Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 06/10/2010 - 24/01/2011

Iraq: Iraq exit of the seventh item was the efforts of politicians of all Iraqis

Welcomed the Iraqi List, Thursday, the UN Security Council resolution judge that Iraq from Chapter VII, arguing that the decision came as a result of the efforts of all Iraqi political leader of a private list, Iyad Allawi, who has invested in its international relations to support the government's efforts to convince the world of the importance of the resolution.

The adviser said the Iraqi List, Hani Ashour said in a statement released today, and received "Alsumaria News", a copy of "The world is convinced the ability of Iraqis to promote their country after it faced a severe wave of terrorism and overcome it," noting that "the Iraqis were able to lead themselves through the democratic approach aims to build a modern Iraq. "

Ashour went on that "the decision to exit Iraq from Chapter VII is the result of the efforts of politicians of all Iraqis and their role in persuading the international community of their right to sovereignty and a dignified life," noting that "these efforts came across the track began taking Iyad Allawi, Iraqi prime minister in 2004, where started the first Iraqi steps to lift the sanctions on Iraq, debt reduction and to put them out today. "

The adviser to the Iraqi List, that "the efforts of the government and the Iraqi diplomacy was backed by the capacity of people and their political leaders," pointing out that "the leader of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, has invested its regional and Arab and international support government efforts to convince the world the importance of Iraq would emerge from Chapter VII and the return of the Iraqi decision to his family to be able to recovery and return to the international and regional environment, where the program was the Iraqi List and its national project focused on this matter, "according to the statement.

He adviser of the Iraqi List, the list welcome departure from Iraq of Chapter VII, after many years of international isolation. "

The UN Security Council adopted during a meeting, yesterday, three special resolutions in Iraq, ending the first oil for food program, while calling the other to extend the immunity that protects Iraq from claims associated with an era of former President Saddam Hussein to the June 30, 2011 (six months) instead be stopped in time later this month as scheduled at the beginning, after Iraq said it would not request any further extensions of the work (the Development Fund for Iraq) which was the immunity from claims for compensation.

In the third resolution, approved by the UN Security Council to lift the ban on imports of Iraq's nuclear program to implement the civilian nuclear ending restrictions on weapons of mass destruction, missiles and so put an end to the ban lasted 19 years, under resolution 687 of 1991.

The Iraqi government is keen to ensure the extension of the work of the Fund which was established in 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein in order to protect revenues from sales of oil and natural gas in Iraq.

Iraq has been under since 1990 under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, which imposed on him after the invasion of the regime of President Saddam Hussein of Kuwait in August of the same year, and this item allows the use of force against Iraq as a threat to international security, in addition to the freezing of large amounts of its assets financial in the international banks to pay compensation to those affected by the invasion of Kuwait.

And consists of Chapter VII of the 13 articles, is resolution 678, issued in 1990 and calling for the ousting Iraq from Kuwait, by force of the provisions of this chapter, Iraq is still under Tailth, because the survival of the issue of the remains of Kuwaiti citizens and prisoners of war in Iraq and Kuwaiti property, including archives of the Amiri Diwan and the Crown Prince's Court and the question of environmental awards and oil, which is not only about the state of Kuwait and other Arab countries and companies still have some rights.

Kuwait had asked the UN Security Council, in July of 2009, before its to discuss Iraq's international obligations not to raise Iraq from the list of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations before has met all its obligations, especially in the cases of compensation, prisoners and missing Kuwaitis and its emphasis on the need to respect Iraq of resolution 833 judge the demarcation of the border between Iraq and Kuwait, after Iraqi objections that appear from time to time on the demarcation of the border, and then reiterated the same demands this week by a number of Kuwaiti Parliament.

http://www.alsumarianews.com/ar/1/14...-details-.html

Mahmoud Othman: Maliki announced his cabinet on Thursday

A member of the Kurdistan Alliance bloc MP Mahmoud Othman, the determination of Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki to provide his government to parliament next Thursday to give them confidence.

