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

World Bank Supports Hydropower in Kurdistan


The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a credit of $40 million for the Republic of Iraq. The credit will finance urgent repairs of two hydroelectric power stations located in the autonomous Kurdistan region and prepare for their subsequent full rehabilitation.

The Dokan and Derbandikhan Emergency Hydropower Project will support the government of Iraq’s efforts to improve electricity supply in the country in accordance with Iraq’s National Development Strategy, which emphasizes the need for rapid rehabilitation of critical infrastructure to improve basic service delivery.
“The project is the first World Bank operation to benefit Iraq’s electricity sector. We hope that this will be the start of a long-term relationship with the Ministry of Electricity to help Iraq provide a reliable supply of electricity to the entire population,” noted Tjaarda Storm van Leeuwen, the project’s Task Team Leader.

“We are also working with the Ministry of Electricity to finalize the preparation of a second electricity project for World Bank financing.”

The objective of the project is to alleviate the current power supply shortfall by improving the operating performance of the Dokan and Derbandikhan power stations through urgent repair works.

The project will also strengthen local capacity and prepare for the subsequent full rehabilitation of the Dokan and Derbandikhan hydropower plants in order to restore their original capacity of 400 and 249 megawatts respectively.

The project is part of Iraq’s overall Electricity Master Plan and will provide electricity in the Kurdistan region and to the interconnected national grid. The project will directly impact about 490,000 households and will also benefit industrial consumers, thus improving the standard of living and promoting employment.

The $40 million credit will be provided by the International Development Association (IDA), an arm of the World Bank Group that provides financing on concessional terms to eligible countries. T

he terms of this credit include a 35-year maturity with a ten-year grace period.

This is the third IDA-financed credit approved for Iraq. The World Bank has previously approved $235 million in IDA credits for education and road rehabilitation.

In addition, the World Bank Iraq Trust Fund, within the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq, has financed fifteen projects amounting to $410 million to improve education, health, household data, irrigation and drainage, social protection, telecommunications, urban infrastructure, and water supply and sanitation.

Source: World Bank




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Posted on Wednesday, December 13

Originally Posted by Escalade

Someone tell me about this ignore feature. I think Inscrutable will be my first!

http://www.rolclub.com/profile.php?d...ignore&u=19849

Plan to raise oil industry in Iraq


Ministry of Oil prepared a plan to raise oil industry in Iraq and increase exports of crude oil and gas, an authorized source at the ministry said.

He added that among suggested recommendations to increase exports is reacting of Iraqi National Oil Company's law to achieve best administration of oil activities and acceleration issuing needed laws at field of oil wealth and investments to ensure participation of world companies to develop productivity abilities and increase exporting within a system balance between state's goals and achieve best conditions for investment and competition.
Source: Al Sabaah




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Posted on Wednesday, December 13

Iraq oil law stuck on contracts
By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The completion of Iraqi oil law negotiations now hinge on whether the central or regional government has final say on oil contracts, a roadblock negotiators don't seem willing to give on.

There has been some advancement on creating a federal oil law, necessary for development of and investment in the world's third-largest crude reserves, though a top Kurdish official warns compromises his side has made have not been finalized yet.

Qubad Talabany, the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative to the United States, told United Press International Tuesday a new round of negotiations have begun in Baghdad but "we haven't made progress yet."

Sunnis and some Shiite factions in the negotiating committee are demanding the central government have the final word on all oil contracts while the KRG is leading the push to let this aspect be a regional autonomy issue.

Iraq has an estimated 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the third largest in the world, nearly all of it located in the Shiite-controlled south or Kurdish north.

Negotiations on an oil law mirror the fate of Iraq: Sunnis fear the federalism that could result in money from Iraq's oil being withheld. They, along with some Shiite factions, eye a deciding role in a strong central government. Kurds and competing Shiite blocs are in favor of regional rights, fearing a central government doling out money could nix their fair share.

