Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 15/04/08 - 26/08/08

ISX cancels session because of curfew

Iraq's Stock Exchange (ISX) canceled its Tuesday session in light of a curfew imposed on the Iraqi capital during a Shiite pilgrimage commemorating the death of Imam Kadhim, which falls today.

"We would like to inform you that there will be no trading session in ISX tomorrow Tuesday 29 July 2008. We will start again on Thursday 31 July 2008," according to a statement published on the ISX's website.

On Monday, Baghdad's operations command announced a curfew on vehicles and motorbikes, with the exception of service vehicles, in the capital as of 05:00 a.m. Tuesday until 05:00 a.m. Wednesday.

Yesterday, three female suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests among groups of Shiite pilgrims in three different places in downtown Baghdad: the Kahramana square, the spot adjacent to the National Theater and the al-Alawiya telephone exchange, killing 26 and wounding 117 others, according to medics and security sources.

Today marks the death anniversary of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, (Seventh of Safar, 128 AH – Twenty-fifth of Rajab, 183 AH) (Approximately: October 28, 746 AD – September 1, 799 AD), the seventh of the Twelver Shiite Imams. Imam Kadhim was the son of the sixth Shiite Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq, and his mother's name was Hamida Khatoon. He was born during the power struggles between the Umayyad and the Abbasid dynasties.

In 795, Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid imprisoned Musa al-Kadhim. Four years later, he ordered Sindi ibn Shahiq to poison him. He died in a prison in Baghdad in 799 and was buried in Baghdad's al-Karkh district in an area named after him: al-Kadhimiya.

The Iraqi Stock Exchange, established under Law No. 74 of the year 2004, held its first session on June 24, 2004. The stock market holds three sessions a week: Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Aswat Aliraq

A last attempt to agree to amend the election law before Parliament holiday

Adoption remains the subject of election law in parliament and developments that followed, the priority concerns and follow the forefront of the internal political headlines

After provoke and Problems occurred because of a secret ballot on some items of law prevailed yesterday, approaching the positive atmosphere, despite the failure of the first meeting of the parliamentary committee for a building to amend the electoral law.

And a distance of four days of the end of legislative parliamentary rule out politicians to find solutions acceptable.

The search of Mr. Abdel Aziz al-Hakim head the Supreme Islamic Council with members of the Badr Organization of the Council's district councils election law, approved by parliament last Tuesday and was revoked after one day before President Jalal Talabani and his deputy, Adel Abdul Mahdi.

The statement said "Al Sabah" yesterday a copy of it, that Mr. al-Hakim yesterday chaired the first meeting of the bloc and members of the Badr Organization and discussed the law of provincial council elections and the latest political and security developments in the country.

The House of Representatives had approved the law last Tuesday and provincial council elections districts and wards, which contains an article providing for the postponement of elections city of Kirkuk, and agreed to the law 127 out of 140 deputies attended the meeting, withdrew from the meeting with Vice Kurdistan Alliance, and Vice others, protesters on the decision, House Speaker Mahmoud scene to make voting "secret" to article 24 of the Act.

Meanwhile, Massoud Barzani discussed the President of the Kurdistan region with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, the situation of Iraq in general.

The two sides studied the law of provincial council elections and the mechanism for voting on the Act and the attitude of political parties about the law and the refusal by the presidency.

He Barzani expressed "concern and the concern of the people of Kurdistan about the position taken by a number of parties in the parliament, stressing that if this attitude is a prerequisite Anhyad as the texts of the Constitution the people of Kurdistan will not accept, calling the method of passing this law the dangerous situation which led to the emergence of different signals And dangerous to the citizens of Kurdistan. "

The Presidency Council had decided last Wednesday revoked the law of provincial council elections, and return it to parliament for a vote again.

The deputy said on Turkmen Akram Fawzi Al Terzi "Sabah" that there are "differences of the Parliamentary Committee to consider the question of the problem of Kirkuk between the Kurds themselves as well as representatives to reject the presence of a representative of the Turkomen in the Committee, alluding to the existence of attempts to speed up passing the law during the coming hours and make recommendation for the presidency.

