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

Economic : Exceeding expectations : marketing rice in Muthanna to 20 thousand tons

Increased prices and the provision of essential agricultural inputs contributed so
Samawah-Hussein Mashkur
..The farmers and peasants in the province of Muthanna marketing of the rice crop for the 2006 season granaries to the General Company for grain trade Branch Muthanna. (Morning) attended part of the marketing process and met Maithem Abdullah Saqr Shahr manager of the branch of the company, which is expected to go up to the rice crop century tons this season. His : The support and facilities provided by the Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Agriculture for farmers contributed greatly increase rice harvest and marketing for this season, as the marketing until the sixth month of December to about ten thousand tons, while he was in the last season for the same period in 2005 amounted to three thousand tons! He pointed out that Shaher controls and instructions for delivery of crop rice farmers, which were established before the public the quality control section of the General Company for the grain trade were calculated accurately and considered an incentive for farmers to market their crop of rice to the granaries of the ministry. In addition to the company providing bags for the packaging crop for farmers and energies Khazneh, as well as forcing affiliates continued during the night-time and day for the farmers to hand over the facility to harvest and the receipt of financial dues and moving smoothly after that provided by the banks in the province.
.He added : Shaher that most other elements that contributed to the increase in the quantity of the crop for this season is to increase the per ton price approved by the Cabinet and announced by the Ministry of Trade, which reached to 750 thousand dinars per ton while the previous price was 650 thousand dinars per ton. In addition to increasing the share of water, covering all the areas cultivated in the province, not to mention the significant factor is lack of rainfall during the marketing, which has contributed in reducing the rate of moisture in the crop and taking into account impurities according to the instructions issued by the Ministry of Trade, where the percentage increased from last season, and this also contributed to the marketing of their crop, farmers who were denied last season due to this factor. In the same context, Hussein Ali Mahdi Director cultivation Muthanna that the Directorate has contributed in collaboration with the provincial council and the governor convened conferences for the start of the planting season to harvest rice, where she met all the constituencies concerned to overcome difficulties that hinder the process of cultivation of rice through an understanding with the Directorate of Water Resources to provide water quota elimination of area planted, as well as through the provincial council, which, in turn, possible support for the provision of water quota in cooperation with the council of the province of Diwaniyah to cruise the water quota by Hamzah Rumaythah, clearing all bottlenecks in the river. He pointed out that this conference has worked to provide the requisite quota of the oil products through the company's general oil products Branch Muthanna was also exclude certain nutrients electricity in the area by planting rice crop of pieces of a programmer also contributed by the Ministry of Agriculture to support farmers and farmers in terms of providing support and supplies of agricultural fertilizers and pesticides and understanding through the Directorate with the relevant departments to facilitate the tasks of crop. Mehdi added that the Directorate has prepared guidance courses and seminars in cooperation with the Public Authority for Agricultural Extension to teach peasant farmers methods of operation to grow the crop contributed to the increase in yield dunum items and the adoption of good.
.Director of Agriculture and asked the government to increase the share of the maintenance of harvesters and crew to encourage farmers and farmers and reduce the burden on them in terms of rent these machines. Working hard Directorate in coordination with the services to increase agricultural areas for the cultivation of rice crop, which is the main food crops citizen and the ambition to reach to the limits of marketing session tons in the coming years if there is potential and this will contribute to cover the share of the ration card for a full year for the citizens of Muthanna governorate.

ÌÑíÏÉ ÇáÕÈÇÍ - ÊæÞÚÇÊ ÈÊÌÇæÒ ÊÓÜæíÞ ÇáÔáÈ Ýí ÇáãËäì Çáì20 ÃáÝ Øä

ÌÑíÏÉ ÇáÕÈÇÍ - ÇÑÊÝÇÚ ÇäÊÇÌ ÇáÐÑÉ ÇáÕÝÑÇÁ Ýí ÈÇÈá

اEconomic : Increased production of maize in Babylon

Imad Al - Babel
The season maize production in the province of Babylon distinct from the past few years, revealed indicators marketing high quantities of the crop marketed to the outlets as a marketing director in Hilla corn plant : that the rate of daily quantities marketing amounted to more than (150) tons in the month of November compared to last year from the same month a (50) A.
.Tons and the Director of Agriculture Babel engineer Fadil Hussein Ebeid reason for this expansion in production that Babylon province obtained without the other (30) per kg of dunums of compound fertilizers, and (75) per kg of dunums of urea fertilizer. He emphasized that this season is one of the best seasons of the maize crop used as hybrid seeds have improved production and Vera reverse what happened last year with the loss of the preservation (15) thousand tons due to bad seeds imported type (Titar) planted by more than (15) thousand dunums of land conservation where the rate of germination to 45% producing a distorted and Aranis free of seeds. It is noted that the Hashemite district in the province witnessed more quantity in the production of this crop, where the average daily marketing to more than (400) tons, as confirmed by lab director Almedhatih Eng Raad Sadek, adding that the lab receives the crop Diwaniyah province of maize to void the province of marketing outlets for the maize crop.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Major partners in Iraq's governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved.

