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

U.S.-Kurdish bank, construction development center soon in Kurdistan

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will grant a Kurdish-American bank a license to operate in the region, Kurdistan's planning minister said on Sunday, revealing upcoming plans for the establishment of a center for construction and trade development.

"We plan to open an American-Kurdish bank in Arbil in 2008 to facilitate financial operations for investors in the region," Minister Othman Shawani said during a joint press conference with a deputy assistant to the U.S. defense secretary at the ministry's headquarters in Arbil.

"The ministry has also decided to set up a center for construction and trade development in the city to provide facilitations for investing companies in the region," the minister indicated.

Meanwhile, the U.S. deputy assistant said that the security and stability which Iraq's Kurdistan region enjoys have facilitated the establishment of trade relations with the United States. The U.S. government is encouraging companies to raise their investment in the region by providing facilitations for investors and protecting them, he added.

Arbil, the capital city of Iraq's Kurdistan region, lies 360 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Aswat Aliraq

New political alliance in response to Sunni-Kurdish agreement- MP

A parliamentarian from the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) said a new alliance of several political blocs will be announced on Sunday afternoon to back the Iraqi government and push forward the political process in the country.

"A new alliance of 10 political blocs, including the National Dialogue Council; the (Sunni) National Dialogue Front, led by Saleh al-Motlak; the Iraqi National List (INL), led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, the (Shiite) Fadhila Islamic Party and the Islamic Daawa Party-Iraq Organization, to which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki belongs," MP Nour al-Din al-Hayali said in exclusive statements to Aswat al-Iraq- Voice of Iraq- (VOI).

Describing the alliance as a response to a trilateral agreement between the IAF's Iraqi Islamic Party and the two major Kurdish parties in Iraq, al-Hayali explained that the new coalition will also encompass the Sadrist bloc, led by Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, in addition to the Iraqi People's Congress, led by Adnan al-Duleimi.

In December 2007, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Iraq's Kurdistan President Massoud al-Barazani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by President Jalal al-Talabani signed a tripartite agreement with the Iraqi Islamic party that aimed to unify stances on several issues, including Turkish incursions into the Kurdistan region and the controversial issue of oil-rich Kirkuk.

The Iraqi cabinet has been suffering since the withdrawal of 17 ministers from the government. In April 2007, the Sadrist bloc withdrew its six ministers from al-Maliki's government and called for the appointment of technocrat replacements. Four ministers and a deputy prime minister from the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), with 44 seats in parliament, also withdrew from the government. The secular INL, which has 22 seats in parliament, ordered its four ministers to quit the cabinet, but some declined.

Aswat Aliraq

New alliance to confront sectarian quota system

Parliamentary blocs and political figures on Sunday announced a new alliance called the national project to confront the sectarian quota system and support the national reconciliation.

"The national project aims at enhancing the political process by building a state of institutions and rule of law, supporting the national reconciliation, and broadening the base of political participation," MP Usama al-Najaifi of the Iraqi National List (INL) recited the alliance's first statement during a press conference held in Baghdad.

He considered "oil, natural gas and other natural treasures" as "the property of all Iraqi people," calling for "maintaining the interests of all categories of the Iraqi people in Kirkuk."

Regarding the Iraqi army, Najaifi shed light on the importance of "training and supplying the Iraqi military forces with the required resources to build up the army based on national and professional principles to maintain security all over the country and put an end to the presence of occupation forces in the country."

The announcement suggested the adoption of "the fiscal year budget 2008 as caliber to calculate the share of regions and provinces based on the planning ministry's statistics in addition to taking the population growth rate and ration cards into consideration until running a population census."

Elsewhere, the Dawa-Iraqi Organization Party of the United Iraqi Coalition (UIC) branded the national project announcement as a "start to alliance of powers, not a political bloc, to overcome the narrow circle of sectarianism."

Earlier, an Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) MP, Nour al-Din al-Hayali, in statements to Aswat al-Iraq – Voice of Iraq – (VOI), said a new alliance of 10 political blocs, including the National Dialogue Council; the (Sunni) National Dialogue Front (NDF) of Saleh al-Motlak; the Iraqi National List (INL) of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, the (Shiite) Fadhila (Virtue) Party and the Islamic Dawa Party, to which incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki belongs, would be set up."

Describing the alliance as a response to a trilateral agreement between the IAF's Iraqi Islamic Party and the two major Kurdish parties in Iraq, Hayali explained that the new coalition will also encompass the Sadrist bloc of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, in addition to the Iraqi People's Congress of Adnan al-Dulaimi.