And articulated orientation and indicators "that the announcement of the postponement of the elections has become close to the approaching summer recess of the House of Representatives in the event of failure to achieve results within days will be decisive for every incident," stressing that "any position toward Kirkuk, whether through agreements or conferences is the absence of Turkmen legally and constitutionally invalid . "

Terzi said: that several political forces are still insisting on a power-sharing administration, functions and components at rates between 32 percent, indicating that this ratio temporary and progress, pointing at the same time, "We expect strong political movements to reach a compromise formula away from the principle of winner and loser" .

A leading role in the coalition deputy to the common writer on the presence of quasi-unanimity on specific grounds for a consensus among the factions in Kirkuk may contribute to access to a proposed compromise, and expressed his hope that the parliamentary committee made its recommendations to the House of Representatives in order to reach a text unanimously. .

He went on to "Assabah": "There are specific grounds for a consensus can be reached by which the proposal has the support of the basic components of the community of Kirkuk", noting that "most foundations include postponing the elections for a certain period of six months have had to adopt the principle of consensus as to solve the problem of the elections in Kirkuk and sharing Authority administrative and security in the province and this is the agreed basis of all factions and now there is almost unanimity among the various parties. "

He continued: that among the proposals also "review the records of souls, real estate and land ownership in Kirkuk again and verified before a parliamentary committee representation blocs and political components of the population in the province and this committee lifted binding recommendations to the ****utive branch to take its recommendations into consideration," pointing out that " What separates the agreement on the overall case for safeguards that can be provided, particularly as the decisions to be issued by the Parliamentary Committee will be bound by mutual agreement of the ****utive power to conduct and supervision of the Presidency of Parliament ", noting that" everyone "pending final approval by three components," and expressed the hope "The parliamentary committee made suggestions to the House of Representatives today, to be drafted compromise text to a vote." The leadership in the Dawa Party, "The Electoral Act in the House of Representatives seat for each governorate, not only in Kirkuk, but will not solve the problem of Kirkuk elections, but they need to Further negotiations between the components of the city until the problem can be resolved by mutual agreement, which is not legal as far as being a political problem. "

The Kurdistan Alliance Hint on re-map alliances with the political forces he went on: "The phase through which Iraq is the stage of political instability and alliances are essential for the success of the political process and stage embodied a government of national unity and political consensus and without a consensus could not reach a critical stage in this framework "He pointed out that" each entity looking for an ally or supporter to reach the goals, especially with the approaching local elections. "He went on" The coalition was concerned that the Kurdish component within the fabric of national unity on any exit from this situation affects clear National Unity and the nature of the political process, and we hope that everyone feels the need for national unity during this period. "In a subsequent development, Khaled Sichuan deputy bloc and the Kurdish Alliance member committee, formed to resolve differences on the district councils election law, that the Commission failed to reach a mechanism to work in the first Meeting held yesterday, while President of the Committee regions and governorates Hashim Al-Taee told a journalist: that the decision of the Presidency of the Republic set aside election law provincial assemblies included a clause preventing the use of religious symbols in the campaign, pointing out that its government with the option of preventing their use.

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Iraqi Leaders Appreciate President Talabani’s Role in Unifying the Iraqis

Yesterday, President Jalal Talabani organized a banquet on the honor of Massud Barzani, the President of Kurdistan region.

It was attended by Dr. Adel Abdel Mahdi, the Vice President, Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Kosrat Rasul Ali, the Vice President of Kurdistan region, Nichervan Barzani, the Prime Minister of the KRG, both deputies of the Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Barham Ahmed Salih and Rafea al-Esawi as well as a number of senior officials in the Iraqi State, members of the PUK and KDP Politburos, ambassadors in Iraq and the high ranking leaders of the multinational forces.

In the meeting, they discussed the latest developments in Iraq and exchanged views on the present challenges and the means of defeating them in a way which secure the national unity and push the political process forward.

