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

Cnooc Near Deal to Develop Iraq Oil

A consortium led by Cnooc Ltd., the Hong Kong-listed unit of China National Offshore Oil Corp., is the frontrunner to win the right to develop Iraq's 2.5 billion-barrel Missan oil-field complex after agreeing to Iraqi government proposals, officials said Thursday.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry has concluded talks with Cnooc and its partner, Sinochem International Corp., relating to the development of the three Missan fields in southern Iraq and has submitted a draft contract to the cabinet for final approval, said one official familiar with the talks.

Cnooc officials couldn't be reached for comment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

America and the Future of Iraq
By AHMAD CHALABI

The Baathist regime that ruled Iraq from 1969 to 2003 was a fascist, terrorist dictatorship based on racism, violence, oppression and genocide. Through our constitution and our duly elected parliament, the Iraqi people have pledged never to allow the nightmare of Baathism to return. Despite recent intemperate comments and interventions by some senior American officials, we will keep that pledge and enforce the rule of law.

In that spirit, Iraqis of all parties and confessions are enthusiastically competing in the March 7 national elections. They do so encouraged by United States policy as stated by President Barack Obama in his January State of the Union Address: "[W]e are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people."

The Obama policy is the long-awaited fruition of Iraq's liberation after seven years of ill-conceived occupation. Such clarity concerning U.S.-Iraq relations is welcome, and Iraqis eagerly embrace the challenges and opportunities of independent democratic government.

Iraqis also look forward to a new strategic partnership with the U.S. built upon shared ideals and interests. Such a partnership will take account of U.S. security interests but will not be based on them alone.

Iraqis are patriots committed to the defense of their country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Their security concerns are purely defensive, and there is agreement among all parties that long-term, transparent security cooperation with the U.S. is in Iraq's interests. At the same time, we refuse any security formulation that places Iraq in conflict with its neighbors. Iraq will never again become a battleground for proxy wars.

Instead, Iraq as.pires to be a meeting place for democratic interests in the region. The historic and costly liberation of Iraq by the U.S. and coalition forces demands no other outcome. And it is in this effort that U.S. assistance to Iraq is most desired.

Financial aid is not requested; it is time we Iraqis learn to stand on our own feet and budget our own resources. But in areas like education, the rule of law, health care, labor unions, agriculture, management of water resources and cultural exchange, we still need help.

The institutions that make your civil society so strong—such as universities, legal and judicial societies, and medical centers—should be integral to the new foundation of U.S.-Iraq relations. Contacts must take place across the broadest possible range of U.S. and Iraqi institutions.

For too long, the people of the Middle East have been relegated to interactions with the limited foreign policy and intelligence elite in the U.S. political establishment. Iraq is an opportunity to break this tradition.

More than two million Americans have served in two wars in Iraq. It is our hope to build upon this base of commitment and knowledge. Person to person, not official to official, is the path to a permanent friendship between our two peoples.

We are proposing the creation of a regional alliance among Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran to bring together our geographic, economic, water and oil resources into a coherent framework. Our region has been plagued by secret wars, ethnic conflict and acts of terror sponsored by these states against each other during the past half century. It is time to put this behind us.

This alliance would be of benefit to the entire Middle East and a strong bastion against Islamic extremism. Such a treaty would also address the failure of the Arab security structure that has required the U.S. to deploy massive force to protect states in the region.

It could be an effective vehicle in resolving the Iranian nuclear energy issue as well, opening a new phase in international politics that could profoundly change the mindset of Middle East decision makers, especially in Iran. It is in the interest of the U.S. to look favorably on such an alliance, despite the fears that some may have of such a structure. There were also those who feared the creation of the European Union.

Though we are grateful for our liberation, Iraqis intend to exercise our legitimate freedom of action in a complex diplomatic and security environment. Those outsiders who seek conflict with Iran or who wish to bind Iraq to the unstable military dictatorships, corrupt oligarchies and despotic monarchies of the region will find no support here.

We call upon the United States to support us in our democratic journey. Recent attempts to interfere in Iraq's constitutionally mandated elections are counterproductive and short-sighted. The U.S. should recognize the leadership that will be freely elected on March 7 as the legitimate government of Iraq. Attempts to interfere in the formation of this government would lead to disastrous delay.