The current constitution is vague on control over oil, stating only existing oil is within the central government's purview and leaving all new or future oil in limbo.

The KRG, and others, interpret this to mean everything not explicitly detailed for the federal government implicitly falls under regional control.

Kurdistan has been semi-autonomous since 1991 and relatively free of the violence plaguing Iraq.

Within this setting, it has begun developing its oil sector, even signing contracts for exploration and production, which the central government has said aren't valid.

"The regions have their sovereignty," Talabany said. "Contracts must be respected by the central government."

He blames a strong centralized government for the Kurdish suffering during much of last century.

"The days of the Kurds being held hostage by Baghdad are over," he said. "We will not be made to feel like beggars."

Hamid al-Bayati, Iraq's representative to the United Nations, said central control brings unanimity across the oil sector, for investors and Iraqis.

"The compromise is the region will have a say on selecting the companies, selecting the proposals, but approval will be the central government," Bayati told UPI.

He said negotiations will continue "until the law is approved."

"This is the conflict you have," said Mohammed Zine, regional manager of Middle East for the energy analyst IHS.

He said now Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is facing heat to end violence in Iraq and is in turn resting "big pressure on the government and Oil Minister" to deliver an oil law to the Parliament.

He said he doesn't think this will happen by the end of the year, though there is no telling on daily events in Iraq.

"I don't see what the rush is. Even if you sign a contract there is still big problems with security."

A final oil law will have three main results: settle internal disputes over control of and revenues from oil; lay a groundwork for the estimated $20 billion of investments needed after years of neglect and mismanagement under Saddam Hussein, the toll of U.N. sanctions, the U.S.-led war and ongoing attacks by Sunni and Shiite militias; and both will lead to increased income that can be put toward other reconstruction and upgrade security in the country.

News reports over the weekend claimed a deal on the oil law was close, though Talabany explained each glossed over major remaining issues.

He said while the Kurds have compromised on oil revenue sharing and allowing the central government to be responsible for this collecting and redistributing it, "the mechanisms for distribution of revenues have not been agreed upon yet."

He said oversight, technical and constitutional details "to ensure regions get their share of revenues" have not been finalized. This comes from the fear a central government, be it fueled by greed or a sectarian agenda, will not deliver on the money a region may be due.

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Originally Posted by Mike5200

Iraq oil law stuck on contracts
By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The completion of Iraqi oil law negotiations now hinge on whether the central or regional government has final say on oil contracts, a roadblock negotiators don't seem willing to give on.

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Thanks for posting that Mike, I tried to get excited about it but was stopped in my tracks. Do you know if that is fresh or a rehash of last weeks meetings.
I see mention of the weekend and Tuesday (which was yesterday) but some here say it's old news bacause last week had a Tuesday also.

By HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec 13, 2006 (AP)— Iraq's prime minister is weighing whether to sever his alliance with a radical Shiite cleric blamed for much of the country's sectarian violence, aides said Wednesday. But isolating Muqtada al-Sadr could lead to more deadly attacks, even if the strategy could produce a more stable administration over time.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been meeting over the last three days with a small circle of his Dawa Party stalwarts to discuss their options, according to his aides who spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is sensitive.

The meetings began after reports surfaced of a proposed realignment of the alliance supporting the governing coalition, the aides said.

The White House has acknowledged efforts to shore up al-Maliki's coalition but has denied that the move is aimed at replacing him, though some of his aides fear this is the goal.

"We've talked in recent days about a moderate bloc that has Sunni, Shia and Kurdish leaders," White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday.

Central to that strategy is to curb the power of al-Sadr, the radical anti-American cleric who controls 30 of parliament's 275 seats, five Cabinet ministries and the Mahdi Army, Iraq's biggest and most active Shiite militia.

There has been no contact between al-Maliki and al-Sadr since word of the possible new alignment surfaced this week, the aides said.

