Erbil Welcomes Tehran Deal with US-led Bloc
By RUDAW
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has welcomed the preliminary deal between Iran and a group of five countries led by the United States.
“The Kurdistan Regional Government welcomes the initial agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the P5 + 1 countries, comprising the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany,” said a statement posted on the KRG’s official website.
Despite the well-developed relations with neighboring Turkey, KRG has tried to maintain balanced ties with Iran, given Kurdistan’s landlocked geographical status and the immense influence of neighboring countries on the politics and economy of the Kurdish enclave.
Trade between the Kurdistan Region and Iran was measured at $4 billion in the first half of this year. If international sanctions against Tehran are lifted, the figure is expected to rise in the coming year.
According to Reuters, the KRG has opened a second route for its oil exports, trucking crude to Iran’s southern Bandar Imam Khomeini export terminal with the aim of selling an estimated 30,000 barrels per day to Asian markets.
The KRG statement said that Erbil considered the Geneva deal as “positive,” and hoped that it would contribute to peace in the region.
“The KRG hopes that this initial agreement about the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program marks the start of a process towards a final agreement between the two sides that will achieve peace and stability in the region,” the statement added.
Tehran stuck the deal with the six-country bloc last week. The agreement stipulates that Tehran must halt uranium enrichment in return for removing certain economic sanctions by Western countries.
Iran has shown great interest in the politics of the Kurdistan Region. Senior officials from Tehran have visited Kurdistan since the September 21 parliamentary elections, reportedly over Iranian concerns about a poll rout suffered by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which has close ties to the Islamic Republic
Tehran also wants a smooth leadership change within the PUK, which has been rudderless since its leader Jalal Talabani suffered a stroke in December last year and has been recuperating in Germany ever since.
Iran and the autonomous Kurdistan Region share a long border, with several key crossings for trade, business and travel. Kurdistan hosts thousands of Iranian Kurds, working in various skilled and unskilled jobs.
The latest daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq on the30-Nov-2013.The results were as follows:
Details Notes
Number of banks 18
Auction price selling dinar / US$ 1166
Auction price buying dinar / US$ -----
Amount sold at auction price (US$) 168,539,000
Amount purchased at Auction price (US$) -----
Total offers for buying (US$) 168,539,000
Total offers for selling (US$)
Exchange rates
U.S. Dollar (USD) 1,160.8000 U.S. $ 1 = 1,160.8000 Iraqi dinars
1 Iraqi Dinar = U.S. $ 0.0009 1,162.1200 U.S. $ 1 = 1,162.1200 Iraqi dinars
1 Iraqi Dinar = U.S. $ 0.0009 -0.11%
Najeeb attributes delay in sending financial statements to parliament to armed groups, corruption
Saturday, 30 November 2013 13:50
Baghdad (AIN) –MP, Najeeba Najeeb, of the Parliamentary Finance Committee attributed the delay in sending the financial statements to the armed groups and the corruption in the governmental institutions.
Speaking to All Iraq News Agency (AIN), she said "The terrorist attacks have a direct affect on the delay of sending the financial statements to the parliament where the corruption and the unqualified management to the governmental instructions also contribute in this delay."
MP: Stirring up violence and targeting components is a deliberate attempt to discourage them from participating in elections
30/11/2013 11:51:00
BAGHDAD / NINA / MP, of the Iraqiya coalition, Mohammad Iqbal Omar considered stirring up violence and targeting some components is a deliberate attempt to discourage them from participating in the upcoming elections.
He called all Iraqis, in a statement today, to "interaction and meaningful participation in all stages of the parliamentary elections of 2014, particularly the update registration and ensure the presence of their names."
He added," frustration and despair reached by the Iraqi citizen of the political process and the ruling personalities are deliberated and planed by some / unnamed / to discourage most of Iraqis in the upcoming elections in an attempt from those groups who are trying to control Iraq ."
It is mentioned that Baghdad and a number of provinces have seen, during the past few days, sectarian kidnappings and killings.
Mustafa Alani, a researcher on Security and Terrorism Affairs at the Gulf Center for Research, believes that al-Qaeda — despite its success in reorganizing its ranks in Iraq — still lacks strategic depth and a welcoming environment in the long run. Therefore, it is seeking to establish a more fluid entity in regions on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border to fight the military pressure it could face in Iraq by redeploying itself in the Syrian territories. The opposite would be true if it were faced by Syrian pressure. Hence, the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is a project to build a state that feeds on the failure and fragility of the governments in Iraq and Syria.