The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would likely exclude supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a vehement opponent of the U.S. military presence.

Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Iraq center.

The new alliance would be led by senior Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who met with President Bush last week. Al-Hakim, however, was not expected to be the next prime minister because he prefers the role of powerbroker, staying above the grinding day-to-day running of the country.

A key figure in the proposed alliance, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, left for Washington on Sunday for a meeting with Bush at least three weeks ahead of schedule.

"The failure of the government has forced us into this in the hope that it can provide a solution," said Omar Abdul-Sattar, a lawmaker from al-Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party. "The new alliance will form the new government."

The groups engaged in talks have yet to agree on a leader, said lawmaker Hameed Maalah, a senior official of al-Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI.

One likely candidate for prime minister, however, was said to be Iraq's other vice president, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite who was al-Hakim's choice for the prime minister's job before al-Maliki emerged as a compromise candidate and won.

News of the bid to oust al-Maliki, in office since May, came amid growing dissent over his government's performance among his Sunni and Shiite partners and the damaging fallout from a leaked White House memo questioning the prime minister's abilities.

Washington also has been unhappy with al-Maliki's reluctance to comply with its repeated demands to disband Shiite militias blamed for much of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting.

Bush publicly expressed his confidence in al-Maliki after talks in Jordan on Nov. 30. But the president told White House reporters four days later that he was not satisfied with the pace of efforts to stop Iraq's violence.

It was not immediately clear how much progress had been made in the effort to cobble together a new parliamentary alliance. But lawmakers loyal to al-Sadr who support al-Maliki were almost certainly not going to be a part of it. They had no word on al-Maliki's Dawa party.

They said al-Maliki was livid at the attempt to unseat him.

"We know what's going on and we will sabotage it," said a close al-Maliki aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities involved. He did not elaborate.

A senior aide to al-Sadr, who insisted on anonymity for the same reason, said the proposed alliance was primarily designed to exclude the cleric's backers and they would resist.

Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen fought U.S. troops for much of 2004 in Baghdad and across central and southern Iraq. It is blamed for most of the sectarian violence raging in Iraq.

The cleric's supporters have been among al-Maliki's strongest backers, ensuring his election as prime minister. Relations have recently frayed, however, with the 30 Sadrist lawmakers and five Cabinet ministers boycotting the government and parliament to protest al-Maliki's meeting with Bush in Jordan.

The al-Sadr aide said recent contacts with the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual leader of most Iraqi Shiites, indicated the Iranian-born al-Sistani was not averse to replacing al-Maliki. Al-Sistani issued an unusually harsh criticism of the government in July.

Al-Hakim's SCIRI, along with parliament's Kurdish bloc and al-Hashemi's Islamic party, are likely to be the major powers of the new alliance. Independent lawmakers are also expected to join, legislators said.

Al-Hashemi's Islamic party said Sunday it would not join any future government unless it had a real voice.

Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish lawmaker and a sharp government critic, said talks on a new parliamentary alliance were initiated early this year, abandoned and recently resumed.

"This government must offer a remedy for all the problems we have in Iraq or publicly announce that it's unable to do so," said Othman, who is close to the negotiations.

Al-Maliki's government, under the Iraqi constitution, could be ousted if a simple majority of parliament's 275 members opposed it in a vote of confidence. Parties in the talks expressed confidence they had enough votes.

"The question of confidence in this government must be reconsidered," Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab, told legislators Sunday. "Why should we continue to support it? For its failure?"