Osman said in a statement to the reporter that the constitutional period allocated to form a government will end on Saturday of next week, stressing that this government will be inclusive of some components and pushes aside the other, indicating that there is ministerial portfolios will be a proxy for the lack of agreement on who will be carried out.

"The National Alliance has not yet reached an agreement to launch a specific naming ministers because of the existence of differences within the Iraqi List, in this regard, but perhaps we will witness the agreements in the last hours of the announcement of the government."

http://al-iraqnews.net/new/political-news/39575.html

Iraq gets UN green light for civil nuclear program

Council also approves resolution ending controversial oil-for-food program and another calling for end to immunities.

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday gave Iraq a green light to develop a civilian nuclear program, ending 19-year-old restrictions aimed at preventing the country from developing atomic weapons.
The 15-nation council also approved two other resolutions, one ending the controversial oil-for-food program and another setting June 30, 2011, to end all immunities protecting Baghdad from claims related to the period in which former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was in power.
"I think this is a victory for the Iraqi people and represents a step towards building the country and leaving behind the heavy legacy of the past," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in Baghdad.
After its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq was hit with a series of U.N. measures that banned imports of chemicals and nuclear technology that could be used in its covert atomic, chemical and biological weapons programs. Those restrictions remained in place for two decades.
Baghdad will keep paying 5 percent of its oil revenues as war reparations, most of it to Kuwait, despite Iraq's calls for a renegotiation of those payments so it can use more of its oil money for needed development projects.
Iraq still owes Kuwait nearly e22 billion in reparations, Western diplomats said.
In February, the council said it would lift civil nuclear curbs on Iraq after it ratified a number of international agreements, including the so-called Additional Protocol, an
agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, on intrusive inspections.
The council on Wednesday lifted the restrictions even though Iraq's parliament has yet to ratify the IAEA protocol.
The United States holds the rotating Security Council presidency this month and Vice President Joe Biden presided over the meeting.
The resolution urges Iraq to ratify that protocol and another treaty banning nuclear tests "as soon as possible." It also welcomed Baghdad's pledge to implement the Additional
Protocol as if it was already in force.
The IAEA protocol's intrusive inspection regime, aimed at smoking out secret nuclear activities, stemmed from the IAEA's discovery in 1991 of Iraq's clandestine atom bomb program.
The resolution on weapons of mass destruction includes a clause requiring a review in 12 months of "progress made by Iraq on its commitment to ratify the Additional Protocol ... and meet its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/internat...ogram-1.330807

Good post. This will only strengthen the bargaining power of iran.

All of the above are major steps in the RIGHT direction...thanks for all the info...great stuff right there...GO DINARS...Pat

Iraq to lose UN protections on oil money
http://www.iraqoilreport.com/busines...il-money-5226/

Iraq has six months to come to payment terms with creditors and countries to which it owes at least $22 billion before the UN lifts the immunity that has protected Iraq from becoming financially insolvent.
In the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Iraq is still subject to old debts and reparations claims. The immunity, first granted in 2003 by the UN, has been given one-year extensions since 2006, as Iraq’s new politicians, facing a deluge of violence and reconstruction needs, have strug…

China backs UN resolutions on lifting sanctions on Iraq
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday voiced its support for the new UN resolutions on lifting major sanctions against Iraq, and called on all parties in the country to foster national reconciliation through political dialogue and consultation.
The statement came as Li Baodong, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, was speaking at an open Security Council meeting on Iraq, which adopted three resolutions to terminate major sanctions against Iraq, lift the restrictions on the Iraqi civilian nuclear program and end the oil-for-food program.
"China welcomes the adoption by the Security Council of resolutions which lift the sanctions imposed according to Chapter 7 of the Charter regarding the mass destructive weapons, missiles and civilian nuclear activities, which conclude the oil-for-food program and provide for appropriate arrangements relating to the development fund for Iraq," Li said.
The ambassador expressed hope that Iraq will seize the opportunity to speed up peaceful reconstruction process, and become an active force in maintaining regional peace and stability.
He also commended the efforts made by the Iraqi government and people in stabilizing the overall situation in the country. China "supports the Iraqi people in determining the future of their country autonomously," he stressed.
"Iraq is still confronted with a complex security situation. China condemns the terrorists attacks that have occurred recently in the country. We support the government and people of Iraq in their effort to preserve national security," said Li.
Li also encouraged Iraq to enhance dialogue and cooperation with regional neighbors, find an appropriate solution to outstanding issues in a common effort to preserve regional peace and stability.
"We understand and support Iraq's aspiration for complete reintegration into the international community," said the ambassador.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english201...c_13650737.htm