Relations between al-Maliki and al-Sadr have strained since the Sadrists suspended their participation in parliament and the government two weeks ago to protest the prime minister's Nov. 30 meeting with Bush in Jordan.

Sticking with the Sadrists could cost al-Maliki his job, the aides said. They added that al-Maliki's supporters want to be absolutely certain he could keep the top post if he broke with al-Sadr.

Al-Maliki's only public comments on the proposed new bloc came Tuesday when he said there was no alternative to his "national unity" government.

"We are opposed to anyone who moves in that framework," said al-Maliki, whose seven months in office have been defined by a surge in violence and failure to improve services
The bid to form the new bloc comes at a particularly bad time for al-Maliki.

The aides to the prime minister said the Sadrist boycott was undermining the government and was likely to play into the hands of the parties involved in the effort to create a new bloc.

A White House memo written by National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley after a visit to Baghdad last month cast doubts about whether al-Maliki had the capacity to control Iraq's sectarian violence and recommended that he end his alliance with al-Sadr.

A new government that excludes supporters of al-Sadr would leave the cleric's Mahdi Army militia without the protection it has enjoyed since al-Maliki came to office in May.

But it could also signal the start of a new round of fighting between the Mahdi Army and the U.S. military. The two sides fought each other for much of 2004 in Baghdad and across much of central and southern Iraq.

The clashes ended after Shiite politicians and clerics convinced the Americans that al-Sadr would be less of a threat to stability if he were brought into the political process. As sectarian violence escalated, that argument seems less persuasive.

On Tuesday, the outgoing No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, said some U.S. casualties have resulted from attacks by Shiite militias, a clear reference to the Mahdi Army.

Sadrist legislators have vowed to resist any attempt to isolate them. They did not elaborate, but al-Sadr himself has stepped up his anti-American rhetoric this week, calling on Iraqis to join in a peaceful campaign to push for a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group said Mahdi Army militiamen number about 60,000, a significant increase over previous estimates, which put its strength at about 10,000. The report, released last week, urged al-Maliki to disband the militia.

But many Shiites believe the Mahdi Army has much greater public support than it did in 2004. In the sectarian violence engulfing Baghdad since the bombing of a major Shiite shrine in February, many of the city's Shiites look to the militia for protection against attacks by Sunni Arab militants.

"The sword of the Shiites," is the phrase some Shiites now use to refer to the militia.

The bid to form a new bloc, which is expected to exclude radical Sunnis as well, is spearheaded by senior Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party. Bush met the two men in the White House separately this month.

Bush also spoke on the telephone Wednesday with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, according to Snow, the White House spokesman. Parties led by the two men also are involved in the ongoing talks about the new bloc as well as independents.

A possible stumbling bloc in creating the new bloc, however, could come from Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Al-Sistani has consistently urged Shiite unity since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime.

An Iraqi in regular contact with al-Sistani in the holy city of Najaf said the Iranian-born cleric will not publicly state his views on the matter until "the picture becomes clearer."

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, he suggested that al-Sistani may want to see a political shake-up, saying the cleric was "bitterly saddened" by the violence

I must have missed something . Been busy the past 2 days. too busy to sit down to the news here. My wife has been hurting a lot this week and i have been devoting time to her. What's wrong with Karinc. which page is her post on?
willie2 whats happening? BOB

Originally Posted by Offshore-Wealth.com

Exactly,

The last meeting was Friday of last week when Kurd's made concession if the HCL would go into effect immediately to avoid further delays, so it is old news recycles as usual.

Happy Holiday Season to all, Mike

Mike, is this why you said yesterday in your post that the HCL would be inacted on Sunday? That would be awsome!

Iraq Army Plans for a Wider Role

Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
A soldier of Iraq’s Ninth Mechanized Division guarding the site of a car bombing in Baghdad. Iraq wants its troops to assume more military duties.

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: December 13, 2006
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — Iraq has presented the United States with a plan that calls for Iraqi troops to assume primary responsibility for security in Baghdad early next year. American troops would be shifted to the periphery of the capital.