اEconomic : The role of the agricultural sector in the Iraqi economy

Najm Abdullah Hussein

The problem of the land and agricultural production in Iraq, the starting point for all reform attempts in the history of modern Iraq. However, these attempts and efforts were not successful either because of a lack of scope for the presence or influence of the owners of the large estates of the feudal and staffing cities in the government. Economists Iraqis did not unique in their view that without :Resolving the issue of agricultural "land ownership issue of the Agricultural Relations" and the old will to Aiktb Iraq's progress and economic development to the ranks of advanced nations and peoples. Accomplices opinion, but also a number of scholars, researchers and writers who wrote about Iraq as "Dr. Ritter," a female in the field of agriculture at the United Nations in the past decade to neglect the vast majority of Iraqi farmers, is the low level. Low production. So, the farmer is very simple, and why the weakness of the production of agricultural land and the owners get the most produced. It must be said that the call for reclamation of the land and a good agricultural policy, modern and synchronizing global development projects. The unanimous reports of the experts that Iraq's economic development depends on the evolution of the President of the agricultural sector, because the vast majority of the Iraqi population is dependent in one way or another to achieve their income on agricultural crops. This result of this research, studies and field reports Mayati :
- Double-saving in the agricultural sector due to poverty of the majority of farmers and draining accumulated debts and recurring premium bulk of the annual debts.
- Social backwardness in rural areas, to low income level of farmers with the increase of illiteracy among them, as seen from the extrapolation of the experiences the Iraqi countryside. Some feudal myopic, they can occasionally Akharali resist the spread of primary education in Aghtaayathm various ways and means.
- Control of many of the feudal landlords and adults to a large section of agricultural land, which is now more than competence and needs. Which of Aishja to use modern advanced farming methods.
.. Agriculture in Iraq like agriculture in underdeveloped countries as other primitive agriculture, depend on seasonal changes and individual effort is accompanied by the use of simple old machines, and therefore did not exceed the agricultural production in Iraq, "some traditional crops of wheat and barley" Kamzroat winter. The rice crop summer. One can not be expected to increase agricultural production significantly only in terms of quantity and quality under the circumstances prevailing agricultural undergone by the country rich agricultural sources and fertile land, predominantly bulk. This shows that with agricultural potential in Iraq had not invested after the investment required to talk. No interference intensive agriculture based on diversity of agricultural crops throughout the year. The use of modern means of production Kalmlkeh agricultural and chemical fertilizers and soil treatment. It is also clear that the rate of growth of agricultural production has not attained the "half" the growth rate of gross national product. Of course, the vagaries of agricultural production has affected the rate of contribution in the gross national product, as indicated by the statistical tables issued by the competent authorities in the affairs of that. Therefore, the agricultural Zahrhaltkhalv due to the following matters :
1-slow "in the application of the agrarian reform law" in a timely manner.
2- Two - lack of irrigation projects and water resources.
3- widespread use of primitive agricultural methods "such as work counts and animals."
4. Four non-use of chemical fertilizers and ratios amounts standard for soil fertility.
5-MAJ crops for commercial purposes such as cotton, sugar beet and sugar cane.
6- -low use of improved seeds with good productivity.
7- -poor agricultural education in Iraq and the lack of agricultural institutes.
8- .8-neglected state interest in this aspect, in addition to the wars that took place, destroying thousands of arable land.
9- .9-inadequate facilities identities granted to the agricultural sector, because of the reluctance of commercial banks to contribute to the financing of the Iraqi agricultural production on one hand and the meager facilities Magorn banks if the magnitude value of agricultural production.
The import of grain from abroad would not only Iraq draining reserves of foreign currency, but would definitely invest in those assets in the production and sale of imported raw materials for the purposes of economic development. The weakness of the banking credit fostering agricultural development to retreat, which made the problem of agriculture in the new Iraq on the ground ranged fragile. The State has not fulfilled its relevant competent in this most important field of oil escape. But lead to the accumulation of neglected this aspect of life, serious regression retroactive and will increase the size of the population in Iraq can do so without securing food security, agricultural It did not help that often import bulk of the food space during this decade. This is a Muslim that the State is seeking to secure food for the people of this generation and hungry, and that the matter is left to the authority Ian to play again.

ÌÑíÏÉ ÇáÕÈÇÍ - ÏæÑ ÇáÞØÇÚ ÇáÒÑÇÚí Ýí ÇáÃÞÊÕÇÏ ÇáÚÑÇÞí

ÌÑíÏÉ ÇáÕÈÇÍ - ãÌáÓ ãÍÇÝÙÉ æÇÓØ íÞØÚ ÇáÚáÇÞÉ ãÚ ÇáÞæÇÊ ÇáÃãíÑßíÉ

Iraq : The Wasit governorate interrupt the relationship with American forces

Al-Sabah
Council decided Wasit governorate yesterday sever all types relationship with the occupation forces in the province, said in a statement received by the (morning) a copy of which was due to the recurrence of security violations and the continuation of raids and arrests