In December 2007, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Iraq's Kurdistan region President Massoud al-Barazani, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) signed a tripartite agreement with the Iraqi Islamic Party that aimed to unify stances on several issues, including Turkish incursions into the Kurdistan region and the controversial issue of oil-rich Kirkuk.

Aswat Aliraq

Iraq Oil Output at 2mbpd

Jan. 13--Iraq’s oil output rose again in December, wrapping up 2007 with a roughly 25 percent increase over last January’s average, the country’s oil ministry said Saturday.

The average output last month reached 2.475 million barrels per day, about 73,000 bpd more than in November, according to figures released by the State Oil Marketing Company, AP reported.

The figures showed that exports nearly exceeded 1.9 million bpd: about 1.6 million bpd from Basra in the south and more than 300,000 bpd from Kirkuk in the north.

The December figures brought the total average of the Iraqi output for 2007 to 2.181 million bpd, a rise of 28,000 bpd over 2006. In January 2007, output was 1.9 million barrels.

The average production in December from northern fields stood at about 536,000 bpd, 14,000 bpd more than in November. Production from southern fields also rose to 1.939 million bpd, from 1.88 million bpd in November.

Since the 2003 US-led invasion that removed Saddam Hussein from power, Iraqi production has mostly hovered between 1.7 million and 2 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency. Its prewar production was 2.58 million barrels per day.

The resumption of oil shipments through a pipeline from Iraq’s Kirkuk oil fields into the Turkish Ceyhan export terminal, which was often halted in previous years because of sabotage, has given Iraq more flexibility to increase production.

Iraq, the holder of the world’s third-largest crude oil reserves with an estimated 115 billion barrels, aims to boost production to 3 million bpd by the end of 2008.

In dire need of expertise from international oil companies, Iraq early this month decided to rely on the Saddam-era law until a new law is approved. It set a Jan. 31 deadline for international oil firms to register to compete for tenders to help develop a number of oil and gas fields.

Tenders are expected to concentrate on the redevelopment of Akkas, as well as other fields such as Rumeila South, Rumeila North, Subba/Luhais, Zubair and Missan in southern Iraq, and Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

Iran Daily - International Economy - 01/14/08

Economic boost gives hope to Iraqis

House prices on the up and increased banking business are not readily associated with Iraq. Yet as Humphrey Hawksley reports, there are entrepreneurs who see good times in the horizon.

"This is the entrance hall," said Naimah Abdul Jabbah, throwing open a huge pair of wooden double doors.

"How much?", I asked.

"$1m. Maybe some negotiation. But $1m, I reckon."

He turned to my interpreter to confirm the dollar exchange rate to the dinar, because in recent months Iraq's currency has been creeping up in value.

Business playground

Naimah, in his early 40s, is a leading Iraqi estate agent.

He took over the business from his father and talks of the glory days of the 1980s when Iraq dreamt of becoming a business centre and a playground of the Middle East.

He now sees a glimpse of the good times coming back again.

We were in a large detached house in a fashionable Baghdad suburb, standing under a dust-caked chandelier and next to floor-to-ceiling windows with the top half blocked out in case of a rocket attack or bombing.

"Since the drop in violence," I asked "how much have prices gone up?"

Dubai prices

"10%-12%."

He reached for his ringing mobile phone and switched to Arabic.

"I'm with some people now, but I can make it at 1300," he said, fixing up his next meeting.

Then, he picked up where we left off, "I'm told our prices are reaching those in Dubai."

"But they don't get bombed in Dubai."

"I know," he said amid peels of laughter.

"But Iraq, it's a beautiful place. Many people want to be here."

Just over a year ago, President George W Bush confounded his Iraq war critics by sending more troops to the country, instead of withdrawing them as much of America was demanding.

The plan is called the "surge" and in the past few months, its impact is being felt.

US and newly-trained Iraqi troops go into neighbourhoods, drive out insurgents, stay there, win round the local people and begin development programmes.

It is not all working. Bombers slip through.

There are daily killings. This is a country still very much at war.

But amid it, many Iraqis have a new spring in their step.

Buoyant prices

Buoyant property prices might be one result, just as the jumping, bustling shopping streets in central Baghdad are another - often so packed that you have to jostle your way through, past clothes stalls, shops of electronic gadgets and trolleys brimming with bright, fresh fruit.

Some of those oranges, bananas, apricots and *****s find their way into the window display of the MeshMesha fruit juice and pastry bar run by Ahmed Sabah and his extended family.

Young nephews and cousins, dressed in smart, orange, sports shirts with the MeshMesha logo - which actually means Apricot - blend delicious drinks of fresh fruit for a steady stream of customers - Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Christians.

