Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

It's Still About Oil in Iraq
By Antonia Juhasz
The Los Angeles Times

Friday 08 December 2006

A centerpiece of the Iraq Study Group's report is its advocacy for securing foreign companies' long-term access to Iraqi oil fields.
While the Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever- pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence.

Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the U.S. and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves." The group then proceeds to give very specific and radical recommendations as to what the United States should do to secure those reserves. If the proposals are followed, Iraq's national oil industry will be commercialized and opened to foreign firms.

The report makes visible to everyone the elephant in the room: that we are fighting, killing and dying in a war for oil. It states in plain language that the U.S. government should use every tool at its disposal to ensure that American oil interests and those of its corporations are met.

It's spelled out in Recommendation No. 63, which calls on the U.S. to "assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise" and to "encourage investment in Iraq's oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies." This recommendation would turn Iraq's nationalized oil industry into a commercial entity that could be partly or fully privatized by foreign firms.

This is an echo of calls made before and immediately after the invasion of Iraq.

The U.S. State Department's Oil and Energy Working Group, meeting between December 2002 and April 2003, also said that Iraq "should be opened to international oil companies as quickly as possible after the war." Its preferred method of privatization was a form of oil contract called a production-sharing agreement. These agreements are preferred by the oil industry but rejected by all the top oil producers in the Middle East because they grant greater control and more profits to the companies than the governments. The Heritage Foundation also released a report in March 2003 calling for the full privatization of Iraq's oil sector. One representative of the foundation, Edwin Meese III, is a member of the Iraq Study Group. Another, James J. Carafano, assisted in the study group's work.

For any degree of oil privatization to take place, and for it to apply to all the country's oil fields, Iraq has to amend its constitution and pass a new national oil law. The constitution is ambiguous as to whether control over future revenues from as-yet- undeveloped oil fields should be shared among its provinces or held and distributed by the central government.

This is a crucial issue, with trillions of dollars at stake, because only 17 of Iraq's 80 known oil fields have been developed. Recommendation No. 26 of the Iraq Study Group calls for a review of the constitution to be "pursued on an urgent basis." Recommendation No. 28 calls for putting control of Iraq's oil revenues in the hands of the central government. Recommendation No. 63 also calls on the U.S. government to "provide technical assistance to the Iraqi government to prepare a draft oil law."

This last step is already underway. The Bush administration hired the consultancy firm BearingPoint more than a year ago to advise the Iraqi Oil Ministry on drafting and passing a new national oil law.

Plans for this new law were first made public at a news conference in late 2004 in Washington. Flanked by State Department officials, Iraqi Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi (who is now vice president) explained how this law would open Iraq's oil industry to private foreign investment. This, in turn, would be "very promising to the American investors and to American enterprise, certainly to oil companies." The law would implement production-sharing agreements.

Much to the deep frustration of the U.S. government and American oil companies, that law has still not been passed.

In July, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced in Baghdad that oil executives told him that their companies would not enter Iraq without passage of the new oil law. Petroleum Economist magazine later reported that U.S. oil companies considered passage of the new oil law more important than increased security when deciding whether to go into business in Iraq.

The Iraq Study Group report states that continuing military, political and economic support is contingent upon Iraq's government meeting certain undefined "milestones." It's apparent that these milestones are embedded in the report itself.

Further, the Iraq Study Group would commit U.S. troops to Iraq for several more years to, among other duties, provide security for Iraq's oil infrastructure. Finally, the report unequivocally declares that the 79 total recommendations "are comprehensive and need to be implemented in a coordinated fashion. They should not be separated or carried out in isolation."

All told, the Iraq Study Group has simply made the case for extending the war until foreign oil companies - presumably American ones - have guaranteed legal access to all of Iraq's oil fields and until they are assured the best legal and financial terms possible.

We can thank the Iraq Study Group for making its case publicly. It is now our turn to decide if we wish to spill more blood for oil.

