Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 22/06/2010 - 04/10/2010

Writer : Washington will not withdraw from Iraq before the end the crisis in government formation

Said a coalition of law which is headed by Iraqi Prime Minister outgoing Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday that the United States of America will not end the withdrawal from Iraq before the invasion to the Iraqi government, stressing that the visit of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Iraq's present comes in the context of finding solutions to this crisis.

The leadership of the coalition of the state of law writer in an interview with "Alsumaria News", "America does not want to withdraw from Iraq before a solution to the crisis, the formation of the Iraqi government", pointing out that "The U.S. government may have evolved to have a new image of the form of ending the political crisis in the country After the dialogues conducted with the political blocs."

The U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, arrived Monday, the Iraqi capital Baghdad on a visit unannounced in advance, since, in addition to the formal, which will also take him visit is to participate in the ceremony which was held Tuesday to mark the withdrawal of thousands of troops from Iraq, but this Visit reliable that resolved the issue of forming the Iraqi government through the support of coalition and Iraqi Kurds and the rule of law, which has paved over the past weeks, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Jeffrey Fletman.

He went on, saying that "talking about changing the U.S. position to support the leader of a coalition of law Nuri al-Maliki as prime minister and not supporting for the nomination of Iyad Allawi at the same time, is not accurate," pointing out that "Washington was following a dialogue between al-Maliki, Allawi and other Iraqi parties to determine who Will be supported, or vice versa."

The Deputy Secretary-General of the Islamic Dawa Party led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, that "the visit of Vice President Joe Biden, Iraq's present comes in the context of finding solutions to form a government," asserting that "America wants that does not affect its withdrawal on the political and security situation in Iraq under Not to establish a new Iraqi government."

The troops in Iraq withdrawal by the end of June 2009 from all Iraqi cities, and handed over the security file, where the Iraqi security apparatus, under the sofa signed between Baghdad and Washington in 2008, which provides for the delivery of all military bases of the U.S. military and the NATO mission in accordance with the agenda Time expires the end of 2011 before the U.S. forces to reduce its forces to 50 troops in Iraq, end of the month, which falls on Tuesday.

The United States and Iran have stepped up their actions during the recent to persuade allies of the National Coalition and the Iraqi List to approve the survival of Iraqi Prime Minister outgoing Nuri al-Maliki for a second term but the leaders of the Iraqi National Coalition and the Iraqi List, noted in comments several times during the past few days to their refusal to give al-Maliki for a second term However, some observers believe that U.S. pressure and Iran's political blocs could be resolved by the position of the political blocs to form a government, especially that the two parties share a significant influence in Iraq seven years ago in conjunction with the inability of regional countries, particularly Syria and Turkey and Saudi Arabia to find an influential role it parallel to the role of Iranian And American people.

http://www.alsumarianews.com/ar/1/10...-details-.html

As U.S. Troops Move Out Of Iraq, Oil Companies Move In

In a prime-time television address Tuesday night, President Obama will speak about U.S. troop reduction and the end of combat operations in Iraq. About 50,000 American soldiers are expected to remain in Iraq until the end of next year.

But as the troops move out, the oil companies are moving in. According to a July report from the U.S. government’s Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, oil production in Iraq is currently about 2.4 million barrels per day. The goal, by 2017 is to produce 12 million barrels per day. That’s quite a leap, especially since average production levels have held steady for more than two years. It’s going to a take a lot of investment to expand production by 10 million barrels per day.

How much? That’s anybody’s guess. For example, in January, ExxonMobil signed an agreement to redevelop and expand an oil field in southern Iraq. A company spokeswoman says that “total field capital expenditure will depend on full project scope,” which is currently being examined.

There’s a pile of oil money pouring into Iraq right now. Since last year, the Iraqi government has awarded 11 development deals to various consortia. BP and China National Petroleum Corp. are developing the enormous Rumaila field, which has a total proven reserves of about 18 billion barrels. Other companies winning awards include Royal Dutch Shell (working with ExxonMobil on one project and Malaysia’s Petronas on another), France’s Total SpA, Angola’s Sonangol, Italy’s Eni SpA, Russia’s Lukoil and China National Offshore Oil Corp. The signature bonuses to be paid by the consortia are anywhere from $100 million to $500 million.

