliki on a long-term political solution, because Prime Minister Maliki and President Talabani share the concern about the PKK, as does the United States with that of President Gul and Prime Minister Erdogan. ... We are going to encourage an open dialogue, which they have had over the past couple of months. ... Obviously one of the goals would be to establish a sort of a longer-term solution; this has been going on for so long that it's time to try to put a stop to it."

After the meeting a senior administration official briefed journalists that the two presidents discussed "a comprehensive solution to the PKK problem, which means not just military action, but also political action, including things within Turkey -- economic, political development, social development in the southeast, which, as you know, this Erdogan government had done and the Gul government will continue." The senior administration official noted that, "We have been urging the Turks to deal with Iraqis, both at the central government and regional. And there has been some outreach, and we will -- we hope and we expect that there will be more because, as the President said, this is an issue that Turkey, the U.S. and Iraq have to work on together."

The senior administration official also noted "that President Gul was very clear about Turkey's desire for stability in Iraq, for security in Iraq, pointing out that Iraq is on their border and it's in their interest to have a stable Iraq."

Regarding Kirkuk, the senior administration official stated that the two presidents discussed "a process that takes into consideration the views of all of the parties in the area or all the people in there" and expressed support for the U.N. process.

PUKmedia :: English - President Bush Meets with President Gul of Turkey

Open Contest for choosing New Iraqi Flag

PUKmedia 2008-01-09 20:46:44
Iraqi MP, Mohamed Ismail Islamic Virtue Party (Al-Fadhila Party) has told his party’s web site today that an open contest will be held soon for choosing a new design for the Iraqi flag; thence the suggested designs will be forwarded to the Iraqi parliament directly.

As he said, the winning design will be chosen as the new Iraqi flag, indicating that a poetry contest will be also held for choosing the new Iraqi national anthem clarifying that all the preparations have been made in this regard.

The texts will be submitted to the cultural committee in the Iraq Council of Representatives, he concluded.


PUKmedia :: English - Open Contest for choosing New Iraqi Fag

Southern, central Iraq's power grid down because of station failure

A technical failure in a major Basra power station has brought down the power grid supplying central and southern Iraqi provinces with electricity, an informed source from the Ministry of Electricity said on Wednesday.

"A technical failure in Basra's al-Haritha power station has knocked out the power grid providing electricity to Iraq's central and southern provinces," Spokesman Aziz Sultan told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Technical and engineering teams from the ministry are working hard to isolate the source of the failure in an attempt to enable the system to work again, Sultan explained.

"Hopefully, the problem will be fixed in the coming few hours," he added.
With a generating capacity of 500 megawatts, al-Hartiha station is one of the major contributors to Iraq's national grid.

Basra, the capital city of Shiite Basra province, lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Aswat Aliraq

Pumping oil from Kirkuk to Turkey 's Ceyhan halted – source

Oil pumping activities from Kirkuk's northern fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan were halted without setting a date for resumption, an official source form the North Oil Company said on Wednesday.

“The stoppage is due to the fact that Ceyhan's oil reservoirs are totally full with Iraqi crude oil," the source, who requested anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The export process "was before the stoppage going at a capacity of480, 000 barrels per day (bpd)," he said.

The source did not say when the oil pumping would resume but said “the date to re-pump oil to Ceyhan has to do with the unloading of oil reservoirs there."

He added “the bumping activities were intermittent since the start of oil exporting on Monday evening”.

An official source in the North Oil Company told VOI on Monday that oil pumping to Ceyhan "stopped but would resume during the next 72 hours."

Iraq 's oil exports from the south oilfields often stop because armed groups target oil pipelines, a matter that costs Iraq large losses.

The largest part of Iraqi oil is exported via the southern oilfields in the province of Basra , which overlooks the Gulf.

The oil-rich city of Kirkuk lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Aswat Aliraq

Disruption of LPG unit at Baiji refinery worsens power supply

The blaze at Iraq’s largest refinery of Baiji north of Baghdad has taken out the country’s largest Liquefied Petroleum Gas processing unit, according to Oil Ministry sources.

Iraq relies on LPG to power major electricity plants. LPG is also the main cooking fuel for Iraqi households.

But the blaze is reported to have damaged the unit exacerbating the already acute shortages of gas in the country.

An Electricity Ministry source told the newspaper that northern Iraq, comprising the three Kurdish provinces of Dahouk, Arbil and Sulaimaniay as well as Mosul and Kirkuk, has plunged into darkness as the gas-driven power plants had no more fuel to operate.

After a short halt, Iraqi technicians repaired damage to refining units and Baiji, according to the Oil Ministry, has resumed churning nearly 200,000 barrels a day.

Baiji’s capacity is 350,000 barrels a day.