Long citizens and employees of the security services, which have included the arrest of a number of officers and border forces raided the office of Mr. Al Sadr and the arrest of Sheikh Yehya al - Baghdadi, director of the office, and a number of guards headquarters, the Council decided to sever the relationship with the (occupation) This includes government departments and businesses. " An official source in the Council told news agency Nina News that the Council's decision was voted unanimously, which also called on the occupation forces to release detainees and in particular Sheikh Al-Baghdadi, given the constitutional powers of the security forces in the province to exercise their work without interference from the occupying forces in this matter

". He pointed out that "the request of the obligation to maintain order and maintain calm and not to allow some of the elements that want to destabilize security in the province from entering and raising confrontations," stating : "

The Council will be in permanent session to its implementation until the claim legitimacy.

It is noteworthy that the American force raided at dawn yesterday, the first Saturday of Mr. Martyr Al-Sadr office in Kut, and arrested the director of the office, and a number of guards in addition to three other civilians by manipulating the contents of the office and breaking doors and launching a number of shots.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10476803.htm
World Bank's Wolfowitz heckled for Iraq role
By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Iraq war protesters interrupted a speech by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on Sunday calling him a war criminal and saying he lied during the run-up to the war.

Wolfowitz, who was a deputy U.S. defense chief to Donald Rumsfeld and a key advocate of the Iraq war, was in an Atlanta synagogue to speak about the relevance of Africa for Americans.

At one point a man stood up silently at the front of the audience wearing an orange jumpsuit, seen by protesters as symbolic of clothes worn by prisoners at the U.S. jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"You lied about the Iraq war! You are a war criminal!" shouted another woman as she was escorted from the synagogue. Some in the audience booed while a few said silent protests should be allowed.

Outside around 20 protesters held up signs condemning Wolfowitz and the war.

Wolfowitz said his current job prevented him from speaking about Iraq but during questions discussed the World Bank's policy on Iraq and defended Washington's decision to go to war.

"When it comes to Iraq I think it is fair and accurate to say that we did not go to war for oil," he said.

"The essential concern is to make difficult decisions about the security of the United States and that's what they did," he said in an apparent reference to official debate in the run-up to the 2003 war over whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Reconstruction efforts were impeded by the security situation but the World Bank was advising Baghdad on how to distribute its oil wealth, he said at the Ahavath Achim temple.

"The biggest question that Iraq faces in many ways is ... policy decisions about public resource management," he said referring to the country's oil revenue.

Democrats, who will control Congress starting in January, have promised to conduct vigorous reviews of U.S. policy on Iraq, including post-war reconstruction and stabilization.

Wolfowitz, who was appointed president of the World Bank last year, could be called to testify.

Iraq : Turkman Eli Maliki supported the call for a regional conference
Demanded the inclusion of the issue of Kirkuk within the agenda
Baghdad-Sabah

Eighth Party Turkman Eli initiative of the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his call for the convening of a regional conference to discuss the strengthening of security and stability in the country, describing them as positive initiative that deserves praise and support.

The statement said the party received (morning) copy yesterday : "The call for Prime Minister al-Maliki to convene a regional conference to discuss how to strengthen security and stability in Iraq, is a positive initiative worthwhile as long as they aimed at the exchange of views with neighboring countries on Iraqi contribute to the stabilization of the security situation and support the government's efforts to face the challenges.

The statement pointed out : The handling of the situation in Iraq are by the Iraqi political forces, the help and support of neighboring countries and the international community, not negative initiatives such as those launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, which was designed to impose international tutelage on the Iraqi people and the confiscation of his will and ignore the political process through the convening of an international conference to discuss the Iraqi problem.

He continued : "While we support this initiative, we call at the same time the government and political forces to include the issue of Kirkuk in the agenda of the regional conference is anticipated, since this issue despite the fact that the issue is primarily a national, but its implications on the regional and international arena require consultation and coordination between the Iraqi government and the neighboring countries in order to address them correctly in order to open the horizons of cooperation between the various components of the Iraqi people to support the government of national unity which we hope will succeed in collecting all the Iraqi citizens on the basis of equal citizenship.

ÌÑíÏÉ ÇáÕÈÇÍ - ÊæÑßãä Åíáí íÄíÏ ÏÚæÉ ÇáãÇáßí áÚÞÏ ãÄÊãÑ ÅÞáíãí

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Monday opened a conference on the Holocaust, saying it would not be an attempt to deny the World War II genocide but merely to discuss it in an unrestricted atmosphere.