Al-Qaeda’s strategy is based on gradually controlling non-central regions especially in Anbar, northern Babylon, northern Diyala and parts of Mosul, and setting off to shake the control of the federal government in the city centers. Moreover, the organization aims at pushing the army to focus its efforts on defending those centers rather than attacking its camps.
Alani also believes that the wave of attacks that targeted Baghdad in the last several months aimed to draw the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) into the capital to facilitate the organization’s activity in the regions located in the northwest toward the Syrian border. At the same time, luring the Iraqi army into battles in the desert might lead to exposing the city centers, thus making them easy targets for huge attacks.
We can conclude that ISIS has succeeded until now in achieving a balance of its activities. On the one hand, it has increased attacks on the ISF as part of the “Soldiers' Harvest” campaign, and on the other hand, it has preserved its dormant cells in Baghdad and in city centers where the organization targets civilians — mainly by car bombs — to reduce the pressure on its strongholds and assert itself.
In an interview with Al-Arabiya television on Nov. 9, Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister and its powerful man Adnan al-Asadi said that the Iraqi government has made recent important victories in the fighting against the ISIS, whereby many of the group's leaders were arrested and its camps were disintegrated. However, Asadi pointed out that the war with the ISIS is a tough confrontation, especially since the organization is deployed in vast desert areas on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian borders, that are difficult for any army to control. It seems that the desert war with this organization will require a lot of time and resources. Moreover, it will not end unless there will be an end for repercussions of the Syrian conflict, which Asadi considers the first reason behind the re-emergence of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
It is interesting that Asadi acknowledged in the TV interview that the organization succeeded in infiltrating the ranks of the ISF. He considered that most car bomb attacks were arranged or facilitated by security personnel. This acknowledgment reveals the magnitude of the task to be addressed by the Iraqi government. ISIS is an organization that enjoys a growing professional combat ability and depends on ideologically devoted fighters and more sophisticated funding networks, composed of taxes collected from businesses in its Iraqi and Syrian strongholds, the Turkish-Syrian border crossings it has controlled and foreign donations.
More importantly, ISIS is acting in environments with tough conditions that the Iraqi army cannot endure. It is also exploiting the existing lack of trust between the army and the population. Asadi insinuated this by saying that the army has withdrawn from city centers in Anbar in response to the people’s desire.
During his visit to Washington, the Iraqi prime minister was told that, to confront al-Qaeda, he must earn the trust of the Sunni population. Maliki has been trying to do so since his return to Baghdad. He has held two meetings with Anbar officials and agreed to meet some of the protesters’ demands and promised more support for the local government of this large city where al-Qaeda has maintained a strong presence.
However, it is still too early to judge this approach and ascertain whether it represents a genuine shift or it is a mere electoral tactic. Obviously, the seasons leading up to the election are not favorable to reach substantial settlements. Moreover, creating a political environment conducive to national reconciliation may require waiting for the upcoming elections on April 2014 and their results.
It will be difficult to defeat the ISIS in Iraq if the conflict in Syria persists. This organization came to be a transnational insurgency and has thus become a regional problem that cannot be resolved for good without a real regional settlement instead of temporary truces. ISIS is a terrifying embodiment of all of the problems in a region vitiated by exclusionary regimes, political corruption, failed economies, demographic inflation and extremist ideologies. It is worth mentioning that the survival and growth of the ISIS portray the frightening future that awaits this region if the regional and local elites fail to realize the nature of the problems that allowed it to emerge in the first place.
Harith Hasan
Contributor,Iraq Pulse
Harith Hasan is an Iraqi scholar and the author of Imagining the Nation: Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq. On Twitter: @harith_hasan
Member of the Finance Committee to exclude development of the banking system by modifying the current banking law
عضو اللجنة المالية يستبعد تطوير النظام المصرفي عند تعديل قانون البنوك الحالي
30-11-2013 07:05 AM
Baghdad (newsletter). Excluded Member of the Finance Committee, MP Hassan Al-Bayati, Iraqi coalition, development of the banking system in the country when modifying the current banking law, calling the legislation a new law keeps pace with developments in international banks.
He said Al-Bayati (News Agency): the current Bank Act which initiated the era of us civil administrator Paul Bremer in 2004 laisthaml amendment being initiated in the current situation any different from a decade ago.
Added: new law on banks kept pace with developments in the work of banks in the world and encourage local banks to develop their work through the use of the most advanced systems and devices, as well as encourage investment in banking.
Confirmed: to amend the current law will be short and will not lead to the development of the banking system in the country.
The banking system in Iraq consists of forty-three banks as well as the Central Bank and distributed by property (7) and banks (30) Community Bank including (7) in addition to Islamic banks (devil) foreign banks.