The attendants thanked Talabani for his hospitality and appreciated his efforts in consolidating the Iraqi National Unity, expanding the political participation and deepening the principle of the National Accordance in Iraq.

PUKmedia :: English - Iraqi Leaders Appreciate President Talabani’s Role in Unifying the Iraqis

Petraeus Says Security Forces Control Virtually all Iraq

Iraqi and U.S. forces now control virtually all of Iraq and Baghdad's troops might be able to take on security responsibility for the whole country by the end of 2009, the senior U.S. general in Iraq said on Monday.

General David Petraeus told Reuters in an interview that progress in Iraq in the past year had been "very dramatic" but suicide bombers would still slip through security nets.

Four suicide bombers including three women killed 50 people in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk on Monday, Iraqi police said. Petraeus was speaking before the full extent of those attacks was known.

"I think it's accurate to say that Iraqi and coalition forces control the vast majority of the country," Petraeus said.

"That is of course a major change from even just a year ago," he added, saying chunks of territory were in the hands of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in late 2006.

Even a few months ago parts of Baghdad and sections of some southern Iraqi cities were controlled by Shi'ite militias.

Petraeus will make recommendations to Washington in September on whether more U.S. troops can leave Iraq after the last of five additional combat brigades sent to help drag the country back from civil war departed this month.

He said the drawdown had not had any adverse impact on security, comments that suggest he will be able to recommend more cuts to a force that numbers around 147,000 soldiers.

"We need a few more weeks to see what the situation is in the wake of the reduction of the final brigade combat team," Petraeus said.

There was still work to be done in tackling al Qaeda in parts of northern Iraq, he said.

"There are clearly areas in which al Qaeda or other extremist elements have what you might call small sanctuaries. They are not areas that they necessarily control, but they are areas in which they have some freedom of movement."

FOREIGN FIGHTERS REDUCED

Petraeus said security had been helped by a sharp reduction in the number of foreign fighters entering Iraq, to as low as 20 a month from around a 100 each month a year ago.

The general took over as commander of U.S. forces in Iraq in February 2007, when sectarian violence was hitting a peak. In the month he assumed command there were 42 car bombings in Baghdad alone causing what he called "horrific casualties".

As violence falls and Iraqi forces lead more operations, the confidence of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government has grown in its ability to secure the country, more than five years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Iraq hoped to have security control of the entire country by the year-end, Maliki's national security adviser said recently.

Ten of Iraq's 18 provinces are under Iraqi security control and Petraeus said a conservative projection was for at least two more to be transferred this year from multinational forces.

He said this number did not include Anbar, once the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency, but where a local political row has delayed a handover that had been expected last month.

Asked if he envisaged all provinces being under Iraqi control by the end of 2009 including Baghdad, Petraeus said: "It is certainly in the realm of the possible. We have been cautious but if conditions permit obviously we would support that."

Petraeus met last week with Barack Obama when the Democratic presidential candidate visited Baghdad. Obama has pledged to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office if he wins the November election.

Asked about Obama setting a timetable to remove U.S. combat forces, Petraeus said:

"We did not actually discuss a timetable per se ... it's well known that I believe that my recommendations should be based on conditions and assessments," he said.

With the so-called "surge" of U.S. forces in Iraq having just ended, Petraeus acknowledged how concerned he was at times.

"Certainly you do have moments where if you are honest with yourself in something as difficult as this has been, you occasionally wonder if it will be achievable," he said.

"But we are in a very different place now than from where we were a year, a year and a half ago."

PUKmedia :: English - Petraeus Says Security Forces Control Virtually all Iraq

Sorry if already posted

Iraqi central bank calls to assign monetary policy

The Central Bank of Iraq, Sunday, the banks to assign monetary policy trends in the provision of credit and bank financing.

The statement of the National Centre for Information on the presidency of the Council of Ministers received the Independent News Agency (Voices of Iraq) a copy of which was that the Central Bank of Iraq today called on "the banks to market orientation for the attribution of trends in monetary policy in the provision of credit and bank financing required by the state of targeting GDP and address the unemployment And economic stagnation."