More investment is on the way. Iraq’s oil ministry is planning to build four new refineries that will nearly double the country’s refining capacity. Oil services firms like Weatherford International and Schlumberger are expanding their operations in the country. Earlier this month Halliburton won a deal to drill 15 wells in the Basra province in southern Iraq, though the financial terms have not been disclosed.

If development goes as planned, rebuilding Iraq’s oil sector could be a highly profitable investment for these companies over the long-term. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iraq has the third largest proven oil reserves in the world (after Saudia Arabia and Canada). In 2008, oil exports accounted for nearly 90% of the country’s revenues.

But a lot could go wrong. Although Iraq’s most recent round of national elections were in March, the country’s leaders haven’t been able to form a coalition government. Already there have been several attacks on protected pipelines this year. The price of oil is fickle. (For example, in 2008 Iraq’s oil revenue was $62 billion, according to the State Department; last year, it was$39 billion). In addition, U.S. oil companies are facing tax hikes at home that could affect overall profitability.

Nonetheless, the rush is on for Iraqi oil.

http://blogs.forbes.com/brianwingfie...mepagelighttop

After Years of War, Few Iraqis Have a Clear View of the Future

The invasion of Iraq, occupation and tumult that followed were called Operation Iraqi Freedom back then. It will be named New Dawn on Wednesday.

But America’s attempt to bring closure to an unpopular war has collided with a disconnect familiar since 2003: the charts and trend lines offered by American officials never seem to capture the intangible that has so often shaped the pivots in the war in Iraq.

Call it the mood. And the country, seemingly forever unsettled and unhappy, is having a slew of bad days.

“Nothing’s changed, nothing!” Yusuf Sabah shouted in the voice of someone rarely listened to, as he waited for gas in a line of cars winding down a dirt road past a barricade of barbed wire, shards of concrete and trash turned uniformly brown. “From the fall of Saddam until now, nothing’s changed. The opposite. We keep going backwards.”

Down the road waited Haitham Ahmed, a taxi driver. “Frustrated, sick, worn out, pessimistic and angry,” he said, describing himself.

“What else should I add?”

The Iraq that American officials portray today — safer, more peaceful, with more of the trappings of a state — relies on 2006 as a baseline, when the country was on the verge of a nihilistic descent into carnage. For many here, though, the starting point is the statement President George W. Bush made on March 10, 2003, 10 days before the invasion, when he promised that “the life of the Iraqi citizen is going to dramatically improve.”

Iraq generates more electricity than it did then, but far greater demand has left many sweltering in the heat. Water is often filthy. Iraqi security forces are omnipresent, but drivers habitually deride them for their raggedy appearance and seeming unprofessionalism. That police checkpoints snarl traffic does not help.

What American officials portray as their greatest accomplishment — a nascent democracy, however flawed — often generates a rueful response. “People can’t live only on the air they breathe,” said Qassem Sebti, an artist.

In a conflict often defined by unintended consequences, the March election may prove a turning point in an unexpected way. To an unprecedented degree, people took part, regardless of sect and ethnicity.

But nearly six months later, politicians are still deadlocked over forming a government, and the glares at the sport-utility vehicles that ferry them and their gun-toting entourages from air-conditioned offices to air-conditioned homes, after meetings unfailingly described as “positive,” have become sharper.

Disenchantment runs rife not with one faction or another, but with an entire political class that the United States helped empower with its invasion.

“The people of Kadhimiya mourn for the government in the death of water and electricity,” a tongue-and-cheek banner read near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad.

The year 2003, when the Americans invaded, often echoes in 2010, as they prepare to leave. Little feels linear here these days; the sense of the recurrent is more familiar.
Lines at fuel stations returned this month, that testament to one the greatest of Iraq’s ironies: a country with the world’s third largest reserve of oil in which people must endure long waits for gas.

“Ghamidh” was the word heard often in those earliest years. It means obscure and ambiguous, and then, as now, it was typically the answer to any question.