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, said in an interview that the plan was presented during the meeting in Amman, Jordan, on Nov. 30 between President Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

“I think it is extremely important they reduce their visibility and they reduce their presence,” Mr. Rubaie said of the American troops in Baghdad. “They should be in the suburbs within greater Baghdad.”

A spokesman for the National Security Council, Gordon Johndroe, said Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American military commander in Iraq, was assessing the plan.

The plan may hold some attraction for the Bush administration, which is immersed in a review of Iraq strategy, but it also poses risks.

The plan is consistent with the administration’s desire for the Iraqis to take more responsibility for controlling the violence there, and it may reduce American casualties. But the Americans do not want to become complicit in sectarian violence. The Shiite-led government has been slow to act against militias that are forcing Sunnis from entire swaths of northern and eastern Baghdad, most recently from the neighborhoods of Huriya, Zayuna and Ghadier.

Because some of its forces, especially the police, are infiltrated by militias and have been implicated in attacks on Sunnis, American commanders — and Sunni politicians — fear that given a free hand, government forces might be used to cleanse the city of Sunnis.

Referring to the Iraqi demand for more control, one American military officer in Baghdad said the question was, “How do we accomplish that but still maintain some measure of control to ensure the forces aren’t used in a sectarian manner?”

The plan, if implemented, would be a major shift in American military policy. Commanders began this war fighting a Sunni Arab insurgency, and later broadened their efforts to include Shiite militias, after they became active in 2006.

For months commanders have emphasized that they were fighting both enemies with equal vigor, but this plan would shift focus for the Americans more to insurgents and Sunni extremists.

In response to the Iraqi demands for control, the American military command in Baghdad has also been developing its own plan, which comes with conditions that must be met before control is handed over, according to American officials in Baghdad who asked to remain unidentified because the plan is not final.

The Iraqi plan was outlined by Mr. Rubaie in a recent interview in Bahrain, where he was attending a conference organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based research institute. While the Shiite government has been pushing for greater Iraqi control of military operations for months, the plan was presented formally for the first time to the Americans in Jordan.

The plan calls for pulling back most American troops from central Baghdad and redefining their mission so they concentrate primarily on fighting the forces said to be backed by Al Qaeda and the Sunni-based insurgent organizations, leaving the effort to quell sectarian tensions within the capital to the government’s largely Shiite forces.

Under the plan, the government would have direct command of the two Iraqi divisions in the Baghdad area in the next several months — a timeline that had been pressed by the Iraqis but that the American military has viewed as overly optimistic.

The divisions would be reinforced by two largely Kurdish brigades that are to be sent from Sulaimaniya and Erbil, in northern Iraq. That would amount to several thousand more troops. The training and equipping of the forces would be expedited, Mr. Rubaie said.

Security efforts in Baghdad would focus on seven neighborhoods. (Iraqi officials declined to list them.) There would be fewer checkpoints but they would be better protected. Leaders of death squads would be hunted down.

American troops on the periphery of Baghdad would stop suicide bombers and other terrorists before they penetrated the city. Efforts to prevent infiltration of the capital have not been very successful, partly because the Iraqi military has not adequately staffed the checkpoints, American officials said.

Other American troops would remain as advisers to Iraqi units in Baghdad. American forces might also remain in a supporting role at bases within the capital.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/wo...html?th&emc=th

DOHA: An Iraqi bodybuilder has been disqualified from the Asian Games after 134 ampoules of the banned steroid nandrolone were found in his luggage at Doha airport, organisers said on Tuesday.



Saeaz Faeaz was disqualified after the National Health Authority of Qatar detained the ampoules of the banned muscle-building substance, the Olympic Council of Asia said.

The 32-year-old from Baghdad is the fifth competitor to be disqualified from the 15th Games for a drugs-related offence, but the first to be sanctioned for a non-analytical anti-doping violation.

Four weightlifters had earlier been disqualified for failing drug tests