The statement quoted the official source at the Central Bank as saying that the bank "decided that the compulsory reserve rate of 25% on bank deposits of all deposits, whether governmental or civil broken down by 5% in cash kept in the coffers of banks and 20% deposited in their accounts with the Central Bank of Iraq and dealing According to instructions and mechanisms currently in force in this regard."

Translated version of http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNewsAr.aspx?id=6598

Foreign firms still reluctant to invest in Iraq’s oil sector

Foreign firms are reluctant to invest in the country’s service contracts which the Oil Ministry is currently negotiating, Iraqi oil officials and experts said.

Iraqi oil officials say they doubt whether any of the firms expressing a willingness to sign service contracts will start work in earnest once they win the deals.

Generally, foreign majors are not as keen to enter into oil service deals unless they have some form of guarantee that they will be given preferential treatment with more lucrative contracts concerning the development of new fields.

The government is not constitutionally authorized to sign development deals but it has the right to strike service deals with foreign firms.
The officials said no such deals would ever be signed unless the stalled oil and gas draft law is passed by the parliament.

The draft law is a bone of contention between various Iraqi political factions. It has drawn fire particularly from Iraqi Kurds because in its current shape it curtails their authority over developing fields in their own areas and collecting royalties.

The Oil Ministry says if the service contracts go ahead, Iraq will be able to add 1.5 million barrels a day to its current production of about 2.5 million from currently operating fields.

Servicing the giant fields of Kirkuk in the north and Rumailah in the south, the officials say, is the best way available for the Oil ministry to boost output at a time of exceptionally high oil prices.

The ministry hopes to lift output to nearly 4 million barrels in a short time and cash in on surging oil prices.

But it is unclear whether the oil majors, mainly Western firms, would be prepared to service these fields.

They have their eyes set on gigantic, yet undeveloped fields in southern Iraq with proven reserves of tens of billions of barrels.

But the experts said the companies might change their mind if stability returns to the country.

With major military operations going on in the country and others in the pipeline, the firms will certainly think twice before starting their activities.

Azzaman in English

President of OPEC: oil prices, the current abnormal

Chakib Khalil said OPEC President today, Tuesday, that oil prices at current levels abnormally and that the Member States in OPEC not to reduce supply before if prices continued to decline.

Khalil said "the price today oddity at 123 dollars per barrel."

Khalil was asked whether the members of OPEC to reduce supply if oil prices continued to decline an individual, saying "no. I do not think so. Why should reduce production? They always want to be sure that there before and asked well and meet that request."

Translated version of http://www.aljeeran.net/economic.html

Iraq: A new impediment to provincial elections
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with Chancellor Angela Merkel at a press conference in Berlin last week. The chancellor gave Maliki backing on his proposal to return Iraqi refugees to their own country


Gordon Brown: “We will continue to reduce the number of British troops in Iraq”


An Iraqi reading a poster in Baghdad announcing the upcoming provincial elections. The vote is almost certainly due to be delayed because of the presidential veto of the election bill

Iraq’s three-member Presidency Council said last Thursday it had rejected a provincial election bill, a move widely expected to delay October polls which are strongly backed by Washington. “President [Jalal] Talabani, and his deputy, Adel Abdelmahdi, have agreed that the law of the provincial elections contains constitutional and procedural violations”, a statement from Talabani’s office said. “Due to this, the two sides have agreed to officially reject the law”, it said. Mahdi’s decision to back Talabani’s call, involving returning the bill to Parliament for redrafting, gives the Presidency Council a majority in rejecting it, even as they await the view of Council member Tarek al-Hashemi.