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We will announce shortly the final position of the report of Baker

(Voice of Iraq) - 12-10-2006
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He said Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari that "the Iraqi government more concerned with the recommendations of the report of Baker Hamilton and it is being studied and would shortly announce its final stand it."
Zebari added that some items of the report in line with the orientations of the Iraqi government. The other items will be examined by the government.
He pointed out that the issue of dialogue between the United States and Syria, and Iran also called for recommendations is the American.
European البغداديه

Almshahadani : we need to Americans in Baghdad

(Voice of Iraq) - 12-10-2006
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He told «life» that the Parliament could not summon the rulers »« accountable ... Almshahadani : we need to Americans in Baghdad. And external »« coup within two months if he failed solution
Baghdad-Mohammed Abdel life-10 / 12 / 06 / /

The President warned Iraqi Parliament Mahmoud Almshahadani that «failure of the political forces in bridging differences plunging the country into a whirlpool of sectarian violence», he told «life» security developments in Baghdad «warns of sectarian civil war», stressed the need for American forces in Baghdad alone. He admitted b «inability of the State to ensure the security of the capital» countries and described as «suffer defeat sectarian and partisan», calling for the involvement of troops from «s Kurdish forces to the multinational force to the time of the preparation of the Iraqi forces», «detect the presence of Foreign Affairs calls for overthrowing the current system through a coup within two months if political blocs failed to reach a solution».
Asked his opinion of the report of the Baker-Hamilton said Almshahadani that «agrees to what the report, particularly the need to codify the American military presence» «It should not be this influence in the light of a legitimate Iraqi government elected and sovereign». He believed that «Almshahadani was to be the agreement and cooperation between the American administration and the Iraqi government to achieve the priorities and foremost to control the influence of the American forces, not the presence of uncontrolled».

And stressed Almshahadani on the necessity of «to lead the Iraqi government their actual role so that of the Parliament reckoning» reiterating : «when we may put pressure on the government to surmount the negatives so we face blamed the logical, that the government did not own nothing, and, since the resolution the security Specifically often have American», revealing its «that the Parliament does not have the competence summoning Commander of the American forces or the U.S. ambassador in Iraq of accountability», he said, pointing at the same time noted that providing «broad powers of the government in this area will allow us greater opportunity of control and accounting to what is happening in the street the bloodshed and killing of innocent».

He acknowledged that «the points mentioned by the investigation proper and realistic despite the limitations of dealing with a crisis is the deadliest of the militias, which at this stage».

Asked about whether Iraqi security forces capable of controlling the security file, stressed the Almshahadani «must be able through reconstruction and rehabilitation, but how will if it is not built on the basis of efficiency and Allamahassh, citizenship, creed, national military, which is dedicated to the defense of the existence of a fight the other, or seek in the footsteps of the Americans in order to achieve the objectives of certain benefits». He stressed the importance of «the establishment of national security forces to refrain from carrying out any orders to the detriment of Iraq, even if it ordered the Head of State».

The Almshahadani «continuing need for foreign troops at the present time, especially in Baghdad, which is considered safer security of the entire Iraq», he said, pointing out that «we need American forces in the governorates of Anbar, Salah al-Din and Mosul, these areas do not suffer sectarian fighting, but the ongoing war between the resistance and the occupation, can not be stopped by order of the Bush Almshahadani or, as it is an ideological». He continued Almshahadani : «Therefore, we withdraw these forces (of Anbar, Salah al-Din and Mosul) to Baghdad, where security has become a grave war sectarian civil», admitted b «inability of the State to ensure the security of the capital, troops suffer defeat sectarian and partisan», calling for the involvement of troops from «s Kurdish alongside multinational forces until the preparation of the Iraqi forces to be the labor strike of the State».

Having announced that «armed Iraqi resistance have brought the Americans to the faith and conviction that they lost the war demanded» «resistance factions to adopt a clear political agenda to invest much has been achieved in the last term». He also exhorted «political forces opposed to the occupation have succeeded in their objectives to do the same thing instead of fought the midst of sectarian fighting», and he wondered if it comes in the framework of «hidden external pressure on the Americans to make further concessions in favor of those firmly».