“After seven years our destiny is still unknown,” Mr. Sabah said, waiting in a gas line. “When you look to the future, you have no idea what it holds.”

Complaints over shoddy services paraphrase the same grievances of those anarchic months after Saddam Hussein’s fall. The sense of the unknown persists, as frustration mounts, Iraqi leaders bicker and no one seems sure of American intentions, even as President Obama observes what the administration describes as a turning point in the conflict.

“I challenge anyone to say what has happened, what’s happening now and what will happen in the future,” Mohammed Hayawi, a bookseller whose girth matched his charm, said as sweat poured down his jowly face on a hot summer day in 2003.

Mr. Hayawi died in 2007, as a car bomb tore through his bookstore filled with tomes of ayatollahs, predictions by astrologers and poems of Communist intellectuals. This week, in the same shop, still owned by his family, Najah Hayawi reflected on his words, near a poster that denounced “the cowardly, wretched bombing” that had killed his brother.

“There is no one in Iraq who has any idea — not only about what’s happened or what’s happening — but about what will happen in the future,” he said. “Not just me, not just Mohammed, God rest his soul, but anyone you talk to. You won’t find anyone.”

Iraqis call the overthrow of Mr. Hussein’s government the “suqut.” It means the fall.

Seven years later, no one has yet quite defined what replaced it, an interim as inconclusive as the invasion was climactic. “Theater,” Mr. Hayawi’s brother called it, and he said the populace still had no hand in writing a script that was in others’ hands.

“The best thing is that I have no children,” Shahla Atraqji, a 38-year-old doctor, said back in 2003, as she sipped coffee at Baghdad’s Hunting Club to the strains of Lebanese pop. “If I can’t offer my children a good life, I would never bring them into this world.”

This week, Thamer Aziz, a doctor who helps fit amputees with artificial limbs at the Medical Rehabilitation Center, stared at Musafa Hashem, a 6-year-old boy who lost his right leg in a car bomb in Kadhimiya in July. His father was paralyzed.

“I’ve believed this for a long time, and I still do,” he said. “I cannot get married and have a family because I may lose them any minute, by a bomb or bullet.”

“Just like him,” he said, gesturing toward the boy.

Even in the denouement of America’s experience here, old habits die hard.

On Monday, four American Humvees drove the wrong way down a street, turrets swinging at oncoming traffic. Cars stopped, giving them distance. The Humvees turned, plowed over a curb, dug a trench in the muddy median, then rumbled on their way.

“See! Did you see?” asked Mustafa Munaf, a storekeeper.

“It’s the same thing,” he said, shaking his head. “What’s changed?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/wo...ewanted=2&_r=1

Senior Economist : "The government does not disclose the economic orientations , clearly and keep it Millba

The expert economic peace Sumaisem the government does not disclose the economic orientation is clear therefore prefer to keep the subject Millba.

She Sumaisem in contact with the agency, the independent press (Iba) expressed regret that some of the ministries including the Ministry of Oil raises between now and then some of the problems and keep some files pending and will remain there until a paper for political betting.

She said in commenting on the gas export agreement between the KRG and the Germany company two years ago, raised the same issue and were challenged to contracts concluded by the Government of Kurdistan, but after a while was silent on the issue and something is not, has not been resolved completely.

She noted that the position suffers from uncertainty due to the constitutional interpretation of article on that, all of the Government of the province and the Ministry of Oil Evsranha are different leads to a difference between them.

She Sumaisem Iraq is a country based on the federal constitution, and this means the possibility of creating regions and that everybody has the right to sign contracts and investment of natural resources in each region.

She stressed that the question now is what you want the central government, noting that the government does not disclose the economic orientation clearly would therefore prefer to keep the subject Millba.

She stressed that the Kurdistan Regional Government based on the constitution in its work, so are all their agreements according to the guidelines of the Constitution.

Showed Sumaisem that the process of investing in Iraq is still confusing because of the lack of visibility, and investor Iraqi or foreign does not know what is the wave of the government despite statements Almtmonp launched by because it did not document the laws and decisions explicit, so suffer the investor legal interpretation of the projects.