Although the investment law No. 13 of 2006 has excluded investment in the banking sector of its investment in the banking sector takes its legal framework based on Central Bank Law No. 56 of 2004 and no. 94 of 2004, the minimum to establish a bank in Iraq 100 billion dinars (around 85 million dollars ).
Maliki up to Basra for the post of national housing initiative
30/11/2013 - 10:51
Alsumaria News / Basra
Arrived in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday, to the province of Basra to join the national initiative for housing.
The reporter said, "Alsumaria News", said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived this morning, to the province of Basra to the post of national housing initiative, noting that the governor of Basra Majed Nasraoui was greeted by al-Maliki.
The reporter added that al-Maliki will also visit the host clan Bani Malik actually maintain in the district of Qurna, north of Basra.
It is noteworthy that Iraq suffers from a severe housing crisis due to the increasing number of the population compared with the number of residential complexes, in addition to the inability of citizens, especially those from low-income housing units of their own, because of the high cost of land and construction materials.
Commission Kirkuk: Registration nine entities and more than 80 thousand voters happened records
30/11/2013 - 10:09
Alsumaria News / Kirkuk
Announced the election commission in the province of Kirkuk on Saturday, recording nine political entities to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and showed that while 80 thousand citizens of the people of the province happened records, confirmed that the demand for the update centers still moderate.
The director of the Office of the province Farhad Talabani said in an interview for "Alsumaria News", "The Commission has recorded nine political entities, to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections to be held on 30 April 2014," noting that "these entities has been submitted to the National Office for approval in accordance with instructions The controls for the elections. "
Talabani said that "the continuous registration of entities within the period set by the Commission," he said, adding that "the registration of coalitions and update the voter register will expire on the fifth of December next."
Talabani said that "the Commission in Kirkuk centers received 80 thousand citizens have to update their records since the tenth of the month of November this," pointing out that "the rates of uptake of voter registration centers are still moderate."
Talabani called on the citizens of Kirkuk to "the need to seize the time to review the remaining 43 centers working day from morning till evening, to receive the auditors in the center of Kirkuk, districts and areas."
The Director of the Office of Kirkuk, Farhad Talabani, announced (November 20 now), for the registration of new political entities four to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections, two of those individual entities, in addition to the Council and the Arab political entity Nazhan Jubouri.
It is noteworthy that the Vice President Khodair al issued, on the fourth of November 2013, a decree outlining the 30 of the month of April as the date for the next elections, the House of Representatives.
Washington agrees to remove the remnants of the army of Iraq
11/30/2013 0:00
Baghdad morning
The United States agreed to remove all remnants of war to its military from Iraq , according to the announcement by the Ministry of Environment .
The Director General of the Department of Affairs in the ministry of mines Isa al-Fayad for " Center Brief for the Iraqi Media Network ," that " the United States agreed with the Iraqi government to remove all mines left behind by the U.S. military ."
Fayad added that "the Ministry of Defense has 20 sweeping mines to blow up the cluster , but these are all power harrows not work for a long time ."
He pointed out that " the Ministry of Environment agreed with the defense to send all power harrows to the manufacturer for repair , a company Dokink Croatian " .
Muqtada al-Sadr: Tehran told me that it does not support a third term for the owners
Saturday, 30 October / 2 November 2013 13:06
Twilight News / revealed the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, that Iran had told him not to support the current government recognizes the head of Nuri al-Maliki for a third term.
The chest of the most outspoken critics of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, which holds responsibility for what is happening in the country of the decline in security in the scarcity of public services.
The most demanding blocs participating in the House of Representatives and the government except for a coalition of state law by failing to nominate Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to office for a third term; against the backdrop of what they called a failure in a number of files.
Sadr said in answer to a question face to him through his website I followed "Twilight News", about the support received al-Maliki for a third term, said that "the current situation predicts that the arrival of al-Maliki is not only the support of the Sadrist movement, and this is reflected in his agenda."
He said al-Sadr in his commentary on the question that an Iranian official told him not to Tehran's support for a third term for the owners.
And on the support of religious leaders that he saw al-Sadr, "The majority of the religious authorities do not intervene in such matters. Nor I think she tends to a third term for the owners."
He concluded by answering the chest, addressing the prime minister, "the oldest brother Maliki advice, let the state next to her family."
The House voted to determine the states of the three presidencies, the presidency, and the presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Council of Representatives and the presidency to two terms, but the Federal Supreme Court overturned the law.
Article (72) of the Constitution reads as follows: First, define the mandate of President four years and may be re-elected for a second term only, Second: The mandate of the President of the Republic of the end of the session the House of Representatives, "as otherwise provided in the Constitution, the mandate of the Prime Minister .
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