Regarding the invitation of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan to convene an international conference on the situation in Iraq, and conflicting responses Iraqi Almshahadani said «The position of the parliament and clear, and that is that any project on the Iraqi issue should be put to the vote in the parliament for approval or rejection». Regarding personal opinion, Iraqi voice in this matter when he said : «up to the event of catastrophic events would fall under the emergency. Since the United Nations was mandated to American forces by maintaining the security of Iraq, and because of the continuing bloodshed, which exceeded the border, the United Nations to intervene formally, but they are obliged to intervene ».

A Almshahadani a «invitations from abroad to topple the current system through a coup within two months if political blocs failed to reach a positive solution», explained : «may not be military coup, but political», expressing his belief that «the basic parliamentary blocs failed until this moment in the performance of their role is not for subjective reasons, but objective».

Call »warns of the risks of political dissent« »

(Voice of Iraq) - 12-10-2006
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Call »warns of the risks of political dissent« »... New parliamentary front of the «Supreme Council», «» Islamic Party and the Kurds
Baghdad-Amri as the life-10 / 12 / 06 / /

Announcing the formation near the front parliamentary committee comprising «Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, led by al-Aziz al-Hakim», and «Islamic Party», «» Kurdistan Alliance reactions between different Iraqi political circles, notably warning «» Islamic Dawa Party, which belongs to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, of «address the situation in a political dissidence».

The Minister of State for the national reconciliation Akram Hakim, a leading figure in the Supreme Council «», announced in Washington that Iraq would soon form a new political bloc comprising «Supreme Council», «» Islamic Party and the Kurdistan Alliance «» «to address the sectarian tension that has ravaged the country through coordination among the most important parties within the major political blocs».

It is noteworthy that the «Supreme Council», one of the seven components of the «United Iraqi Alliance», which includes «Badr organization», «partisan advocacy», «» Virtue and the Sadri trend and independents, while comprises «Islamic Party» in the «Accord Front», which also includes «the people of Iraq» headed by Adnan Al-Dulaimi, «The National Dialogue Council, led» Khalaf Al-Alyan. The Kurdistan Alliance includes «» «» Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by President Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party «» Masoud Barzani.

He warned the leadership in the Dawa Party «» of «the writer to address the situation in a political dissidence». He said that «national consensus between the political blocs is required, but any step to find some sort of political dissent and divided parliamentary blocs had bequeathed to the greater political problems in the future», stressing the need to study the draft before the blocks reach it.

Regarding the possibility of joining «» Dawa Party to unite, saying that the new «will call within the United Iraqi Alliance, which will leave it to any new bloc», but at the same time announced that «support any political consensus that would help to end the political crisis in the country, provided that this will lead to fragmentation of Block major blocs in parliament.

The leadership in the «Islamic Party Iyad al-Samarra'i» «non» Front crystallized the new draft, pointing out that «the talks held by the Islamic party with the Kurdistan Alliance and the Supreme Council aimed at creating a kind of national consensus between the political blocs away from the sectarian and ethnic Lineups out of the political crisis facing the country».

For his part, the Kurdish MP Mahmoud Othman joining Dawa Party «» «to the ongoing consultations aimed at fueling draft a new parliamentary bloc with a view to finding solutions to the interim political and security crises in the country», «pointed out that the new bloc will be open to all parties and the political parties, including the parties that did not participate in the political process, and other parties that have remained outside the parliament and the government». He pointed out that «even open talks with the parties that refuse to accept the political process is a program to be approved by the Front to be formed within days».

For his part, the leader of «» Accord Front Adnan Al-Dulaimi, the Islamic Party «» been approached about joining the Front parliamentary bloc in the other, pointing out that «Front held a lengthy meeting to discuss the accession of the Islamic Party to a new parliamentary bloc», «Astrik to enter the Islamic Party in the parliamentary bloc with the Supreme Council and the Kurds did not mean quitting compatibility».

Progress reported on Iraqis oil talks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big News Network.com Saturday 9th December, 2006 (UPI)

Iraqi political leaders are making progress on a law that would distribute oil revenues to provinces based on population, The New York Times reported Friday.

A law could be critical to the country's future because almost all the country's oil is in Kurdish and Shiite areas, and Sunni Iraqis fear they would be cut off from one of the major sources of wealth, the newspaper said.