She said the most dangerous areas of investment are as they relate to infrastructure, telecommunications, oil, and there is so far the laws of intrusion of investor rights and encourages him to enter the gate to invest in Iraq strongly.

On the other hand stressed Sumaisem that can not achieve success in the investment process in the absence of a private banking sector can support this process.

She pointed out that foreign banks that entered an investor in the banking sector Araci could not elevate the work of this sector, including equivalent Touh sector and make it active, could strengthen the investment process.

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=29758

Government adviser, criticizing the performance of the Ministry of Oil and described as "mental central"

UN adviser in the Iraqi government ended its mandate on Tuesday, the administration of the Iraqi oil ministry, describing it as a central acting with the mentality hindered the evolution of many important projects.

Ahmed Rashid told the Kurdistan News (Akaniwz) announced today that "the Iraqi oil ministry is still considering the mentality of a sharp central and need to make numerous corrections root in its dealings with the provinces and territories."

He added that "there are real problems need radical solutions required to show flexibility in handling the administrative Ministry and the provinces and provincial councils," noting that "in spite of developments in the export of crude oil for the current month, but the problem of non-approved oil and gas law in the session previous parliamentary still list".

The issue of oil and gas in the Kurdistan region, in dispute with the federal government in Baghdad, which considers that the contracts signed by Kurds illegal, and in need of approval, which is rejected by the Kurds, insisting on their right to enter into energy contracts.

On the other hand describes a member of the House of Representatives the previous oil and gas law as significant as it would end the problems between the local governments and the federal government.

"Said Wael Abdul Latif (Akaniwz) that "the oil ministry during the past four years were not successful as it relied on the decisions of the same political and clear," accused, " Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, wasting the wealth of Iraq by failing to pass the oil and gas law in agreement with the actual president of the Council House Khalid al-Attiya," noting that "the problems between the province and the federal government back to a failure to approve oil and gas law during previous parliamentary session."

Abdul Latif said that "the main reason behind the adoption of disabled oil and gas law is bad government planning represented a person al-Shahristani, to pass the two rounds of licensing the first and second."

For his part, called an expert on oil Ismail Yasser Alhab governments in Baghdad and Erbil to expand the circles of dialogue to resolve the outstanding problems between them, rather than mudslinging.

The Ahadjami for (Akaniwz) that "dialogue is the only solution to solve economic problems and oil relationship between governments in Baghdad and Erbil." "The bickering and accusations through the media does not resolve the problem, but are complicated."

Intensified the debate Monday between the Baghdad government and the authorities of Iraq's Kurdistan region following the signing of the final contract for cooperation with one of the leading German companies to pump supplies Gazemstqublaaly Nabucco pipeline project.

She described the Iraqi oil ministry contract entered into with the Government of Arbil " RWE German" without loss to legitimate and legal texts adopted.

In its response described the Government of Arbil, Iraqi oil ministry to "failed" saying it was "committed to holding them after today will depend not only on the mentality of the ministry, which managed centrally."

The company "RWE," the German said on Friday it had signed a cooperation agreement with the government of Iraqi Kurdistan to inject the future gas supplies to the Nabucco pipeline project.

The Ministry confirmed the natural resources in the province earlier that can be pumped up to 20 billion cubic meters annually across the line to supply gas to Turkey and Europe.

Exports of Iraqi oil for the month of July to 56 million and 300 thousand barrels to reach the value of the revenues of 4 billion and 9 million dollars after they were in Hzran has reached to 54.0007 million million barrels to become the value of its imports 3 billion and 889 million dollars.

The economy relies heavily on Iraqi oil. Vaguetsadh oil in the first place, but that oil is not the only resource for him as is the case with the Gulf states, which is a founding member of OPEC started industry since 1925.

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil of the Iraqi Drilling Company has announced completion of drilling 35 oil wells since the beginning of this year in partnership with international companies in different parts of the country.

Iraq held in two rounds last year licenses to invest in oil fields resulted in the victory of international companies from ten different nationalities to develop fields in different regions of the country, where Iraq has been trying to access the oil produce it within the next six years to about 10 and 12 million barrels per day.