Changan Auto, Sansteel MinGuang, Sinoma: China Equity Preview

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...y-preview.html

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may have unusual price changes in China trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are as of yesterday’s close.
The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of China’s stock exchanges, lost 0.5 percent to 2,898.14. The CSI 300 Index declined 0.5 percent to 3,230.67.
China Vanke Co. (000002 CH) and Poly Real Estate Group Co. (600048 CH): China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said will continue to curb investment and speculative demand for property, and strengthen the regulations on the real estate market from next year through 2015. Vanke, the country’s largest developer by market value, rose 1 percent to 8.43 yuan. Poly Real Estate, the second biggest, climbed 1.2 percent to 12.53 yuan.
China Shenhua Energy Co. (601088 CH): The company said its November coal sales gained 32 percent to 27.8 million metric tons from a year earlier. The nation’s largest coal producer fell 0.4 percent to 25.10 yuan.
Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. (000625 CH): The Chinese partner of Ford Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. said it received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to sell as much as 465 million additional shares. The stock lost 1.4 percent to 10.57 yuan.
Sansteel MinGuang Co. (002110 CH): Parent Fujian Sangang (Group) Co. will be taken over by Angang New Co. The plan is subject to approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Shares gained 10 percent to 11.68 yuan on Dec. 7 before trading was suspended. The stock will resume trading today.
Sinoma International Engineering Co. (600970 CH): The company said its unit in Suzhou had been awarded a $112.5 million contract for a cement project in Iraq. The shares dropped 1.2 percent to 35.32 yuan.

