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

three millions in Iraq
The company is pumping more investments to enhance its network to cover the north of the country
30/12/2006
Source: Translated by IRAQdirectory.com

Alduhwi: investing $ 430 million.. Allocating 40% of the expenditures for the development and modernization of the networks

"MTC Atheer", one of the companies of the mobile communications group "MTC", declared that its subscribers doubled in the current year to exceed three million compared with 1.5 million in the same period last year.

The director of "MTC Atheer", Ali Alduhwi, said: "Since its entry into the Iraqi market three years ago, "MTC Atheer" committed itself to provide the highest level of services and the latest technologies to its subscribers, and we are proud today that the company now has the largest number of subscribers in Iraq".

Alduhwi stressed that the company invested for this purpose millions of dollars to meet the needs of Iraqi consumers. "MTC Atheer" invested $ 430 million since its entry to the Iraqi market in order to expand the coverage of its network and accommodate more participants.

He pointed out that "MTC Atheer" allocated 40% of the expenditures as investments to develop and modernize its network to ensure the provision of services in accordance with global standards to its subscribers, adding that the company intends to pump more investments to cover up its network north of the country.

Alduhwi continued that the entry "MTC Atheer" to the Iraqi market greatly participated in increasing the spread of mobile telecommunication services, as the prevalence rate is currently 26%, and expected to exceed 50% in the next five years.

The Services of "Atheer"

"MTC Atheer" currently provides services of prepaid cards and monthly subscriptions are available at competitive prices, in order to support the national economy which the mobile telecommunication services play a key role in its prosperity.The company provides textual messages, international touring, and recently started providing services of GPRS, voice mail, e-mail and multimedia messages.

It is noteworthy that the number of subscribers of mobile communications in Iraq, now, stands at eight million of the total population of 27 million. Alduhwi confirmed that the Iraqi market is a promising market, and expected the numbers of subscribers to increase up to about 15 million subscribers in 2009.

History of "Atheer" in Iraq

"MTC Atheer" got a license to operate mobile telecommunications services in Iraq at the end of 2003, and since its first inception, the company managed to occupy a leading position in mobile communications in the Iraqi market. Currently, the company operates one thousand employees; all of them are Iraqi skills.

In parallel with its success on the commercial level, "MTC Atheer" provides services to local communities through the provision of more than two million dollars to support programs dealing with culture, sports and education, which contribute to the sustainable development of these communities. The company also provided 10 thousand job opportunities indirectly.

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Read - http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2859

Originally Posted by D-Day

Read - http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2859

Why would you think this is bad news? I don't see anything bad with this article.

Iraq is seeking to buy more than 1 million tons of gasoline
30/12/2006
Source: Translated by IRAQdirectory.com

Iraq put a tender on Tuesday for the purchase of about 1.04 million tons of gasoline, 1 million tons of gas oil (diesel) and 150 thousand tons of liquefied petroleum gas to be delivered during the period from the first of February until 30 in June.

The Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) requested the purchase 168 thousand tons of kerosene in bids mostly to be delivered by the end of March.

Iraq also requested the purchase of 85 thousand tons of gasoline, of 92 octanes, 100 tons of gas oil, 35 tons of liquefied petroleum gas and 24 thousand tons of kerosene transferred by tankers by land from Iran via the border gate of Al-Mundhiriyah.

SOMO said that it put a separate tender requesting the supply of 385 thousand tons of gas oil for operating the power stations in Baghdad.

It added that Iraq also sought to buy 675 tons of gasoline, of 92 octanes, 130 tons of gas oil, between 40 and 45 thousand tons of liquefied petroleum gas brought by ships through a port in south of the country. The Foundation also seeks to buy 48 thousand tons of kerosene received across the southern port by the end of March.

Iraq also required the purchase of 280 thousand tons of gasoline, of 92 octanes, 390 tons of gas oil and 75 tons of liquefied petroleum gas to be supplied from Iran via the border gate of Mehran-Alzerbatiah.

SOMO also requested the purchase of 96 thousand tons of kerosene delivered across the same route by the end of March.

The Foundation defined the 11th of January as a deadline for the submission of offers.

Iraq is rich in crude oil, however, it imports petroleum products duplicates.

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Originally Posted by D-Day

Read - http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2859

I don't think it's bad news, it could be good news when they realize the rate increases are causing their money to hold stronger, so heck why not continue to raise that value and make it even stronger??

Oh and lets not forget this lil diddy

الدولارThe dinar will continue to rise against the dollar

Shahrastani: Iraqi oil exports in 2006 amounted to 1.65 million barrel a day
30/12/2006
Source: Translated by IRAQdirectory.com

Iraqi Oil Minister said on Thursday that his country exported on average of 1.65 million barrels a day of crude oil this year at an increase about 150 thousand barrels per day up to the expectations of Transport sources and sources from the oil sector.