The negotiations brought Shiite and Sunni officials together against the Kurds, who wanted regional control over revenues. But the Kurds are becoming more amenable to distribution based on population.

Revenue sharing is an accepted principle by all the constituent elements of the Iraqi government, including the Kurds, and that is the unifying element that we're all hoping for in the oil law, Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister and a Kurd, told the Times.

One proposal to end sectarian violence is the division of Iraq into three semi-autonomous regions. That plan depends on giving Sunnis a share of oil revenues, the newspaper said.

Originally Posted by noodlesdad

Sorry, I think I misunderstood....I did not ask what Chase's buy rate was...Only wanted to get one last purchase in time for delivery before next Thursday.

ND

you got it right.. that's what I meant..

Originally Posted by neno

No that is a usersname to reckon with. Relax, I have posted before and so have others. But will do it again for you. Chase Banks are like Auto Parts Stores, the counter help I mean. You ask for a Carburator and they bring you a Transmission. Anyways, you can not deal with them on the phone, it is against their Policy to do are give info on Foriegn Currency by phone. There is a reason for it.....They dont want every Tom & Sue calling them. Now if you have a connection there as I luckly do, then that is another story. I will tell you right now that Chase Banks Exchange the IQD both ways. Hope that keeps you Dreaming.

Thanks Neno for your response. I did go into a branch as well today and was told the same information that I was told on the phone. I plan on going into my branch on Monday to speak to the manager and hopefully get another purchase in before it's too late.

Originally Posted by TerryTate

. If you are going to take that approach then I guess you believe that Billy never stained Monica's dress either, as he was never impeached. Can't have it both ways partner.

Hey Terry, Bill Clinton WAS IMPEACHED and went through the whole process!! The senate did not find him guilty by a two thirds vote but he still was one of the only 3 US Presidents that were ever impeached. Impeachment is not the end result...it is the process.

December 9, 2006

By Kirk Semple New York Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq — One of the most coveted jobs in Iraq does not yet exist: the executioner for Saddam Hussein. The death sentence against Saddam is still under review by an appeals court, but hundreds of people have already started lobbying the prime minister's office for the position.

They have sent messages through Cabinet officials and their assistants, and by way of government guards and clerical workers. One candidate, an Iraqi Shiite living in London whose brother was killed by Saddam, telephoned an aide to the prime minister to say he was prepared to drop everything and fly to Baghdad to execute the former ruler. It would be an honor, he said, according to the aide.

"One of the hardest tasks will be to determine who gets to be the hangman because so many people want revenge for the loss of their loved ones," said Basam Ridha, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki.

Saddam and two of his top associates, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bandar, were sentenced to "death by hanging" on Nov. 7 for their involvement in the arrest and killings of 148 men and boys after an assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail in 1982. The nine-judge appeals bench has no time limit to issue its ruling, but if it upholds the death sentence. Saddam's execution must be carried out within 30 days.

Iraqi judicial officials said they expect that the appeals process will be completed in a matter of weeks and, if the sentence is upheld, that Saddam's hanging will take place between mid-January and mid-March.

The Shiite-led government has argued for a swift execution, saying that as long as Saddam is alive, he remains a powerful source of motivation for elements of the Sunni Arab insurgency fighting to restore him to power.

There are other critical issues the government will need to decide should the appeals court uphold the death sentence against Saddam, including where he will be executed.

Officials have considered staging a public hanging in Baghdad's largest sports arena, Shaab Stadium, and filling the place with tens of thousands of spectators, according to government officials who agreed to discuss the subject on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. But while such a spectacle might satisfy a communal need for closure, the authorities have rejected the idea for security reasons. A target that big, they say, would be highly vulnerable to attack by Sunni insurgents who might try to lob a few mortar shells into the crowd or ambush spectators on their way to and from the event.

Government hangings are now conducted in a prison complex in eastern Baghdad. Saddam, who is being held at Camp Cropper, an American military prison near Baghdad International Airport, could be transported to those gallows by helicopter. But officials worry that the trip would present an unnecessary opportunity for a rescue attempt by his sympathizers.

Most likely, officials say, Saddam will be hanged at a gallows specially built for him at Camp Cropper.