U.S. opposition to Ibrahim Jaffari's selection as prime minister in 2006 created a five-month vacuum promptly filled by foreign-inspired and financed violence. Let's dramatically reorient U.S.-Iraq relations away from military and intelligence agency-led operations to a more open and balanced relationship.

In the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by President Clinton, the U.S. committed itself to the forcible liberation of an oppressed people and to assistance in the formation of a new government. That mission has been fulfilled to the everlasting credit of the American people and with the gratitude of Iraqis. Now, as President Obama has stated, it is up to the Iraqi people. All we ask is the opportunity to move forward on our own as we see fit.

Mr. Chalabi is a candidate for parliament in the Iraqi elections.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB2000...540231834.html

Iraq's sectarian elections leave only a sliver of hope

As Iraqis go to the polls this Sunday, the hope is that the roar and carnage of the still all too frequent bomb blasts will be drowned out by the din and dirt of politics - gladiatorial politics to be sure, but recognisable enough to justify the reiterated US claim that politics has at last broken out in Iraq.

There is no question that these elections are a milestone in Iraq's history. There is every question about the rest of the journey. Some Iraq-watchers now see a fork in the road, with one path leading to the sunlit uplands of peace and prosperity, and another crumbling into the abyss of civil war. Yet, the real direction of travel - indeed, whether there is any movement at all - looks a lot less clear.

There is, it must be emphasised, an incalculable value in an Arab country having a more or less free electoral contest that establishes a representative government. That remains true even if - after the debacle of the past seven years - Iraq will hardly be seen across an Arab world mired in despotism and stagnation as the beacon of liberty glimpsed in the hallucinations of the Bush and Blair administrations.

Traumatised by decades of tyranny and wars, then torn by invasion and occupation into an ethnic and sectarian patchwork, Iraq has still to rediscover a shared national narrative.

The national reconciliation for which the US troop surge of 2007-08 was supposed to create the conditions has not taken place. Iraq's present political leaders, whose lives and politics have been twisted by dictatorship and sectarian strife, do not appear either willing or able to reconcile.

There are still millions of Iraqis, by some estimates as many as one in six, displaced in and outside the country. These are the teachers, doctors, engineers, civil servants and entrepreneurs on which Iraq's future depends, and they are disproportionately Sunni. Without reconciliation and without security they will not be coming back to help rebuild their country.

Fundamental issues remain unresolved. The Shia-dominated government in Baghdad of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki may have signed contracts to develop Iraq's oil riches with the world's top oil companies, but there is still no agreed formula for sharing oil revenue around the country. Iraq's ambition to become an oil exporter to rival Saudi Arabia will get nowhere without roads and refineries, ports and pipelines, power and water.

There is next to no progress, either, on the division of power between provinces, regions and the federation (including the powder-keg question of who will end up with oil-rich Kirkuk, contested between Kurds and Arabs).

The big winners in an invasion that overturned Saddam Hussein's rule by a Sunni minority are the Shia majority. But few Shia politicians have shown willingness to put state above sect. Many treat Iraqi institutions as booty, behaving as though they are simply taking their rightful turn to monopolise power and resources.

In the provincial elections a year ago, it looked for a moment as though the tide was turning and real politics had come to Iraq. In the 2005 general election, Iraqis split along sectarian lines; their first parliament was made up two-thirds of Islamists. Last year, Mr Maliki trounced his main rival, the Tehran-allied Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), by cloaking the Islamist features of his Da'wa party in the garb of cross-community nationalism, and emphasising jobs, services and security over religion.

Earlier, he had cracked down on Shia militias and the death squads responsible for the savage Sunni-Shia bloodletting of 2006-07. It began to look as though he was turning what had been a clandestine resistance group into a ruling party.

On the evidence of the current election campaign, that is not to be.

Mr Maliki, splitting his State of Law coalition from the Shia Islamist alliance that came first last time, began by courting allies among the Sunni, who for the most part had boycotted the 2005 elections. He was rebuffed. Many Sunni leaders preferred to find a way back into the political game via alliances with secular Shia forces - which the Da'wa party, for all Mr Maliki's nationalist rhetoric, is not.

But then leading Sunni candidates - such as Saleh al-Mutlaq, who had teamed up with former (Shia) prime minister Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqiya coalition - were barred from running, because of alleged ties to Saddam's now proscribed Ba'ath party.