Talabani’s announcement came after Deputy Parliament Speaker Sheikh Khaled al-Attiya said on Wednesday that the Presidency Council had decided to turn down the bill.
The rebuff means that elections in Iraq’s 18 provinces, scheduled for October 1, will almost certainly be delayed while the law is reworked.
The veto is a setback for Washington and the Administration of President George W. Bush, which has been pushing Baghdad to hold provincial elections as a crucial step to national reconciliation.
“The Iraqis have said that they’d like to try to do it by the end of the year”, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Wednesday.
“We think that that’s important. We think that local elections would help in Iraq to further reconcile all the groups”.
Parliamentarians have said elections would now likely be held early next year.
The original bill met with heavy political opposition when several MPs said a vote that passed a law in Parliament had breached procedures laid down in the constitution because it was held in secret.
Kurds in particular were opposed to the bill because of disputes over how to constitute the provincial council of Kirkuk, the northern oil province claimed by both the Arabs and Kurds.

US: Iraq deal may have many dates
Meanwhile, the White House said Tuesday that a planned US-Iraq strategic deal may lay out a series of target dates for handing Iraqis control over security in different parts of their war-torn country.
Under pressure to explain US President George W. Bush’s endorsement of an undefined “time horizon” for security in Iraq, Perino said the accord will likely set specific dates for achieving specific security goals.
“We expect an aspirational goal, time horizon, as we describe it, for a date so it would be by X month -- and it could be multiple dates”, Perino told reporters.
“You could say, ‘by this month we’ll be able to take over this province, and then by this month, that province’. So those are the type of dates we’re looking at”.
Perino also warned that the agreement may not be reached by the previously stated July 31 target deadline, saying: “I don’t necessarily think we’ll meet that date in particular; could be a few days or a couple weeks past that”.
The White House has been reeling from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s public remarks, months before the November US presidential elections, in favor of setting a target date for withdrawing US combat forces.
Last Monday, Perino said that the US-Iraq strategic accord may set dates for the handover of security to the Iraqis but will not do so with regard to US combat troop levels.

Merkel backs Baghdad on return of Iraqi refugees
In a separate development, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed support for Iraqi government plans to see refugees return home rather than have some of them resettle in Europe as earlier envisaged by Germany.
Berlin has led a campaign to allow several thousand Iraqi refugees, mainly Christians, to resettle in the European Union.
But Maliki, visiting Berlin, has asked Germany to review its position on refugees, Merkel told a press conference.
The Iraqi government has stated that the security situation is improving and that “it will adopt a program on the return of refugees within the next 60 days”, Merkel said.
Baghdad has asked us to take this into account when discussing the plight of the refugees, she added.
“I think we should back plans to see the greatest number return home, with necessary encouragement”, she said, adding that Germany would brief its EU partners on the Iraqi position at a meeting of interior ministers on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Maliki told reporters he wanted to encourage refugees to return home, without forcing them to do so. His government did not discriminate between Muslims and Christians, or between Sunnites and Shiites, he indicated.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that more than 73,000 Iraqis live in exile in Germany, of whom half have been granted asylum.
Some 4.4 million Iraqis have fled their homes since the start of the war, with some two million currently living in neighboring countries, mostly Jordan and Syria, and some 2.5 million are displaced within their own country.

