*** PART OF THE REALIGNMENT INTIMATED BY BGG RECENTLY ! ? ***
Sadrist movement is to choose a new head to its parliamentary bloc.
30/01/2013 13:16:00
BAGHDAD / NINA / A parliamentary source disclosed that the Ahrar bloc, of the Sadrist movement will choose today 30, Jan a new head of the bloc in the House of Representatives instead of its current president, Bahaa al-Araji.
The source said in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA / that the names of candidates to fill the position are Jaafar al-Musawi, Ali al-Timimi and Asma'a al-Musawi.
He pointed that Bahaa al-Araji will serve as vice president of the Ahrar bloc in the House of Representatives, without giving further details.
*** PERHAPS THE REASON FOR THE REMOVAL OF PROTECTION FROM ABU RISHA - TOE THE PRIME MINISTER'S " LINE " OR SUFFER CONSEQUENCES MAY BE THE MESSAGE ***
Abu Risha describes statements by Interior officials about the existence of al Qaeda in Anbar as irresponsible.
28/01/2013 17:43:00
Ramadi / NINA /--General Secretary of the Conference of Sahwa forces of Iraq, Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha described in a statement to NINA the remarks recently mad by leaders and officials of the Interior Ministry about the existence of al-Qaeda and armed groups in Anbar, as blatant evidence of failure in the management of the security file by resorting to charges ready in advance.
He added: "The Ministry of the Interior, which took over management of the security file in Anbar, especially in Fallujah after the withdrawal of the army, must guarantee the protection of the protesters, By consequence the interior ministry officials must give up of promoting lies about the return of al-Qaeda / , without working really to fight this bloody organization
Maliki holds an expanded security meeting to deal with demonstrations.
30/01/2013 14:13:00
BAGHDAD / NINA / Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has held an expanded security meeting attended by all security chiefs in the provinces.
The Iraqiya TV channel quoted a statement from the Office of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces as saying, "The meeting discussed the security situation in general and what is happening in some provinces."
The meeting stressed the "government and the armed forces' keenness to deal positively with the demonstrations and the demonstrators."
The meeting called, the security services to "take caution of those who are trying to derail the demonstrations" warning them to prejudice the public interests in any way, according to the statement.
Stop oil exports from the Kurdistan region because of a financial dispute with the Centre.
30/01/2013 11:17:00
BAGHDAD / NINA / Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kurdistan region have stopped oil exports from the region, due to a financial dispute with the central government.
The Minister of Natural Resources, Ashti Hawrami said in a press statement that "Oil exports had not left the region for some time," accusing the central government of reneging on its promises to oil entitlements.
Hawrami added: "The province is negotiating with international companies to manage oil concession areas and the result will be announced within a month."
The Kurdistan Regional Government announced, on 26 December last year, falling oil exports sharply from the region, due to the continuing financial dispute with the central government in Baghdad.
He provincial government spokesman said "The companies operating in the region are halted exports because the government does not pay dues of $ 350 billion dinars."
Mahmoud Othman confirms politicians' inability to solve the current crisis.
30/01/2013 10:26:00
BAGHDAD / NINA / The independent MP, of the Kurdistan Alliance, Mahmoud Othman said that the politicians are unable to resolve the current crisis in country," noting that "they failed to achieve solutions to the problems and crises between the demonstrators and the government on one hand, and between the political blocs on the other."
He hoped in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA / that the conferences of clans' elders, held recently, to find positive solutions to the political crisis, "expecting that tribal leaders and clerics have the ability to defuse the current crisis," noting that" the clerics and tribal leaders have strong and wide influence on the citizens more that politicians, thus they could solve the country's problems. "
He added: "The initiative of President Jalal Talabani in the collection the political parties at the dialogue table is still exists, but it needs to be activated by his deputy Khudair Khuzaie, to reach solutions to the outstanding problems among the blocs."
It is mentioned that two conferences of Iraqi Tribes in Najaf and another in Baghdad under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior warned politicians to exploit the legitimate demonstrations, confirming that the unity of Iraq is a red line, rejected dividing.
The Conference of Najaf said in its final statement that "The unity of Iraq and Iraqi blood are red lines cannot be overcome."
Bahr al-Ulum: Government steps resolve the crisis positive but very slow
01/30/2013 | (Voice of Iraq) - Add a comment -
Baghdad / follow justice said former oil minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum said the Iraqi government needs to make more effort on the subject of meeting the demands of the demonstrators constitutional. Uloum said in a press statement on Tuesday that "there were positive steps made by the ministerial committee to consider the demands of the detainees but must be the committee's work faster to meet the largest number of demands of the masses legitimate. " and called on the government to "invest time and find solutions to end the crisis in order to prevent aggravation and turn it into a sectarian war." and demanded "remove irregularities that come from some security agencies in dealing with the demonstrators and restraint uncle dragged behind sectarian strife. " He said, "There are demands illegal can not be achieved in particular with regard to cancel the general amnesty law and the law of accountability and justice because these laws need to be a political consensus in order to pass the House of Representatives." and saw Falluja east of the city of Ramadi, Anbar province last Friday clashes between demonstrators and troops army, killing many according to different sources.