The Maliki government blames Ba'athists for renewing a deadly bombing campaign from last August, which has punctured the prime minister's hubristic attempt to claim the credit for improved security. Yet the bans look like an attempt to stoke paranoia and neutralise serious rivals.

That impression has been powerfully reinforced in the past two weeks as Mr Maliki has courted the Sunni vote by reinstating 20,000 officers from Saddam's disbanded army.

There is, of course, a lot of mud being slung, especially about covert foreign alliances and overtures to regional patrons. Much is being made of Mr Allawi's trips to Saudi Arabia, and visits by a former Pentagon favourite, the chameleon Ahmed Chalabi, to Iran. But this is more serious, and is deepening sectarian divisions.

Mr Maliki had foreshadowed this sort of behaviour. He did, it is true, purge the militias. But he also used US forces to purge his rivals, such as Moqtada al-Sadr, the insurrectionary leader of the Shia underclass, now in alliance with the ISCI, and for whom an old arrest warrant was recently reissued. Some Shia militias, furthermore, are still around; the government has merely rebadged them.

This does not mean, as Mr Allawi warned in a recent interview with the FT, that Iraq might slide into civil war. That war already took place: the Shia won and the Sunnis lost. What it could mean is an episodically violent scrabble for power, in which enough Sunni insurgents and occasional Shia rebels withhold their consent through bombings intended to tell Iraq's rulers they will not be allowed to enjoy the spoils of office unmolested.

This Sunday's election seems unlikely to produce a clear victor. Some sort of coalition, led by a Shia, looks probable, and Mr Maliki is by no means preordained to lead it. In the twilight of the occupation, the US cannot do much. The Obama administration's minimalist ambitions seem to be to keep withdrawal on track (with all combat troops out by September) and to have an election at least better than the one in Afghanistan.

Realistic hopes for Iraqis can only be minimalist, but are really important. In the absence of a shared national narrative they can as.pire to working national institutions, in the hope that new leaders will emerge before the sectarian mould has irretrievably hardened. Ammar al-Hakim inherited leadership of the ISCI last year from his strongman father, but he seems, rhetorically at least, to have it about right. "There are two points of view," he told Reuters. "The view of the strongman, or the strong institution that creates strong men; we depend on the latter."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b5dd7afc-2...nclick_check=1

Abd al-Hadi al-Hassani: to limit for banks to trade civil money for money weakens Kablyatea development

A member of the Chamber of Deputies Abdel Hadi al-Hassani said the reality of the private banks in Iraq needs the support of foreign expertise and opening the way for investments in the sector. He pointed out that the need to limit the action to swap money for money weakens Kablyatea development.

He said al-Hassani told the independent press (Iba) said Friday that the main functions that must be characterized by the private banks is the possibility of financing investment projects is missing at the moment, despite the apparent expansion of the establishment of banks, both conventional or Islamic.

The Shahu to N.okia at the banks ability to do so, you must make Lebanon to the adoption of a particular partnership with the international banks that have better possibilities, provided that subject to constitutional and legal controls. Indicating the absence of damage to the financial sector in the event of implementation of NEPAD.

The view that raising the contribution of foreigners in the Iraqi banks allow for more investment, a significant shift towards a market economy, which the State seeks to move toward it. Refuted talk of being raised about the possibility of giving effect to the area of foreign capital on the national decision in the banking sector.

Hassani and stressed that Iraq was headed towards the expansion of cooperation between the public and private sectors in facilities of public utilities and infrastructure and this needs big capital and extensive experience in lending and risk management and finance.

He said al-Hassani said the lifting of the capital of private banks is a positive step, because it allows more room for these banks to grant loans large amounts of investment will cover an important strategy.

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=22129

Prime Minister: Iraq has regained its Arab and regional levels after it was seen as a weak country

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Iraq is in the last period has regained its regional and Arab world, especially after re-many ambassadors in the capitals of the Arab countries after it was in the past, some Arab officials consider it an occupied country, its position is weak, either now has changed his outlook.

Maliki said in a news conference broadcast "Iraq has maintained its national constants that are enshrined in the constitution through the activation of the law in many areas as much interested in the cultural aspects of Iraq as a civilized country, as well as the government, through the competent institutions able to make achievements in the fields of oil and Alaammaruan through contracts held by the Government in oil investment and transparency is what makes Iraq is a country rich in community living standard of living well."