An engineer died and several workers suffered burns due to Tuesday’s fire which officials say was caused by a gas explosion.

Though holding massive oil reserves, Iraq has turned into a net fuel importer. Fuel shortages started with the 2003 U.S. invasion and have aggravated since.

Azzaman in English

Signing long term agreement with U.S. next July - FM

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari said that Iraqi will ink a long term security, political and economic agreement with the U.S. in mid July 2008, highlighting that Syria and Iran have played a role in improving the security condition in the country.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat international newspaper in Cairo, the top Iraqi diplomat said "The Iraqi government prioritize "the important and crucial" negotiations with the U.S. administration, to be concluded next July, on the future of relations between the two countries."

"Relations with the U.S. will be interpreted in a declaration of principles of a long distance friendship and cooperation agreement," Zibari explained.
"We will go through bilateral talks with the American side to reach into a political, economic and security agreement," he noted.

On Arming the Iraqi forces, he said "there are no obstacles or direct interference could prevent the U.S. from arming Iraqis," asserting that Iraqi forces' capabilities are now better than before.

"Iraq has enough money now to buy the state of the art weapons for the army, but the way still long and we can add two more military divisions to the 10-division army," he also said.

"Despite the current crisis in the government, it is still able to face the challenges," the diplomat told the newspaper.

Regarding the Arab role in Iraq, the minister said "this year will witness a bigger Egyptian and Arab role in Iraq."

He described ties with Syria as good "there are reciprocal visits and steps taken by the Syrian authorities to prevent infiltrators."

"There are daily talks with Iran on oil, economic and commercial levels as well as religious visit; 2500 Iranians head for holy places in Najaf and Karbala," the official explained.

"The increase in the number of U.S. forces combating "terrorism and al-Qaeda" and the improvement in Iraqi forces' performance led to the improvement in the security conditions," Zibari continued.

Aswat Aliraq

MP holds Kurds, government responsible for oil bill delay

The head of the parliament's Energy Committee held Kurds and the executive authority (government) responsible for the delay in approving the oil and gas draft law.

"The parliament awaits for the government's approval of any of the draft law's four copies," Abdul Hadi al-Hassani told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), noting that differences between the government and Kurds are "political not technical."

The draft oil law is crucial in regulating how wealth from Iraq's huge oil reserves will be distributed.

The draft law is vital for Iraq to attract foreign investment to boost its oil output and rebuild its economy.

The bill was approved by the cabinet last February but many Kurds opposed it.

Particular objections were raised to parts of the draft that would see oil fields being taken from regional governments to be placed under a new state oil company.

He criticized the contracts the Kurdish government signed with a number of foreign companies for oil drilling in Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk, stressing the Energy Committee must study these contracts.

Kurdistan region government signed 15 production sharing contracts with 20 foreign companies despite that Baghdad government opposed these contracts before the parliament would have been passed the oil draft into law.

The legislator described these contracts as "illegal" and violate article 112 of the Iraqi constitution.

"The central government can use its political relations with the neighboring countries to pressure the government of Iraq's Kurdistan region to cancel these contracts," al-Hassani also said.

Over the last eleven months, marathonic negotiations have been underway among Iraqi political blocs on a draft law on oil.

Most of Iraq's proven oil reserves are located in the Shiite-dominated south and the Kurdish north.

Iraq sits on the world's third-largest oil reserves.

Aswat Aliraq

Parliament fails to ratify Iraqi law

Delay and stalling are taking the upper hand in Iraq’s Parliament. After pardon and budget laws, Parliament failed one more time to ratify the justice and accountability law as the parliament’s session was adjourned until Thursday. Meanwhile, Iraq is resuming connections with neighboring countries as Vice President Tarek Al Hashemi is visiting Kuwait to hold talks with Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah and a number of senior officials to discuss bilateral relations and means to promote economic ties.

Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV Network | Iraq News | Parliament fails to ratify Iraqi law

Government responds to the demands of teachers to increase their salaries

The Ministry of Education responded to the demands of teachers, who carried out a warning strike few weeks ago demanding an increase of their salaries, announcing on Monday increasing the salaries of half a million teachers from within the ministry staff, as well as the granting of allowances, upgrading, transport allocations and tax exemption, which made teachers cancel the general strike planned to be carried out this month.

A statement by the National Centre for Information in the Cabinet also pointed out that teachers who are paid less than 700 thousand dinars will be exempted from tax; the increases will be 25% for Institute certificate holders, 30% for Bachelor, 50% for ******* degree and 75%, for PH.D. holders with the addition of marital allocations of $50 thousand dinars, and transportation allocations ranging between 20 thousand and 60 thousand dinars for distant and remote areas.

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