No-one seems to care as they sit at minimalist tables watching the world go by.

"When it's safe outside, of course business is better," said Ahmed.

"I have four branches - one we've had to close because it was in a violent neighbourhood, but once the war is over we can spread the chain throughout Iraq."

The MeshMesha chain supports five families that between them are raising 25 children still at school and it employs a couple of dozen of its youngsters in the fruit juice bars.

Return of the ATM?

Without work and a sense of the future, many young men head off to join a militia.

"Your money," I asked. "Do you keep it in cash, put it in the bank? How does that work?"

"In a bank," said Ahmed. "And we exchange some into US dollars."

One of Iraq's biggest private banks has a luxuriously designed office above the Baghdad Stock Exchange and I asked a senior executive how business was now compared to those glory days of the 1980s that Naimah, the estate agent, had spoken about.

"People didn't trust the banks, then," said the financier Mohammed Issa.

His accent was East Coast American and he wore a brown suit with a brightly coloured open-necked shirt.

He would have a panoramic view across Baghdad except the window was blocked by glass cabinets with ornamental displays - again to shield against a bomb attack.

"We had, maybe 4,000 clients under Saddam. Now we have 50,000," he explained.

"We've just set up Internet banking so our customers don't have to risk getting bombed by going to a branch.". He paused for a moment. "Yes, once the war's over, we'll have our ATM machines throughout the country."

Check-point fear

In the afternoon we were driving back to the office past what we thought was a routine check-point.

A van had been stopped.

Men in military uniforms waved guns holding open the vehicle's sliding door.

People were shouting. The expression of those in the van were of anger, anxiety and fear.

"What's happening there?" I asked our interpreter.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "It looks like the army, but I think it's a militia."

"What might happen to them."

"I don't know," he said sombrely.

There are glimpses of hope in Iraq, but at the moment only glimpses.


http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5335

Oops - double post from yesterday - sorry.

Oil and the looming threat to Iraq

Access to and control of Middle East oil has figured prominently in the strategic thinking of American policy makers. In the Bush administration, State Department policy planners discussed scenarios for taking over by force the oilfields of the Middle East and internationalising them.

Jane Mayer revealed in the New Yorker that a secret Bush National Security Council (NSC) document dated February 3, 2001, instructed NSC members to cooperate with Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force for "reviewing international policy towards rogue states" and "actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields."

The Bush administration has denied that the Iraq war was for oil, and proclaimed its commitment to the preservation of Iraq's sovereignty and Iraq's territorial integrity.

Recent events, however, indicate that oil is playing a role in the looming threat to Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Sovereignty under occupation is at best nominal anyhow.

Support for Iraq's territorial integrity offered the prospect of a strong central government able to contain the conflict from spreading into a wider regional war.

It also offered the best guarantee of achieving two of Washington's important goals in Iraq: access to Iraqi oil and an 'enduring' relationship with Iraq that gave Washington, through an Iraqi national oil law, the access and control it sought.

Shortly after Bush announced in February last year his new military strategy of escalation of the war in Iraq, then US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad welcomed progress towards an Iraqi oil law, and explained its importance in American strategic thinking about the future of Iraq.

Far from unifying Iraq, however, American pressure for an oil law is dividing the Iraqis, weakening the central government, and strengthening the separatist tendencies.

Growing opposition to the oil law at the national level in Iraq, and the failure of Bush's strategy of military escalation to stamp out the insurgency, or to secure compliance from Baghdad with Washington's agenda, could not be denied in Bush's "progress" report to the Congress in September.

Bush seems to have given up hope that a strong central government in Baghdad could ever help him achieve his goals in Iraq.

Partitioning

Last September, the US Senate voted in favour of carving up Iraq into separate autonomous regions. Senator Joseph Biden, author of the bill, stated in a television programme that failure in Iraq was inevitable and that: "there is no possibility - no possibility - of a central government governing Iraq in any near term."

A year and a half ago the Bush administration had dismissed the Bidden proposal for partitioning Iraq as "as an unworkable and irresponsible prescription for breaking apart Iraq."

The adoption of the bill by the Senate in September met with no similar condemnation from the White House.

That is because the Bush administration, as Iraqi analyst Raed Jarrar has shown in a co-authored analysis, is backing the separatists, the Iran's hardliners and the Sunni fundamentalists: "All are working - separately, but towards the same ends - against the wishes of a majority of Iraqis, who polls show want a united, sovereign country in control of its own resources and free of meddling by Washington, Tehran and other foreigners."