30,000 Iraqi troops poised for assault on Al-Qaeda bastion
Some 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and police are to launch a military assault against Al-Qaeda fighters and insurgents in Diyala Province from August 1, army and police officers said on July 23.
“The operation is aimed at cleansing the region of insurgents, Al-Qaeda and militias who are still there”, a senior Iraqi military officer said on condition of anonymity.
He said some 30,000 soldiers and policemen from across Iraq would take part in the crackdown in the central province starting August 1.
Senior Iraqi police officials in Bakouba, the capital of Diyala, confirmed the assault would start on August 1.
“It will be an operation led by the Iraqi army. The US army will probably only watch... If they need help, we’ll help them. If not, we won’t do anything”, a US military officer said.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdelkarim Khalaf announced on July 13 that the Iraqi military would launch an assault in Diyala but did not specify the date.
He said troops expected tough fighting during the assault.
Diyala is Iraq’s most dangerous regions, with insurgents regularly carrying out attacks, including by female suicide bombers.
The looming assault in Diyala follows similar Iraqi military operations in the southern provinces of Basra and Maysan, and the northern province of Nineveh.
Aided by the US military and Iraqi forces, local anti-Qaeda groups known as Sahwa or Awakening councils, have inflicted severe blows on Al-Qaeda, but the extremist group continues to carry out attacks in the region.
“Yes. Diyala remains the most dangerous province in Iraq”, affirmed Colonel Ali al-Karkhi, commanding officer of Iraqi forces in Khan Beni Sad, a town near Bakouba which has been torn apart by the violence.
“But understand that it is a mini-Iraq. There are Sunnites, Shiites, Kurds, Christians”, the colonel told reporters.
“The other provinces are far less mixed, which is why it is so difficult to restore peace here. It is also the reason why people are so extremist”, he said.
As in other parts of Iraq, the colonel said, the locals have grown weary of violence and massacres and want peace and reconstruction, particularly through economic development.
Diyala, fed by the Tigris and Diyala rivers, was once the granary of Iraq and the country’s orange capital, with lush orchards.
But “foreign countries have sown the disorder”, Colonel Karkhi indicated, pointing a finger at Shiite Iran, which shares a border with Diyala.
“We captured five people [Iraqis] who 45 days ago were in Iran for training. They receive instructions from the Iranian services and their business is to kill people”, he claimed.
The US military claims that most of these militants are “rogue” members of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia, the militant wing of the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s movement.
Karkhi said the militants apart from receiving weapons, are paid three million dinars (2,400 dollars) monthly. “It’s good money”, he remarked.
He said security forces usually display the names and photographs of wanted people at checkpoints.
“The problem is that when we apply pressure they flee to Iran”.
‘British military stretched unsustainably’
The deployment of British forces to both Iraq and Afghanistan has imposed “unsustainable” burdens on the British military, the Ministry of Defense said in a report released last week.
The ministry’s annual report and accounts for 2007-08 showed that of six targets set out in its public service agreement, it fully met one, did not meet one, and partly met the remaining four.
Britain has about 7,800 troops stationed in Afghanistan, a number soon set to rise to 8,000, where they are fighting a bloody insurgency against the Islamist Taliban militia, and a further 4,000 based in Iraq.
According to the report, “the armed forces continued to operate above the overall level of concurrent operations which they are resourced and structured to deliver for the sixth consecutive year”.
Despite that, Britain’s military “consistently and reliably provided substantial forces at immediate readiness for current operations, deployed them to and sustained them in theatre, and recovered them to their home bases at the end of their tours”.
“It was therefore impossible for them to be ready at the same time for the full range of potential contingent operations provided for in planning assumptions, and contingent readiness levels continued to fall”, the report said.
That meant that it did not meet its target to “be ready to respond to the tasks that might arise”.
It did, however, fully meet or partly meet requirements related to ongoing operations, recruitment, building for the future, supporting post-conflict resolution and conflict prevention, and developing international security policy.
It also exceeded its requirements in finding efficiency gains in its annual budget.
Britain eyes ‘change of mission’ in Iraq as troops cut
Britain hopes to scale down its forces in Iraq early next year in a “fundamental change of mission” in the war-scarred country, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday.
Speaking after a weekend trip to Baghdad and Basra, he said that Iraqi forces would increasingly take full charge in the South of the country, where British troops have been based since the 2003 invasion.
Brown said the hoped-for gear-change next year would come after its switch from frontline duty to training and mentoring this year.
“Just as last year we moved from combat to overwatch, I would expect a further fundamental change of mission in the first months of 2009”, he said in an update to MPs on his Iraq trip.
“We will continue to reduce the number of British troops in Iraq”, he said, while insisting that all decisions will be based on advice from military commanders on the ground.
Brown gave no further details of the change in mission, but said military commanders expected control of the Basra airport would be handed to the Iraqis “by the end of this year”.
British forces handed back Basra Province to the Iraqis in December, and cut troop levels from 5,500 to 4,500, but a further drawdown to 2,500 was suspended after Iraqi forces launched a clampdown against militias in March, he said.
Since then Britain has embedded 800 British troops within the Iraqi command structure, and cut numbers to 4,100, Brown said.
Local government elections should be held by the end of 2008, while the first stage of training Iraqi troops should be over “around the turn of the year”, Brown said.
Training of specialist military forces should be completed during the first months of next year, he indicated.
“As we complete these tasks -- and as progress continues across those different areas -- we will continue to reduce the number of British troops in Iraq”.
Ultimately the drawdown would enable Britain to “make the transition to a long-term bilateral partnership with Iraq, similar to the normal relationships which our military forces have with other important countries in the region”.
“Of course, future decisions will be based -- as I have always said -- on advice of our military commanders on the ground”.
Maliki and US President George W. Bush have agreed to include a “time-horizon” for the withdrawal of US forces in a security pact still being negotiated.
The British announcement also came after a parliamentary oversight committee on defense published a positive report about Basra.
The all-party Defense Select Committee said there had been an “obvious and substantial improvement” in security since their last visit, and the Iraqi clampdown -- Operation Charge of the Knights -- had been “broadly successful”.
Challenges remained, they added, but said training and development of Iraqi forces was now the priority for British troops.