Hussein Shahrastani told the Cabinet at a meeting of the annual audit that the attacks by armed men blocked the main export pipeline in the north, in most times of the year, which made Iraq relies heavily on the south in the much-needed oil revenues.

He continued that if Iraq was able to pump oil through the northern pipeline, it would produce about three million barrels per day and export about 2.25 million barrels a day. He added that the production of this year amounted to about 2.3 million barrels a day on average.

Sources from the oil sector said that the exports amounting to about 1.5 million barrels a day this year rose by one hundred thousand barrels per day, on average, compared to 2005.

Iraqi officials aim at the level of large production of 4.3 million barrels a day within four years, but sabotage operations and the lack of foreign investment may prevent the achievement of this goal. They hope that the Iraqi fields will pump from six million to eight million barrels a day by 2015.

Iraq is in great need for foreign investment to revive its shattered economy, which relies heavily on revenues from oil exports, especially that the country has the third largest oil reserves in the world.

Shahrastani said that the long-awaited Iraqi oil law, which determines the policy needed to attract foreign investment, will be submitted to the government at the beginning of January, while Iraqi officials said that the law will be submitted to Parliament before the end of this year.

High Sources said last week that the proposed bill would allow regions to negotiate contracts with foreign investors but the central government would have the final word.

The issue of agreement on contracts is important for the future of Iraq since reaching a solution for the benefit of the regions would transfer authority over these valuable resources to Shiites and Kurds whose lands contain most of the oilfields.

The minority of the Sunni in the country fears that such a situation would deny them of everything.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2854

Originally Posted by choochie

Why would you think this is bad news? I don't see anything bad with this article.

No more...

Azzaman, December 27, 2006

The government has approved the budget for 2007 estimated at $41 billion.

The budget is the biggest in the years since the 2003 U.S. invasion due to skyrocketing oil prices.

Saffa al-Safi, state minister for parliamentary affairs, said the figures for the 2007 budget “are encouraging in comparison with previous budgets.”

One fourth ($10 billion) of the money available for 2007 has been earmarked for development and reconstruction.

Allocations for security are the second largest, totaling $7.5 billion.

Allocations for education have been doubled to $2.6 billion and there will be a 7% increase for the health sector for which $1.8 billion has been earmarked.

Some $5.2 billion will go to provincial municipalities.

If implemented properly, the budget should create 136,000 new jobs, said Safi.

The cabinet has passed the budget to the parliament for approval.

British remove infiltrated police unit
Sunday, 31 December 2006


An explosion destroys the Al Jameat Police Station in Basrah Dec. 25. Ministry of Defence photo.On Christmas Day, British Forces in Basrah carried out a major operation in Basrah to curtail the activities of a police unit, known as the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU).

The unit, some 400 strong, was known to have been heavily infiltrated by anti-Coalition elements and was responsible for the detention of two British servicemen in September 2005.

After removing some of the high ranking members of the unit in the past week, British troops from 19 Light Brigade, supported by Iraqi Army soldiers began the action, named Operation Thyme, at 2 a.m.

Royal Engineers breached the outer wall of the compound with their combat engineer tractor which was followed by Warrior fighting vehicles from the Staffordshire Regiment.

They were backed up by more dismounted infantry who stormed the three buildings on the site. Some 1000 British troops were involved altogether, including those manning an extensive cordon, set up top ensure a robust response if those criminals targeted attempted a counter strike.Once the compound was secure, Royal Military Police entered the house to detain the errant police; they had all fled before the British arrived. What they did find was over 70 prisoners, many of whom are likely to have been falsely imprisoned in a building which was a symbol of oppression for many of the people of Basrah.

They also supervised the collection of hundreds of files and computer terminals which will be examined in detail back at the coalition’s main base at Basrah airport.Royal Engineers from 38 Engineer Regiment laid bar mines and plastic explosive against the major supports of the building. After taking away the prisoners for processing and having removed all the necessary evidence, the Engineers detonated the charges.

The Jameat police station erupted in a tower of debris and dust, removing a powerful symbol of oppression and corruption from the Basrah skyline.

