Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 01/10/09 - 27/03/10

Kuwait: the decision to adopt the Iraqi ambassador is still under study

An official source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait reports on the adoption of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Hussein Bahr al-Ulum Iraq's ambassador to Kuwait, stressing that the decision to adopt the foreign ambassadors to the State of Kuwait does not take but are taken by the political leadership.

The source said the decision to adopt the new Iraqi ambassador to Kuwait is still under study have not been answered on the Iraqi side so far, but it was hailed as a label Iraqi ambassador to Kuwait, positive in themselves and contribute to the convergence of views, and open a new page in relations between the two countries

http://www.uragency.net/index.php?aa=news&id22=5399

CBI cancels sessions for elections

The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) decided to cancel its dollar sales because of the elections holiday, a CBI’s media source said on Thursday.

“The CBI will cease its sessions from Thursday (March 4) until Monday (March 8),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that the bank will resume its sessions normally next Tuesday (March 9).

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=127982

Iraq chief: Blasts will not affect elections

Days before Iraq Parliamentary elections, terrorism hit the city of Baaquba killing at least 33 people and wounding more than 50 others due to three suicide bombings.

A suicide bomber in a car bomb raided Habitat Directorate building near the headquarters of Emergency Police 3d Division killing a number of people and causing major damages around, a security source said.

Few minutes later, another car bomb driven by a suicide bomber exploded about 100 meters away from the first explosion in Baaquba, the source added.

While Baaquba Police Chief Brigadier Abdul Hussein Al Shomari was visiting Baaquba General Hospital to check on wounded, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in the Hospital Emergency. The third bombing killed and wounded tens of people including head of Diyala Health Directorate Dr Ali Al Tamimi and Major Nabil Ibrahim. Al Shumari however was not hurt.

Head of the security committee supervising Parliamentary elections Major Aydan Khaled affirmed that bombings will not affect elections.

Iraqi security forces are capable of taking hold of security during elections and do not need the support of US Forces in Diyala, Khaled said.

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News...elections.html

Special voting starts in Iraq

Special voting is ongoing around Iraq including security forces, prisoners and patients. Around 800 000 voters are casting ballot amidst tight security.

Tens of Iraqi soldiers and policemen queued in front of polling centers waiting to vote.

Special voting is running well marking high turnout, Alsumaria reporters said.

Many complaints have been reported yet about unlisted names of some voters in polling centers, reporters added.

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News...s-in-Iraq.html

Al Maliki says certain of winning in polls

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki addressed military men while warning against politicization of security forces.

In a meeting with Waset Governor, head of the provincial council and a number of commanders and security forces recruits, Al Maliki stressed that we are keen to help make the military institution independent regardless of political or parties backgrounds.

Al Maliki told a French news broadcasting station that he is certain of his coalition’s win in Sunday’s elections.

The difference will be great in significant with other competing lists, he said.

While he acknowledged the difficulty of gaining 163 seats to form the government, Al Maliki said he will have to establish new alliances.

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News...-in-polls.html

Iraq Sunnis set to vote en masse after 2005 boycott

Sheikh Ayfan Saadoun al-Ayfan hopes to capitalise on radically increased Sunni turnout Sunday in Iraq's polls with his bold election pitch: "Vote for me to oppose Persian hegemony in parliament!"

Standing in front of hundreds of supporters in the former rebel bastion of Fallujah, the 35-year-old urges his Sunni backers to cast their votes, a stark contrast to Iraq's last parliamentary elections in 2005 which Sunnis boycotted.

"The battle in parliament is between the Persians and a united Iraq, and my mission is to oppose them and reduce their numbers in parliament!" adds Ayfan, adorned in a blue dishdasha and red-and-white kefiyah, the traditional Arab male robe and headdress, with a pistol holstered under his armpit.

While deadly sectarian conflict in Iraq between Sunnis and the majority Shiites has largely come to an end after peaking in 2006 and 2007, memories of the bloodshed that killed tens of thousands are still fresh. Many Sunnis, who consider themselves authentic Arabs, view Shiites as having come from neighbouring Iran -- thus the use of the word "Persian" as a synonym for Shiite, evoking the centuries-old conflict between Arabs and Persians. The minority community, which accounts for around a quarter of Iraq's population, finally lost control of power in 2003 after a US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein ended more than 80 years of Sunni dominance. In the first nationwide parliamentary elections in the wake of the invasion, Sunnis largely boycotted the vote, having failed to accept the Shiite coming to power. In all of Anbar, which lies west of the capital, only 3,500 people braved death threats from Sunni rebel groups and Al-Qaeda to cast ballots, mostly from voting booths in Baghdad. That figure equates to less than one percent of the province's population.

"It was a massive error," Ayfan told AFP as he left the meeting in Fallujah, under heavy armed security. "We should have participated -- we left a void and Sunday will be our revenge."

The sheikh is part of the Iraqi Unity Alliance (IUA), led by Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a secular Shiite, as well as Sunni tribal leaders who formed militias and turned against Al-Qaeda, leading to a dramatic fall in violence across the country. This time around, around 800,000 voters are registered to vote in Anbar, according to the Independent High Electoral Commission in Ramadi, the provincial capital. Along with the IUA, which has 21 candidates vying for the 14 available seats available in Anbar, three other major coalitions are contesting the province, Iraq's western-most and biggest in total area. The most popular of those three locally is the Iraqiya bloc of former prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite. In marked difference to 2005, when all of the blocs contesting the election were explicitly confessional, two mostly-Shiite coalitions are attempting to win seats in Anbar -- the State of Law Alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the largely-religious conservative Iraqi National Alliance.

"I try to convince voters of our goal -- after the sectarian violence that we have all witnessed, our objective is to build a united country around our Iraqi identity," said Saad Fawzi Abu Risha, one of Maliki's candidates in Ramadi.