Allawi meets with some of foreign ambassadors in Iraq, separately.
30/01/2013 15:06:00
BAGHDAD / NINA / The head of the Iraqiya coalition, Iyad Allawi discussed with a number of foreign ambassadors in Iraq the current Iraqi crisis.
An Iraqiya statement issued today 30, Jan , said that Allawi received, separately a number of foreign ambassadors, including the ambassadors of Turkey, Canada, Australia and Sweden and "discuss with them the current Iraqi crisis and the seriousness of the situation in the region."
Allawi stressed, in his meetings with the ambassadors, "The Iraqiya coalition's keenness to achieve the national unity and put an end to the policies of marginalization, the citizens suffered and the need to avoid and protect Iraq from the repercussions of the situation in the region".
*** the business of iraq is oil - they continue to do business ***
Oil Ministry signs contract to develop 9th Exploration area
27/01/2013 21:02:00
Baghdad (NINA) – The Ministry of Oil signed a contract with the Kuwaiti (Kuwait Energy) and the UAR (Dragon) companies to develop the 9th Exploration area in Basra.
A statement issued on Sunday, Jan. 27, by the Ministry of Oil said that the final contract signed with Kuwait Energy and Dragon Alliance to develop the 9th Exploration area, within the 4th Licensing Round.
The Ministry's Spokesman, Asim Jihad, said that the Contractor will carry out bi-dimensional seismic survey and determine its contents.
With this contract, the Ministry has signed four contracts to develop four explorations areas to determine their contents.
[B]Khanaqin holds the Ministry of Planning responsibility not to carry out any service project in 2012
Today at 9:52 am
Khanaqin holds the Ministry of Planning responsibility not to carry out any service project in 2012 .Wednesday, January 30 2 / January 2013 10:02 . Twilight News /'s administration, Khanaqin, Wednesday, the Ministry of Planning in the federal government responsible for not implementing any service project last year despite the allocation of more than 28 billion dinars, while suggesting the presence of a number of projects stalled since 4 years.
The head of the Council of Khanaqin local Samir Mohammed Noor, said in an interview for "Twilight News", that "the local government has not implemented any project in the city, despite the allocation of 28 billion and 800 million dinars counterbalance last year due to the delay in the ratification of the project by the Ministry of Planning and the arrival of budgets in the final third of each year which made all the districts and the areas maintain Tharbaharman and lack of service projects. "
He Nour said that "administration Khanaqin no longer any project for 2013 for not identifying budget elimination for next year and the reluctance of the implementation of projects in previous years," referring to "delay work on projects started working out three years ago and exceed cost 5 billion dinars."
Noor noted that "Kurdistan spent about 60 billion dinars since 2003 until 2011 to implement service projects in Khanaqin," adding that "the provincial government has not implemented any project in the city during 2012."
And called Noor Governments of Diyala province of Kurdistan to "allocate special budgets for the reconstruction of the city of Khanaqin, which was heavily hit by acts of displacement and localization practiced by the former regime in the city."
Nouri stressed "the need to give Khanaqin maturity of the financial allocations equivalent to the size of the damage and destruction suffered by the city and the population explosion witnessed after 2003 after the return of the deportees to the city and the high number of residents from 30 to about 200 thousand people."
Khanaqin witnessed a population explosion after 2003 as the number of its population of 35 thousand people ÇáÇě about 220 thousand people, after the return of the deportees and displaced persons and displaced Kurdish families from hot areas to eliminate an area of 2794 km 2.
The Khanaqin second largest oil city in the northern part of Iraq after the city of Kirkuk, and contain an oil field border shared with Iran and the refinery Lalonde, who stopped by the Iraqi government work there because of the war with Iran, are also available in the elimination of large areas for the cultivation of major crops such as grain, maize, in addition to minor crops Kalkhaddrawat and oilseeds, with a number of orchids كالحمضيات and palm trees.
Analysis: Arab Spring diverts part of Gulf petrodollar flows
Location: Vermont
DUBAI (Reuters) - At an economic summit of Arab leaders in Riyadh last week, Saudi Arabia's crown prince called for a minimum 50 percent increase in the capital of a fund that lends money for development projects around the region.
Prince Salman, next in line to the Saudi throne, said the kingdom was ready to pay its share in any expansion of the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, now capitalized at 2 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($7.1 billion).
The pledge illustrated a shift in the way Gulf Arab states are deploying the hundreds of billions of dollars which they earn annually through oil exports: More of the money is being used in their own countries and inside the region, rather than being invested automatically in Western markets.