Shiite struggle in Iraq spills over across Mideast
Hamza Hendawi, The Associated Press
Published: Friday, December 29, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq — When Ziad Saleh, a Sunni Arab, married a Shiite woman 17 months ago, it did not cross his mind that their mixed marriage would bring risk of death.
But these days, love between Sunnis and Shiites requires extraordinary caution. Saleh and Rawaa al-Saadi, both 28, live in Saleh’s house in the Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah. When al-Saadi visits her parents in a Shiite area across Baghdad, Saleh drives her to a neutral zone between the two, where one of her brothers picks her up.
“We sometimes feel like we have done something really wrong, rather than just being an ordinary married couple with a child,” said Saleh, bitterly.
The fall of Saddam Hussein was supposed to have heralded a joyous era, freeing Iraqis from decades of oppression that touched everyone — Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds alike.
Instead, the nation has been torn apart by an ancient divide.
The creation in Iraq of the only Shiite-run Arab government, toppling long Sunni dominance, has released long-restrained hatred between Islam’s two main sects. Battles between Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias are claiming scores of victims every day and forcing tens of thousands to flee the country.
And while the main battle has been in Iraq, Shiite power has become a dominant issue across the Middle East, and Sunni Arab leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia are expressing growing concern about Shiite power in the Arab lands, often backed by non-Arab, Shiite Iran.
The religious split dates from the Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632, when Shiites wanted a member of the prophet’s family to succeed him as leader of the faith, while the Sunnis wanted a close friend of Muhammad’s to assume the mantle. The dispute led to a series of bloody battles that killed the prophet’s son-in-law and grandsons.
The two sides have been politically divided, too. Sunnis are by far the majority in the Muslim world, but in some key Arab states the Shiites are a majority or a significant minority — in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia — but have been dominated by Sunnis, often as a legacy of colonial rule by the Sunni-ruled Ottoman Turkish empire and the British.
Now, the Shiites’ takeover in Iraq is stirring hopes for similar power in other lands with large Shiite populations. The rivalry has repercussions beyond Islam since it is happening in a region that supplies much of the world’s oil.
It was almost by accident that “the Bush administration helped launch a broad Shiite revival that will upset the sectarian balance in Iraq and the Middle East for years to come,” said Vali Nasr, a prominent U.S.-based expert on Shiites.
The divide seemed small four years ago when the war was being planned. Today, the fallout already can be seen:
— In the Gulf state of Bahrain, a strong U.S. ally, tensions between a newly resurgent Shiite majority and the country’s ruling Sunni minority threaten to explode into conflict. Many fear the Shiite unrest could derail the booming economy and spill into neighboring Saudi Arabia and its rich oil fields.
— In Iraq, many now talk openly of partition along sectarian lines, which would end U.S. hopes of promoting a strong, unified, democratic Iraq.
— In Lebanon, which America had hoped would be an example of democracy in the Middle East, last summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah only intensified the Shiite militia’s bid for dominance of the government. As the country’s delicate political balance is upset, fear of a new civil war goes up.
Arab Shiites angrily deny being part of an Iranian plan for regional Shiite dominance, even in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is financed and its militants trained by Iran.
“There are no realistic political circumstances, regionally or internationally, not even a dream, that the Shiites of this region can be integrated into a single policy or state,” said Lebanon’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Yet there are many ties that bind the 40 million of the Arab world’s 300 million people who are Shiites.
Prominent ayatollahs such as the Iraqi-born Fadlallah and Iraq’s Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani have followers in countries that stretch from Lebanon to India. Many Shiites travel far to pay homage to their imams and saints in Iran, Iraq and Syria.
And across that whole span, they watch what’s happening in Iraq.
The U.S. invasion freed the Shiite majority to claim political power, but the ensuing violence has brought despair and anger.
Sunni Arab militants are embittered by the reversal of fortunes that ended their rule over the country under Saddam, and tens of thousands of Shiites have been killed. Politicians and clerics have been gunned down, shrines blown to bits, pilgrims slaughtered and ordinary Iraqis kidnapped and brutally murdered.
Al-Qaida’s fugitive leader, Osama bin Laden, a Sunni, called Iraqi Shiite leaders “traitors” and urged his followers to transform Iraq into a Sunni stronghold.
Shiite reprisals have been brutal: Thousands of bodies of Sunnis have been found, often bound and tortured, likely at the hands of Shiite militias, many of which are tied to parties in the government.
Baghdad, which once enjoyed a reputation for religious tolerance, has become a battleground with front lines growing increasingly well defined.
As for the mixed Sunni-Shiite couple, they are fighting to keep this battle from dividing them too, but disagree on whether there’s any ground for hope.
“There are places we cannot go to because we fear for Ziad and places we cannot go because of my safety,” said al-Saadi, a bank employee. “This is not good. But who knows, perhaps it will be resolved soon.”
Saleh is employed by an electricity company but rarely goes to work because a Shiite militia is active in the area. He does not share his wife’s guarded optimism.
“By God, I have become so worried recently,” said Saleh. “I want us to leave and go and live in Syria, but we just don’t have the money.”

Shiite struggle in Iraq spills over across Mideast