The oil exports exceeded earlier this year to two million barrels per day, for the first time since the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the imposition of international sanctions on the former Iraqi regime.

The country produces around 2,4 million barrels per day of oil, which constitutes more than ninety percent of the proceeds of the country.

The ministry has signed contracts with foreign firms to develop ten fields so that is expected to reach production of about 12 million barrels a day within six years.

Iraq has the third oil reserves in the world is estimated at 115 billion barrels after Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Plans to the Iraqi Oil Ministry to increase oil exports to more than 12 million barrels per day after OPEC Asthsalha approval.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/178459/

Biden: US concerned over Iraq government delay

US Vice President Joseph Biden conveyed his government’s concern over the delay in forming the government urging Iraqi leaders to form an inclusive national unity government.

Biden met US Vice President Tarek Al Hashemi who said the US insists that the decision to form the government is up to Iraqis.

Biden met as well on Tuesday night with Al Iraqiya leader Iyad Allawi and Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi following his meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

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

Al Maliki:Iraq Forces ready to take command

In the occasion of US combat mission end in Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki affirmed that his country's security forces are ready to assume complete responsibility on Tuesday.

Al Maliki stressed that the page of sectarian war has been turned. Al Maliki regretted what he described as wronged suspicious campaigns against the government over the security command. These campaigns aim to hinder the US pullout, he cautioned.

Prime Minister Al Maliki praised US commitment to withdrawal timelines.

The US pullout is a milestone leading the country to regain its national sovereignty and a golden opportunity to enhance national unity, he said.

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

Obama: US combat mission in Iraq has ended

In his Iraq speech addressed from the White House Oval Office on Tuesday night, US President Barack Obama announced the end of US combat mission in Iraq. Obama noted Iraq has now the opportunity to embrace a new destiny.

Though the US combat mission in Iraq is ending, President Obama stressed that US commitment to Iraq's future is not.

“So, tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country.This was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office. Last February, I announced a plan that would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq's Security Forces and support its government and people. That is what we have done. We have removed nearly 100,000 U.S. troops from Iraq. We have closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis. And we have moved millions of pieces of equipment out of Iraq”, President Obama said in his speech.

With the end of US combat mission in Iraq and the focus of the remaining 50000 troops on advisory and training missions, US President Barack Obama encouraged Iraq's leaders to move forward with a sense of urgency to form an inclusive government.

“When that government is in place, there should be no doubt: the Iraqi people will have a strong partner in the United States”, Obama continued.

President Obama stressed that the United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people.

“We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq, and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home”, he added.

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

Ambassador Crocker : Iraq before the big problems even after the formation of the government

Said former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker that there are serious challenges besetting Iraq, and that the deadlock on forming a government refers to the difficulties in the country.

Crocker said in an article he wrote entitled (America and Iraq .. continued partnership) that the problems will not end in Iraq even after the formation of the government, there is a crisis between Arabs and Kurds over Kirkuk and other disputed territories, the Al Qaeda threat and the relationship with the neighbors, especially Iran and Syria.

http://www.wasatonline.com/index.php...7-54&Itemid=99

Allawi (the news): I will reveal the details of forming a government tomorrow

President vowed that the Iraqi List, Iyad Allawi, the political forces that impede the formation of the government to expose to public view. Allawi said in a statement singled out by the Agency (the sons of the news) that he will reveal on Thursday details of forming a government and those who stand and saw the forces of politics. Stressing that he will be guidelines on what he will present.

Allawi said that the time is appropriate to reveal the cards to be the Iraqi people to see the forces that delayed the formation of the government. has entered the Iraqi crisis resulting from the differences between the political blocs dark tunnel following can not be convened meeting of the Council of Representatives second, as decided by leaders and representatives Political blocs postponed indefinitely pending agreements do not seem close to the three presidencies of the Republic and the government and parliament.

The dispute is between the political blocs about the consistence of the constitutional form of government, in time, which it sees as the Iraqi List led by Iyad Allawi, it was the most entitled in the fact that it was the biggest winner, while insisting the National Alliance, consisting of a coalition of law and the Iraqi National to take over government formation

http://www.ikhnews.com/news.php?action=view&id=1172