However, the conference was initiated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

The organizers, the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), said the two-day conference has drawn 67 foreign researchers from 30 countries.

In his opening speech, the institute's chief, Rasoul Mousavi, said the conference "seeks neither to deny or prove the Holocaust.

"It is just to provide an appropriate scientific atmosphere for scholars to offer their opinions in freedom about a historical issue," Mousavi said.

He said the conference provided an opportunity to discuss "questions" about the Holocaust away from Western taboos and the restrictions imposed on scholars in Europe.

(Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is scheduled to read a message to the conference from President Ahmadinejad, who has said that the killing of six million Jews by the Nazi German regime during World War II was a "myth" and "exaggerated."

The president has repeatedly downplayed the Holocaust, questioning why it has been used to justify the creation of Israel at the cost of Palestinian lands -- a view popular among Iranian hard-liners.

Iran has spent months preparing for the conference, even publicizing it during the September visit to Tehran of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who contradicted his hosts by saying the Holocaust was a historical fact and that an exhibition of anti-Holocausts cartoons, then on display in the city, promoted hatred.

The conference has been condemned by Germany, where denying the Holocaust is illegal, as well as by Israel and the United States.

Turks told not to meddle in oil-rich Iraqi city
11 December 2006 (AP Worldstream)

Turkey renewed its frustration on Sunday with the Kurdish bid for domination of Iraq's oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, which lies on Iraq's volatile ethnic fault lines between Arabs and Kurds.

Mehmet Vecdi Gonul, Turkey's defense minister, said Kirkuk's future status carries major implications for Turkey and Iraq's other neighbors no matter who controls the city and its surrounding oilfields. Gonul asked the Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish-led government not to impose an "unrealistic" future on Kirkuk.

But Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, an ethnic Kurd, warned Turkey not to meddle in "our Kirkuk."

"You speak of Kirkuk as if it is a Turkish city," Zebari said told Gonul. "These are matters for Iraq to decide."

Turkey wants to prevent the city and its giant pool of underground oil from becoming an economic engine that could fund a bid by Iraqi Kurds for independence, a move would threaten to draw Turkey, with its 15 million Kurds, into a regional war.

"We hope the natural resources of Kirkuk would be used by all groups in Iraq without discrimination," Gonul told the International Institute of Strategic Studies conference in the Bahraini capital.

Kirkuk is an ancient city once part of the Ottoman Empire, with a large minority of ethnic Turks as well as various Christians, Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Kurdish forces in northern Iraq have rallied to reverse what they claim to be an Arabization policy of Saddam Hussein, which purged Kirkuk and other oil-rich areas of Kurds and replaced them with Arab settlers.

Thousands of Kurdish settlers from northern Iraq have flooded back into Kirkuk, colonizing the city's desert outskirts. Many believe the influx is a bid to change the city's ethnic balance ahead of a 2007 census and referendum that aims to decide whether Kirkuk will be annexed to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

The grim Iraq Study Group assessment issued in Washington last week described Kirkuk as a "powder keg" and recommends the referendum be delayed.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt warned those in favoring in the partition of Iraq that they were treading on dangerous ground.

"Every partition is written in blood," Bildt told the security conference in Bahrain. "The carnage we see today is only the beginning of the bloodshed we will see if there is a partition."

Gonul agreed, saying Iraq's fragmentation "will be the beginning of a disaster that will engulf the whole region."

The International Institute of Strategic Studies conference has brought together some 200 security representatives from more than 20 countries, including Iran, Iraq and the United States.

Turks told not to meddle in oil-rich Iraqi city | Iraq Updates

Kirkuk budget unexpectedly shrinks
11 December 2006 (The Kurdish Globe)

The budget for the Kirkuk city will be increased to 200 billion Iraqi dinars for the year 2007.

Kirkuk City Provisional Council held its regular meeting last week to discuss and vote on the budget earmarked for 2007. In the meeting, members of the Brotherhood List in the council boycotted the vote on the proposed budget.

"We heard from the council, following its latest meeting with Iraqi Prime Minster Al-Maliki in Baghdad, that the budget for the city will be increased to 200 billion Iraqi dinars for the year 2007. However, we have seen it surprisingly shrink to 114 billion dinars," said city council member Mohammed Kamal to Khabat.

"The population of Kirkuk is currently estimated at over one million, not counting the people who will be returning to the city," Mohammed said, adding, "Any attempt to reduce the budget is interpreted as an oppressive act against the city and its people."

Kirkuk budget unexpectedly shrinks | Iraq Updates