This has emboldened the Kurds in Northern Iraq who proceeded to act as if they were an independent state and signed their own contracts with foreign oil companies. A noticeable beneficiary of these contracts is Hunt Oil of Dallas. Hunt Oil is owned by Ray Hunt who has close ties to the Bush White House.

Hunt would not be gambling the future of his company in a dangerous region if he did not have privileged knowledge of Bush's thinking about Iraq.

As Paul Krugman of the New York Times put it: "The smart money, then, knows that the surge has failed, that the war is lost, and that Iraq is going the way of Yugoslavia."

Prof. Adel Safty is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Siberian Academy of Public Administration, Novosibirsk, Russia. He is author of From Camp David to the Gulf, Montreal, New York; and Leadership and Democracy, New York.

Gulfnews: Oil and the looming threat to Iraq

KC to call for changing oil minister – legislator

A Kurdish legislator in the Iraqi parliament said on Saturday that it would be hard to find solutions to oil-related problems between the Iraqi Kurdistan region and the central government as long as Hussein al-Shahrestani remains as oil minister.

"The Kurdistan Coalition (KC) will have to call for changing Shahrestani if he insists on his position," Hussein Blu told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Blu, whose KC is the second largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament with 55 out of a total 275 seats, criticized Shahrestani's statements pertaining to oil contracts signed by the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region's government with foreign oil corporations.

"Shahrestani's statements only expressed his personal viewpoint and as long as he remains in the oil ministry it would be impossible to reach an agreement on the oil law and its relevant issues," said Blu.

On Friday a spokesman for the oil ministry said the ministry invited foreign corporations to invest in the oil field in all Iraqi provinces including those of Iraqi Kurdistan region and Kirkuk but excluded the companies that have signed contracts with the region without prior approval by the ministry.

"The oil ministry would not allow international corporations that already signed oil contracts with the government of Iraqi Kurdistan to invest in Iraq," Aasem Jihad told VOI.

The Iraqi oil ministry objects the autonomous Kurdistan region's signing of contracts with foreign companies to prospect for, produce and export oil without referring to the central government in Baghdad.

The region had signed 15 contracts with 20 foreign oil corporations in defiance of the central government's objection and ahead of the Iraqi parliament's final endorsement of a new draft law on oil.

Parliamentary debates on the oil & gas draft were postponed more than once despite strong pressures practiced by the United States on the leaders of Iraqi parliamentary blocs to accelerate a new law. The postponement was due to differences among the political powers over some items.

The draft, adopted by the Iraqi cabinet since late February 2007, provides for distribution of oil revenues to Iraqi provinces based on the rate of population.

It also would open the door before foreign investments in the domain of oil and gas prospecting, production and export in Iraq, a country rated by specialized international agencies to have one of the largest reserves in the world.

KC to call for changing oil minister – legislator | Iraq Updates

World Food Program Dedicates 126 Million US$ to Iraqi Refugees

UN’s World Food Program announced that in cooperation with the Ministry of Emigration and Displacements an urgent operation started to provide 126Million US$ worth of food aid to the displaced families inside Iraq and those who are in Syria.

“A workshop will be held in the next few days including members in the Ministry to set the mechanisms and standards in the distribution process”, an authorized Source in the Ministry of Emigration and Displacements said.

PUKmedia :: English - World Food Program Dedicates 126 Million US$ to Iraqi Refugees

Disagreements between Kurdistan Alliance Bloc and al-Maliki’s Government: Deputy PM

Iraqi deputy PM Dr. Barham Salih said that the security improvement in the country is depending on what can be resulted from positive results on the political level.

In an interview with al-Itihad Emirates newspaper, Dr. Barham said that the political blocs participating in the political process have to make benefit from this improvement for the political project. He urged at the same time from a big relapse, unless a serious work will be done to develop the political process and the government.

In answering a question about the nature of disagreements between al Maliki’s government and Kurdistan Alliance Bloc, Dr. Barham said that there are real disagreements. He requested the government to move quickly to avoid the results that might happen, which is going to be against the interests of all the parts.

PUKmedia :: English - Disagreements between Kurdistan Alliance Bloc and al-Maliki’s Government: Deputy PM

Serbian Government cancels Debt owed by Iraq

In the framework of enacting the Paris Club decisions, the Serbian government forgave Iraq’s debt which is estimated by $2 billion and 48 million.

“Due to the former ousted regime’s wrong policy, Iraq came under $140 Billion of debt. During the previous meeting of Paris Club which was dedicated to Iraq debt issue, it was able to remove $92 billion and 500 thousands of the debt which is %90 of the total.” The Iraqi Minister for Finance, Baqir Jabir announced.

PUKmedia :: English - Serbian Government cancels Debt owed by Iraq