Both push factors and pull factors are at work, said Shawkat Hammoudeh, a former economist with the Kuwait-based Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries who studies petrodollar flows at Drexel University in the United States.
The U.S. credit crisis of 2008-2009 and the 2010-2012 euro zone debt crisis have made the Gulf states more wary of investment in the West, traditionally the place where they park the vast bulk of their petrodollars.
Meanwhile, the Arab Spring uprisings over the past couple of years are diverting some petrodollars to the Middle East. Although most of the Gulf states escaped serious unrest, the political turmoil persuaded Gulf leaders of the need to spend more of their wealth on buying social peace in the region.
The changes in petrodollar flows are gradual. Markets outside the West won't become deep enough to absorb the bulk of the Gulf's money for years. Gulf countries' currency pegs to the U.S. dollar mean it makes sense for them to buy dollar assets.
But the fund shifts could eventually slow Western markets that have been lubricated for decades by flows of money from the Gulf. Petrodollars could also bring Arab states closer together diplomatically - a goal that governments have proclaimed for decades but struggled to achieve without economic integration.
"The changes in the distribution of the petrodollar savings have implications for the stability of the global financial markets and international trade," said Hammoudeh.
MONEY FLOWS
High global oil prices mean the Gulf is swimming in petrodollars. A measure of that is the region's combined current account balance, its surplus in trade of goods and services.
The six states in the Gulf Cooperation Council - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman - posted a record surplus of about $350 billion last year, more than 80 percent larger than China's surplus, the International Monetary Fund estimates.
Traditionally, petrodollars earned by the Gulf's state-owned oil industries are deposited at their central banks, which invest many of them in safe international instruments such as U.S. Treasury bonds. Some of the money is sent to the Gulf's sovereign wealth funds, which invest it actively in foreign assets. Some ends up being used for government spending.
Although new flows of petrodollars into Western markets aren't stopping, there are signs that a larger proportion of the money is being diverted to other destinations.
Asian oil exporters - a group dominated by the GCC countries - held $426.5 billion of long-term U.S. securities in September, up from $345.9 billion a year earlier, latest U.S. Treasury data shows. While that is a large rise in absolute terms, the increase accounts for only a small fraction of the GCC's current account surplus.
U.S. banking liabilities to Asian oil exporters, an indicator of Gulf deposits in U.S. banks, were flat at around $130 billion last year after growing steadily for most of the past decade, according to the U.S. Treasury.
The secrecy surrounding Gulf central banks and sovereign wealth funds means there is no comprehensive data for the GCC's investment in Europe. But commercial bankers in the Gulf say privately that it is smaller than U.S. investment, and that it slowed in the past several years as the euro zone crisis hit.
Instead of going to the West, some petrodollars are now being spent on other Arab states, in an effort to support their economies and restore political stability after the Arab Spring.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia, for example, have provided a combined $9 billion of financial aid to Egypt since its revolution in early 2011. Aid is also flowing from the richest to the poorest states within the GCC; Bahrain and Oman have each been promised $10 billion over 10 years from other GCC members.
Ayham Kamel, Middle East analyst at New York-based consultancy Eurasia Group, said that in addition to official aid, he expected Gulf governments to press their prominent businessmen to invest more in needy Arab countries.
"Arab leaders hope that they can use their sovereign wealth funds and government investment arms to increase regional business cooperation," he said after last week's Riyadh summit.
BUDGETS
Domestic spending is also demanding more of the Gulf's oil wealth. Military expenditure has been rising, partly because of tensions over Iran's nuclear program.
Defense spending by GCC countries climbed about 9 percent to $74 billion last year, estimated Nicole Loeser, Middle East analyst at U.S.-based consultants Forecast International. She predicts it will hit $86 billion in 2017.
These amounts are dwarfed, however, by Gulf states' rising spending on welfare and job creation, to preserve social peace, and on developing non-oil parts of their economies, in the hope of becoming less vulnerable to the next oil price downturn.
The Saudi government said last month that it planned to spend a record 820 billion riyals ($219 billion) in 2013, up 19 percent from the 690 billion riyals budgeted for 2012.
Rising spending is pushing Saudi Arabia and other GCC states closer to the point at which they will no longer run budget surpluses, even with high oil prices. At that point, most newly earned petrodollars may have to be spent at home, rather than invested abroad.
Analysts polled by Reuters estimate Saudi Arabia will need a Brent crude oil price of $82.50 a barrel this year to balance its budget. That is well below the current market price of around $110, but up sharply from $74.80 last year.
But Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf made clear at the Riyadh summit that he did not feel pressure to slow spending.
"We have the reserves, as well as we are reducing our debt almost to zero. So we can continue in the medium term and even beyond that," he told reporters.
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