He was also "to fulfill the many power plants as Iraq now needs to produce 13 thousand megawatts with foreign companies and private sector companies and is now Alpmndz 7 thousand megawatts. Either in the field of education have been sent 600 scholars on fellowships for certification High as well as rebuilding the infrastructure of schools, as well as the launch of the project of agricultural land and support farmers have been allocated $ 17 billion to develop agriculture as well as contracting of Australian companies to invest in this area. has launched a cultural initiative which establish the Supreme Council for Culture and the launch of the sports city in Basra."

The Lama in the "reduction of the housing crisis we have been able to achieve by a simple escape from the crisis has put the foundation stone for many of these projects after it was focused on the perceptions and build two million housing units as well as our social care project we have 900 thousand were without any income Amrap coverage of many of them pay social welfare and the amount of 300 thousand dinars, as well as loan projects for the unemployed and professionals through the banks has also been the construction of 10 teaching hospitals to train workers in the field The health professions."

As to "the economic field we were able to maintain the level of the Iraqi dinar exchange market trading, and through the policy of the Iraqi Central Bank governor and the Iraqi market on the price of almost 1700, which increased the confidence of the Iraqi dinar dealers in the market has also been provided to reduce inflation in prices during the last period Based on the plans of economic thought."

He pointed out that "Iraq was able to restore the special projects in transport services for internal and external, we have set the cornerstone of the airports in Karbala and Najaf, and to begin building a port in either Iraq big area of salaries has increased the salaries of employees and retirees by as much after it was very low in the former regime."

Noting that "the government will continue in the fight against financial and administrative corruption through the Commission on Public Integrity has been issued several resolutions and orders in this regard have affected many spoilers at various levels, including deputy ministers and directors of two years and the government has to activate the national interests and restored the dissolved Iraqi army officers who believe the new Iraq."

http://al-iraqnews.net/new/siaysiah/57452.html

Polling stations in 16 countries, opens its doors today

Expected the Electoral Commission for elections to vote a million Iraqis abroad to present their candidates in legislative elections from Friday morning until Sunday, with the Office of Cairo announced that 45 thousand Iraqis in Egypt would vote in this election.

A member of the committee supervising the elections abroad, the UNHCR said in a statement Iyad Kanani singled out by the representative of the morning (Omar Abdel-Latif): The million and 400 thousand Iraqis in the community who are 16 Arab countries and international right to vote in the legislative elections that have already started since the time the twelfth night Friday Baghdad time in the State of Australia and then followed by the two States, Canada and the United States at four in the morning and then the UAE, Iran, Turkey, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands and Britain respectively, pointing out that the vote will run for ten hours a day.

He said he has been allocated 119 polling stations and 764 polling stations distributed among 90 residential neighborhood in the 59 cities in these countries, noting that the Board of Commissioners recently approved the creation of the Office of the elections in Sweden after talks with the Foreign Ministry and asked the Iraqi community in Norway, the opening of a polling station near its borders with Sweden.

He noted that about Kanani 6 7 thousand Iraqis vote in this center which is located 200 kilometers from the capital Oslo. He said all States and the ballot papers have arrived and ended the customs clearance for most of them have been distributed and stored in warehouses of UNHCR in these countries.

He said that the registration and voting will begin in the first countries compared to Baghdad time, namely, Australia, as Australia will be the timing of eight in the morning while it's in Iraq at the second session on Friday night and will proceed to the electoral process for Iraqis in all the States respectively, indicating that the elections will begin in the United States and Canada, according to their timings At eight in the morning, ie, the fourth time on Friday evening, Baghdad time.

In Egypt, said the UNHCR office there an end to all arrangements for the elections across the centers that have been identified by the Office.

The Director of the Office of the elections Cairo Fares al-Attiyah told the correspondent "morning," Isra-Khalifa: "We have completed all arrangements for our work and we will open the ballot boxes of the Iraqi people on Friday morning, noting that the voting process will continue for three days just like the electoral centers abroad.

The legislative elections will be held in 16 countries outside Iraq, namely: Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, UAE, Lebanon, Turkey, in addition to the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Britain, Austria, Australia, and Denmark.