The death penalty in Iraq, which applies to a range of crimes including terrorism, was suspended in 2003 by the American occupation authorities but reinstated in August 2004. Since then, 51 people — men and several women — have been hanged and about 170 are currently on death row awaiting execution or the outcome of their appeals, according to Hashim al-Shibli, Iraq's justice minister.

Those are the official numbers. A high-ranking government official involved in the executions process, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue on the record, said the actual number of hangings is nearly 100 because of three sets of hangings that took place between December 2005 and March 2006 and were never publicized.

Human rights groups have questioned the transparency of the criminal justice system in Iraq and the ability of defendants to get fair trials. And the United Nations has requested that the Iraqi government commute the sentences of all the prisoners on Iraq's death row. But Iraqi leaders have rebuffed calls for the abolishment of the death penalty, arguing that it serves as a deterrent to crimes.

"Al-Maliki wants to show decisiveness that people should be punished," said Ridha, al-Maliki's adviser. "He is very anxious that these executions take place in a timely manner." He added, "The number of executions that have taken place is not a great number compared to the number of insurgents in the country."

The gallows are located in a cement building within a heavily guarded prison complex in eastern Baghdad, near the headquarters of the Interior Ministry. Two scaffolds made of steel sit side by side in an otherwise unadorned room, according to a government official who has attended hangings there(Officials in the Justice Ministry and the al-Maliki administration denied several requests to visit the prison and, citing security concerns, refused to give the precise location of the site.)

The government prefers to conduct several hangings in a day for the sake of efficiency. Men condemned to death are held on Iraq's death row — a wing of rudimentary cells, separated from other inmates in the prison compound. Condemned women are held at a women's prison in Khadamiya, a neighborhood in northern Baghdad.

The prisoners are told they will be hanged on the morning of their executions, officials said. They are led out of their cells in single file, dressed in orange jumpsuits, their ankles and wrists manacled, and taken to a room off the gallows chambers, where they are allowed to sit on floor cushions. There, they are permitted to pray. They can eat a last meal if they request it, or smoke a cigarette. They are given an opportunity to compose a last will and testament. Then, two by two and hooded, they are taken to the gallows.

The victims are led up a set of steel stairs to a platform, about 15 feet above the ground, and nooses fashioned from one-and-a-quarter-inch-thick hemp ropes are slipped over their necks. The executioners are different each time, drawn from among employees of the Justice Ministry who volunteer for the job. Many have lost relatives or friends in insurgent attacks, officials said.

With a tug of two large levers, the steel trap doors drop open and the victims fall through. The doors make a loud clanging sound as they slam against the apparatus, according to people who have witnessed hangings. The jarring noise echoes off the cold, unadorned concrete walls.

Death is supposed to come instantly — a doctor is on hand to certify it — and the bodies are removed to a cooler where they are held before being handed over to their families. The entire process is recorded by a photographer and a video cameraman and the images are stored in a government archive.

But the hangings have not always gone smoothly.

Until the new gallows were built, the Iraqi government used an apparatus and an old rope left over from Saddam's government, said a government official involved in the coordination of executions. The rope had become so elastic that it would sometimes take as much as eight minutes to kill the convicted person.

On Sept. 6, the Iraqi authorities planned to hang 27 people. On the 13th hanging, according to an official who was there, the rope snapped and the convicted man plummeted 15 feet through the trap door onto the concrete floor. "God saved me!" the man cried. "God is great! I did not deserve this!" For an hour, he lay on the ground praying and shouting while prison guards and the executioner debated whether this constituted divine intervention and, if so, whether the man's life should be spared. Once a new rope was rigged, however, the man was forced up the stairs once again and successfully hanged. The incident was first reported in Time magazine of Nov. 20.

The executions are conducted in secrecy to avert insurgent attacks. On March 9, a government convoy carrying a representative from the administration of then-Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was ambushed on its way to the gallows so that the representative could observe the day's hangings, including the execution of Shukair Farid, a murderous former police officer whom the government had dubbed "the butcher of Mosul."

On another execution day, word leaked out and insurgents pelted the prison facility with mortar shells. The Iraqi subcontractors who built the new gallows, under the auspices of an American contractor, were forced to interrupt work several times because of threats by insurgents, officials said.