Iraq business elite flourish in Jordan safe haven

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6BE31L20101215

(Reuters) - In the luxury of his smart office in a Jordanian duty free zone, Iraqi entrepreneur Sahib Al-Haddad takes orders for his new milk powder factory from merchants in Baghdad.
Visitors are met by a painting of Iraq's once mighty Tigris river and lush palm trees, hundreds of miles from Al-Haddad's factory in the dusty Jordanian re-export zone.
Al-Haddad, from a prominent Iraqi Shi'ite merchant family, reminisces about his childhood in Najaf and the decades of war, sanctions and isolation which followed. But although violence is decreasing back home and the economy slowly recovering, he says his Crescent Company for Milk Products is staying in Jordan.
"Iraq is still not a secure market," he said in his factory, located on the main land route linking the neighbouring Arab states. "We will never move out of Jordan, but maybe we will expand from Jordan to Iraq."
Thousands of Iraqi businessmen took refuge in Jordan in the 1990s, when their country was crippled by U.S. bombing and United Nations economic sanctions following its invasion of Kuwait. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 brought more turmoil.
The duty free zone in Zarqa, on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital Amman, expanded as Jordan became a safe haven for Iraqi businesses from construction firms to restaurants specialising in Iraq's famed fish dish -- Masqouf.
Many wealthy Iraqis have set up joint ventures in Jordan with international companies to supply their country with products and services. Some have expanded from that base to do business across the Middle East.
Iraqi investors who poured billions of dollars into the Jordanian economy in the last two decades include the Khawam brothers, traders and industrialists who were backed by Saddam Hussein, major hotelier Jawad Kasab, and the prominent Bunnia merchant family.
BUSINESS "NEEDS STABILITY"
Only a handful of businessmen are considering reopening industries closed after the crushing sanctions imposed for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait -- in contrast to major oil firms who have moved quickly to establish a presence in the country which sits on some of the world's largest oil reserves.
Lacking the security resources of the big oil companies, Iraq's family-owned businesses are more vulnerable to the ethnic and sectarian strife which still plagues their country.
Nabil Rassam, head of Nabil Company for Food Products, whose family business emerged as a top regional meat processing firm two decades after sanctions hit their Baghdad operations, says Iraq remains a risky place for business.
"When security prevails and there is electricity we can do something. It's not easy now to succeed in Iraq, you need stability," said Rassam, a Christian Iraqi.
The Nabil brand has become a household name in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon as well as Iraq -- although its factories inside Iraq have been closed for years.
Its main Jordan operations have recently been expanded to triple production of high quality processed frozen meat to 90 tonnes daily. Their exports go to the Gulf and include markets in Europe and the United States.
Several Iraqi businessmen in Jordan have won subcontracting work with the oil firms in Iraq. But although they travel between the two countries, most are wary of moving permanently.
Even if security improves, big hurdles to business in Iraq remain with infrastructure degraded by decades of war and sanctions, underinvestment and an economy struggling with inadequate power generation.
UNCERTAIN FUTURE
The Iraqi business class have created their own ambience in the Jordanian capital and their mansions dot Amman's exclusive residential areas.
Land registry figures rank Iraqis on top of the list of non-Jordanian property buyers, spending over $250 million in the last ten months of this year.
Iraqi arrivals brought in billions of dollars into property assets or Jordanian stocks. They now constitute a substantial chunk of the country's 18 billion dinars (£15.9 billion) of deposits in the banking system.
But some businessmen say Jordan may be losing its appeal, citing tough visa and residency rules that triggered a capital flight to more attractive destinations in Dubai and Lebanon. Stifling bureaucracy has also scared off Iraqi investors.
"We have long told our Jordanian brothers that you should do more to attract businessmen instead of making them flee to other places," said Abbas Shamara, a prominent Iraqi business leader whose group has diverse utilities and energy related holdings.
Jordanian banks were also losing business to Lebanese banks who won over Iraqi firms hungry for capital, filling the vacuum left by an Iraqi banking sector that remains largely isolated from world financial markets and offers little credit.
"We deterred many Iraqi investors. If we had acted more wisely we would have attracted at least triple the investments that have come from Iraq," said Ziyad Basha, a Jordanian business consultant who advises leading Iraqi firms.

OPEC Members Exceeded Targets, as Oil Rallies Toward $100 a Barrel
http://www.financialfeed.net/opec-me...barrel/851213/