The Director of the Cairo office that he will be the counting process and vote counting at all stations after the polls closed, and will be announcing the winners of figures and numbers in front of observers and representatives of political entities, noting that these funds will open in the morning following the balloting will continue until the end of the operation on the evening of Sunday.

The Al-Attiyah, who predicted that the ratio of broad participation in these elections, the figures obtained from the UN and the Iraqi embassy in Cairo, referring to coverage of about 45 thousand Iraqi citizens to vote in Egypt, indicating that these distributed disproportionately between Cairo and Giza and October 6, Alexandria and Mansoura.

He added that the Office identified six centers for the elections in these areas, with 37 polling stations were set 300 employees of Iraqis living in Cairo for the management of the process, in addition to the establishment of the Office to register all international observers and the staff of the League of Arab States.

And on the Iraqi communities living in the neighboring countries of Egypt, Al Attiyah said: that polling stations in Egypt to receive any citizen highlights the required documents to prove that they are Iraqis, noting that there are three days of any Iraqi can come from any Arab country to vote in polling stations in Cairo.

http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?so...page&sid=98950

Bad weather did not prevent voters from reaching the ballot boxes

Polling stations closed yesterday evening in all the provinces to mark the end of the voting process in which the security services and Associates of workers and Alracdon in hospitals, as well as sentenced to prison terms of less than five years.

Did not prevent the adverse weather conditions experienced across the country yesterday covered by the Special vote to go to polling stations and cast their ballots for their candidates in the House of Representatives next.
.............................

http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?so...page&sid=98953

The Iraqi community in Britain are flocking to polling stations in London and is very pleased to participate in the elections

Flowed into the Iraqi community in Britain since Friday morning at the polling station in Wembley, London, has been through many of the participants expressed their joy in participating the elections.

Permeated the electoral process and some simple problems, including the brothers in Kurdistan to the insistence on the territorial flag patches, has objected to this procedure electoral officials of the Center, where student supervisors to raise the Iraqi flag only in the electoral center.

Election, the Center witnessed a large attendance of observers of political entities and the media, have tried some of the political entities engaging in electoral publicity in the area near the electoral center.

http://www.baghdadtimes.net/Arabic/index.php?sid=59044

Iraq suspends oil development talks with Japanese firms

The Iraqi government has suspended talks with a group of Japanese firms to develop an oilfield in Nasiriyah, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Friday, citing an Iraqi official.

The suspension of talks came ahead of the national parliamentary election in Iraq on Sunday, with uncertainty growing over the country's position on whether to accept more foreign capital to develop its oilfields, the report said.

The group led by Japan's top refiner Nippon Oil Corp. had been in negotiations with the Iraqi government to finalize the terms after reaching a principle accord in August for oil development rights in the southern Iraqi city.

The senior Iraqi official at the Iraqi Oil Ministry also said that the Iraqi government may decide to conduct a bidding, instead of holding direct talks with the Japanese group, according to the report.

Iraq has the world's third-largest proven crude oil reserves. A deal in Nasiriyah would be the biggest of its kind for Japanese companies. A Nippon Oil official stressed that the talks have been only suspended, not broken down, the report said.

Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima on Friday admitted that there has been no major progress in the talks.

But he also told reporters, "I understand the negotiations are still going on." Naoshima added that too much information comes out due to the election campaign.

"We'll make a proper decision after seeing the (election) results," the minister said.

http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index....e204e6633763fe

Kanna: the imposition of stability and the fight against corruption and the credibility of the banks to stimulate the economy Basics

Vice President of the Economic Committee in the House of Representatives Kanna imposing stability and the fight against corruption and restore the credibility of banks capable of stimulating the economy without the load-balancing the financial burden of any additional material.

"We were told the independent press (Iba) said Saturday that the Commission put forward in Parliament a joint project with the Economic Committee in the Prime Minister and the UN to rehabilitate the Iraqi economy, and will, in theory, if we were unable to provide assurance to the investor. He pointed out that in the event of the steps will be to stay away from budget directly in the operational issues.

He said we must differentiate between the economic and financial situation of the public budget, as the first well and can achieve positive indicators in several sectors, either a budget need to be corrected. Calling software patch on the concept of economic integration of Iraq calls for world economies.

He explained that there were challenges facing the national economy such as poor growth rates in gross domestic product fell direct investment. Pointing out obstacles to the movement of investment and the national capital or foreign alike.

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=22154