Petraeus: Level of Violence in Iraq Tapers Toward 'Normal'

U.S. combat deaths in Iraq appear headed to the lowest monthly total since the start of the war as the top U.S. general there said overall violence is declining toward "normal" levels.

Gen. David Petraeus cautioned, however, that the progress still could be reversed. Suicide attacks Monday in Iraq killed more than 50 Iraqis.

"If you could reduce these sensational attacks further, I think you are almost approaching a level of normal or latent violence," Petraeus said in a phone interview Monday from Iraq.

"The fact that the levels of violence have come down so significantly and stayed down now for some two-and-a-half months … indicates there is a degree of durability," Petraeus said.

There have been six U.S. combat deaths so far in July, according to a USA TODAY database. The lowest monthly number was eight in May 2003, slightly more than a month after the invasion. Iraqi civilian deaths also have dropped.

Although suicide attacks along with other violence has been declining, al-Qaeda retains the ability to bomb civilian targets and wreak havoc. Monday's attack was the deadliest in more than a month.

"Al-Qaeda, although significantly degraded … still can strap a suicide vest on an individual and push him or her into a crowd of Iraqis," Petraeus said.

The ability of U.S. and Iraqi forces to sustain low levels of violence is considered a key condition for allowing a further drawdown in American forces.

The last of five extra brigades sent to Iraq in 2007 left that country this month, bringing U.S. troop levels to about 140,000. Petraeus is expected to make a recommendation in late August or early September about future troop levels.

Violence levels have continued to drop as the extra brigades have departed. The lower levels have been maintained for more than two months.

Daily attacks during the past two months have averaged about 25 to 30, down from about 160 to 170 a little more than a year ago, Petraeus said.

"What we've got to do, of course, is figure out how to keep it there while, over time, further reducing our forces and … trying to further degrade the networks that carry out the sensational attacks," Petraeus said.

Iraqi security forces have been growing in numbers and effectiveness as threats from al-Qaeda and Shiite militias have decreased, Petraeus said.

About 70% of Iraq's combat battalions are leading operations in their areas.

"There is a degree of momentum across the board," he said. "Certainly there have been very tough days and tough reversals."

The progress in Iraq comes as there is increasing pressure to shift U.S. troops to Afghanistan, where violence is growing.

PUKmedia :: English - Petraeus: Level of Violence in Iraq Tapers Toward 'Normal'

FM Meets Secretary-General of the Arab League and a Number of Foreign Ministers

On the sidelines of the Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, met with Mr. Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League and discussed with him developments in the situation in Iraq and relations with the Arab League.

Minister Zebari also met with his counterparts from Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon and State Ministers from the Kingdom of Bahrain, UAE and Sudan, and held meetings with the Foreign Minister of India, Iran and Indonesia.

PUKmedia :: English - FM Meets Secretary-General of the Arab League and a Number of Foreign Ministers