OPEC is violating its production quotas at its highest since 2004, an indication that the world’s largest suppliers can pump more crude in 2011 as oil picks up at $100 a barrel.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries except Iraq produced 26.78 million barrels a day this year, going beyond the limits by an average of 1.934 million a day, the most in six years. Crude climbed 11 percent in 2010 as demand improved, amounting to $90 for the first time since 2008. Options to purchase at $100 next December are almost at a five-month high.
The 12-member group supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil. Breaching quotas increased revenues without affecting the goals set up for the first global recession since World War II caused prices to plunge 78 percent. According to experts the rally may lead the OPEC to increase output in 2011 without changing quotas during a meeting in Quito, Ecuador this weekend.
Leo Drollas, director and chief economist at the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London, who is also a market researcher of former Saudi Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani, $100 is definitely a lever. We can already hear bells ringing. If this persists, in a cold winter, we can expect price soaring up to $100. At some point even the Saudis will realize there’s something going on here, and eventually, they will respond.
Since December 2008, OPEC has sustained a production target of 24.845 million barrels a day. It was the longest period that quotas have been unmoved since they were first used in 1982. Bloomberg data shows that the 11 members pumped 26.7 million barrels a day last month exceeding quotas at 1.9 million.
Wall Street is accelerating its price predictions for next year after crude achieved $90.76 a barrel, the highest level since Oct. 8, 2008, on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Dec. 7. Futures for January delivery settled at $87.79 a barrel on Dec. 10. Oil climbed 37 percent from being low through May 20 of this year, though slid 40 percent from the record $147.27 on July 11, 2008.
According to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Dec. 1, crude will reach $100 average in 2010 and $110 in 2012. Last June 2009, Goldman had forecasted oil would rally to $85 by the end of last year, though that level did not push through until April of 2010. On Dec. 3, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said oil will average $93 in 2011 exceeding estimates of $89.75, and will be $120 before the end of 2012.
According to analysts at JPMorgan led by Lawrence Eagles in New York, as written on Dec. 3, OPEC will sequentially need more revenue to compensate increasing social, investment and energy outlays. If the world economy can endure it, they will let the acceptable price range to head up both in 2011 and 2012.
Investors’ options to buy December 2011 futures at $100 jumped $7.10 on Dec. 7, the highest price since August, as stated in the Nymex data. Average is $6.39 this year, with 44,981 outstanding contracts, the largest open oil-option contract in New York.
According to Francisco Blanch, head of commodity research at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in New York in report released Oct. 17 that higher prices are a tax on consumers that may impede growth. Every $10-a barrel increase results to $42 billion additional cost of U.S. imports, $49 billion in Europe, $19 billion in China and $16 billion to Japan, Blanch said.
Within two weeks that oil is priced at $100 a barrel would get more consumer-nation pressure on OPEC to boost production, according to Ann-Louise Hittle, a senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie in Boston. Their utmost concern is to save economic delivery that is underway from further damage.
American consumers are at the highest level of confidence in six months than the December forecast as they spend more during the holiday season. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment climbed to 74.2 from the late November rate of 71.6.
OPEC nation stockpiles dropped suddenly during the third quarter at 11.5 million barrels compared with a five-year average gain of 38.6 million for that period, according to the International Energy Agency. In a Dec. 10 report of the Paris-based agency, last quarter demand growth was volatile but remarkably strong in North America.
In the monthly Oil Market Report of IEA, OPEC may come under pressure to increase supply to the market in the new year because of a much stronger-than-expected global oil demand growth and two-year high oil prices.
A backward movement was noted when futures price of crude for soonest delivery is more expensive than for later period, which signals that oil will move higher, as stated by Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank AG. Sieminski, who lifted his 2011 average estimate from $80 to $87.50, wrote in Washington on Dec. 3 that slipping inventories make rallies “more sustainable.”
For December 2011, crude settled at $89.79 a barrel on the Nymex on Dec. 10, 87 cents more than December 2012 futures. It was 87 cents lower than the 2012 contract on Nov. 30.
At the seventh OPEC meeting in Quito two days ago, quotas remained unchanged and will meet next June. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters that $70 to $80 is a good and appropriate price level. However, Abdalla El-Badri, the organization’s secretary-general, said that an increase to $100 may denote that something is wrong with fundamentals in the market and may lead OPEC to move.
When asked by reporters after the Dec. 11 meeting, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, said that $100 dollar is “fair” with anticipation of reaching that level next year.
According to Wood Mackenzie’s Hittle, Iran, which can accelerate output as fast as other countries, will be aided by higher prices rather than production increase while, Venezuela, which incurs more expensive cost of drilling due to heavy crude deposits.
The 54 percent of OPEC’s supply capacity expansion in the six years ending 2015 will be attributed to Iraq, replacing Iran as Saudi Arabia’s largest producer, said IEA.
Chief Executive Officer Khalid Al-Falih said in Dubai on Dec. 8, the world’s largest oil company owned by the state, Saudi Aramco will start producing 500,000 barrels a day from its Manifa field in 2013. Saudi can pump 12.08 million barrels a day, of which it is now using 8.3 million barrels a day, according to IEA data.
Torbjoem Kjus, senior oil-market analyst at Dnb NOR in Oslo said, he doesn’t think Saudi Arabia will start to eat out of the extra capacity until inventories go lower than the five-year average or until oil prices are more than $100 a barrel.
Members of OPEC include Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Iraq is quota exempted.
In response to the recession, the group concurred on a record 4.2 million barrel a day supply limit at the end of 2008. It is estimated that adherence to that agreement maxed out at 89 percent in March 2009 and was 56 percent last month.
Sieminski said, they could upgrade the quotas by 1.5 million barrels a day and theoretically, it wouldn’t matter. He said it wouldn’t change anything, adding that they’d still be producing more than their goals.