Hamid Farhan al-Haayis from the rival INA articulates similar goals. "To get a seat at the table, we must bury Sunni sectarian projects," the former leader of an anti-Qaeda militia told AFP. In Samarra, another Sunni-dominated city in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, voters are determined to go to the polls.

"We were under the threat of the religious fatwas (edicts) and Al-Qaeda," says Rahim Alwan, 45. "Our vote was stolen, but this time we will participate in big numbers."

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidAN...2005%20boycott

FM accuses neighboring countries trying to influence the elections

Accused Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, the neighboring countries of trying to influence the outcome of general elections next Sunday, which is considered a critical test of the country emerged from years of war and sectarian violence.

Zebari said in a press statement embedded reporter Iran and Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait, all intervened to varying degrees by the second general elections in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Zebari said that "Some of them actively involved in supporting some groups favor of certain outcomes" and that "all six neighboring states participate."

And Zebari said that "a large number of regional powers do not like our experience in democracy ... some of our neighbors to consider this experience uncomfortable. We are not exporters of revolutions of democracy, but this is our fate and choice and that the election" a defining moment "for Iraq's young democracy fragile.

The minister said "the election will be an important barometer for the future of some areas such as Mosul and Kirkuk oil producers. Cities are experiencing long-running dispute between the Arab majority and the Kurdish minority in Iraq on the ground, wealth and power."

Zebari predicted that "it takes the formation of the new Iraqi government more than five months because no party will occupy enough seats in the new parliament would enable it to dominate the power alone." He explained "the Kurds will play an important role. We will definitely say in forming the next government." "In Baghdad, if the Kurds united ... as we did in previous elections will play a very important role," stressing "If we can .. yes this will be the end of the U.S. presence." He explained, "but if there have been setbacks and there is a deterioration in security, or if people reject the result (outcome of the elections) or resorted to violence That's another story."

http://al-iraqnews.net/new/siaysiah/57380.html

Ambassador describes excitement around Iraq's upcoming elections

Iraqi Ambassador to the United States Samir Sumaida'ie said Iraqi nationalism is stronger than ever as elections approach in an event hosted by the Elliott School of International Affairs and GW's International Development Studies Program Wednesday night. Sumaida'ie shared the narrative of Iraq during the last half of the 20th century from his perspective, telling of a nation of promise in the 1950s slipping into authoritarianism under Saddam Hussein. Sumaida'ie described his youth in Iraq as pleasant, with people caring about tending their gardens and providing their children with education.

"It was a time when everybody was hopeful about the future," he said. After Hussein's military coup, Sumaida'ie said that Iraq went downhill in every possible way.

"Before Saddam, the GDP [of Iraq] was equivalent to that of Spain, and the Iraqi dinar was equal to 3.3 American dollars." Upon the end of Hussein's end, Sumaida'ie said that one American dollar was equal to more than 3,000 Iraqi dinars.

"I was horrified to see village after village after village abandoned and destroyed," he said.

Sumaida'ie made it clear that he was not there to discuss whether or not the United States should have invaded Iraq in 2003, but he did say that the Americans "came in without a really true understanding of how bad it really was."

Though the issue is still controversial in the United States, the ambassador said that American military help is a relatively straightforward decision for the Iraqis. With American help, Sumaida'ie said that Iraq is "spiraling upwards, not downward." That is not to say that there are not problems, however. Sumaida'ie said terrorists, especially those trained by neighboring countries and brought into Iraq, are still a threat. He said that while there are terrorists, they do not represent the views and actions of the vast majority of the Iraqi population. Internal corruption is another issue that Sumaida'ie said is still being fought.

"It will take years, but in this year, I believe there will be less corruption than the last," he said.

Sumaida'ie was very optimistic when discussing the upcoming elections in Iraq.

"We are proud to have reached a point, where this Sunday, the Iraqi people will go, dip their fingers in ink, and cast their vote," he said.

"Terrorists will be here for some time, but they have failed to derail the election."

Sumaida'ie also said the election cycle of a democratic government is a very exciting feeling.

"Iraq now, today, does not know who is going to rule them in six months. That's great!"

One graduate student found Sumaida'ie to be a timely speaker.

"It was very interesting. It was great that we could have somebody come here and discuss these issues in such a pertinent time in their history and such a crucial time in their history," said Ryan Evans, a second year graduate student in the Elliott School. Another student, first year graduate student Kristin Cullison, said the talk gave perspective on understanding the Iraqi people. "Just to have the opportunity to ask him specifics about the election and what his thoughts were was very revealing," Cullison said. "I think I definitely came out of this with a better understanding of the Iraqi people."

http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media...-3884626.shtml

Statement on media silence

At a time when UNHCR is blessed Electoral all efforts for the success of the electoral process, by virtue of paragraph (First) of Article (5) of the Act to amend the Electoral Act No. (26) for the year 2009 and paragraph (1) of Section II of the campaign No. (19) for the year 2009, the Commission calls upon all political entities and candidates to stop all campaigning and the Declaration (silence the media) before seven o'clock on the morning of Saturday, March 6, 2010, the succession will take legal action against violators.

Appreciate your cooperation for the success of the electoral process

Council Office

http://nahrain.com/d/news/10/03/10030***.htm

CNPC Iraqi Halfaya work to start in H2 -PetroChina

China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) will start work on the Iraqi Halfaya project in the second half of this year, Jiang Jiemin, the chairman of CNPC's subsidiary PetroChina, said on Friday.

Jiang also said it would take a fairly long time to finalise the purchase agreement for a deal to buy 2 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year from Qatar, and that his company planned to put two Chinese LNG terminals into operation next year, in Dalian and Jiangsu

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/e...entId=10399071