The current hanging procedures are an improvement over the methods used by Saddam, who conducted mass executions in a hangar-like building at Abu Ghraib prison. According to human rights groups, hundreds of prisoners were executed in a span of a few weeks in the 1990s to address prison overcrowding.

Saddam himself asked the court to execute him by firing squad, the method used for soldiers sentenced to death. He said it was his right because he was commander in chief of Iraq's armed forces at the time of the events in Dujail. His request was denied.

The protocols for his hanging have not yet been determined, including who will get to attend, al-Maliki administration officials said. In a standard Iraqi hanging, the attendance is limited to representatives from the Justice Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the prime minister's office, and a doctor. Al-Shibli, the justice minister, said the convict's lawyer was allowed to attend, as is a member of the clergy of the victim's choice, though in practice they rarely do.

The usual videographer and photographer will probably be on hand, as well, to record the hanging, officials said, and excerpts of the event may be shown later on national television. Ridha said the Iraqi people would want to see it.

Times Argus: Vermont News & Information

Cheers!
DayDream

Iraqi Kurdish PM Discusses ISG Report, Iraqi Oil Law

Iraq09 December 2006

The report published this week by a bipartisan U.S. panel urging policy changes in Iraq has not been warmly received in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, particularly its recommendation on how Iraq's oil wealth should be distributed. VOA's Margaret Besheer sat down with the regional prime minister, who says the report does not reflect realities on the ground.

Iraq Study Group report
Iraq's Kurdistan region is often overlooked by outside observers because it suffers none of the sectarian violence plaguing Baghdad and other parts of the country.

But the prime minister of the semi-autonomous region, Nechirvan Barzani, tells VOA that is no reason for the U.S. commission reviewing U.S. policy in Iraq to have neglected visiting the area when they were preparing their 79 recommendations for President Bush.

"They stayed just inside [the] Green Zone, and [for] just a few days inside the Green Zone," he said. "They did not come to Kurdistan, or to anywhere, to see the real situation on the ground."

The Green Zone is a secure area in Baghdad where U.S. troops and government officials are housed.

Mr. Barzani is particularly upset about the Iraq Study Group's recommendations for dividing the country's oil wealth, particularly as there are sensitive internal negotiations going on now in Baghdad to draft a new national oil law.
Iraq possesses more than 100 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, so the stakes are high.
The Iraq Study Group's report urges equitable distribution of oil revenues, saying it is necessary to the process of national reconciliation. This option is attractive to Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs.

But Iraq's Kurds, including Mr. Barzani, and also its majority Shi'ites - who sit on much of the country's oil reserves - oppose this, preferring instead to follow the Iraqi constitution, which allocates all regions of Iraq a proportion of oil profits relative to their population.

The Kurds are generally considered to be 17 percent of the population. However, if an expected census is conducted next year, Mr. Barzani says their share is more likely to increase than decrease.

"Our point is, because we do not have any census in Iraq, we told Baghdad, you should keep 17 percent for the Kurds, until you finish that census, and then, according to the constitution, it will be adjusted, and we will accept that," he added.

He says Iraqi oil revenues should also go to a special account outside the country, which would automatically transfer their share from that account directly to the regional government's account.

In Baghdad, as the new oil law is hashed out, the version the Kurds would like to see approved would allow them to retain the right to sign oil deals with foreign countries and keep the proceeds for themselves, which they contend is their right under the Iraqi constitution.

Negotiations on the draft oil law will resume this week, and Mr. Barzani will go to Baghdad to take part.

Also on his agenda there is the annual budget. Right now, he says, the Kurdistan region does not receive any of the money allocated for national security, something he would like to see changed.

"Our point is, we are part of the security in Iraq, and they should allocate some budget for security in this region," he said. "You should give us our share. If the situation here is good, it is because we try hard to be like that. We need more help, more assistance."

Mr. Barzani said he was disappointed that the last round of Baghdad talks did not yield any significant results, but he tells VOA, he is hopeful that this trip will see some of these issues resolved.

VOA News - Iraqi Kurdish PM Discusses ISG Report, Iraqi Oil Law