Iraq is fifth in the world in oil reserves, the cheapest to extract and the most profitable

Shafaq News / Iraq’s oil reserves accounted for 8.4 percent of the world’s reserves, in addition to the cheapest extraction, according to the British company BP.

The company said, in a report seen by Shafaq News agency, that “Iraq’s oil reserves amounted to 145 billion barrels,” indicating that “these reserves constitute 8.4 percent of the world’s oil reserves.”

And she indicated that “Venezuela ranked first with the largest oil reserves in the world, with an amount of 303.8 billion barrels, which constitutes 17.5 percent of the world’s reserves, followed by Saudi Arabia with 297.5 billion barrels, and then Canada came third with 168.1 billion barrels, and then Iran came fourth with 157.8 billion barrels, and Iraq came fourth. Fifth, then Russia came sixth with 107.8 billion barrels, Kuwait came seventh with 101.5 billion barrels, then the UAE came eighth with 97.8 billion barrels, then the United States came ninth with 68.8 billion barrels, and Libya came in tenth place with 48.4 billion barrels.

She explained that “Venezuela has the largest amount of oil reserves in the world with more than 300 billion barrels in reserve, but most of its oil is in the sea or underground and is considered dense, so the cost of extracting oil in Venezuela’s reserves using the technology currently available is too high to be profitable, indicating that the oil reserves in Iraq and Saudi Arabia are close to the surface and on the ground, which makes access to oil more accessible and the extraction process more cost-effective and more profitable.

Shafaq.com

Iraq reels from $2.5bn tax ‘heist of the century’

Bumper fraud implicates Baghdad elite and poses challenge for new prime minister

For almost a year, armoured vehicles carrying hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dinar bills have wound their way through Baghdad’s busy streets on a weekly basis.

The trucks, laden with tax funds siphoned off from state-owned bank Rafidain, were allegedly pulling off in broad daylight what has since been dubbed Iraq’s “heist of the century”.

In all, $2.5bn was allegedly spirited away from the country’s tax authority between September 2021 and August 2022, according to the ministry of finance, a massive corruption scandal that is roiling Iraq’s hallways of power since it erupted last month.

The scandal broke days before new premier Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s government was sworn in and he has said his administration will prioritise fighting corruption, which has “so brazenly spread through the joints of the state and its institutions”. He has begun publicly purging acolytes of the former prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

But Sudani, ostensibly an independent who is backed by some of the factions alleged to be involved in the scandal, may struggle to hold to account senior members of Iraq’s political establishment.

“The fault and the liabilities go all the way to the top,” said Sajad Jiyad, a Baghdad-based fellow with The Century Foundation. “It implicates a lot of high-level players, including ministers and ex-ministers, civil servants and well-connected businessmen. So this is a political issue — we’ll see how far Sudani can go.”

Corruption in Iraq is endemic and has corroded state institutions, sanctioned by a political class that has governed the country since former president Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. The ethno-sectarian arrangement intended to foster power sharing has instead entrenched a system of horse-trading between factions competing for top government jobs and sources of patronage within ministries.

This latest fraudulent scheme is said to extend deep into the arteries of Iraq’s powerful but discordant Shia political factions, most of whom united this summer to name Sudani prime minister.

The new government is dominated by blocs linked to Iran, known as the Coordination Framework, and its affiliated militia groups, who fought against loyalists of rival Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr this summer as both sides jostled for control over government formation. Five people with knowledge of the probe said the latest scandal casts suspicion on both sides.

The scale of the fraud, which revolves around the tax authority, the central bank and the ministry of finance, emerged when the ministry of finance revealed the outcome of an internal investigation. It found that from September 2021 to August 2022, about 250 cheques were written out to five companies. They then withdrew funds held in escrow and earmarked to cover annual liabilities in accounts controlled by the tax authority at state-owned bank Rafidain.

In a public letter after the embezzlement was revealed, ex-finance minister Ali Allawi said that he had alerted Kadhimi’s office about the scheme in November 2021 and ordered payments to be halted from the accounts without his approval, but the payments continued. A former senior adviser to Kadhimi said the premier’s office had not seen “official correspondence” from Allawi about the fraud.

The companies claimed to be acting on behalf of bigger firms, including several international oil companies, according to the ministry. Three of the companies were founded in the month before the scheme began, four people with knowledge of the investigation said.

In total, the ministry said 3.7tn Iraqi dinars ($2.5bn) were withdrawn from the accounts at Rafidain — or around 2.81 per cent of the country’s 2021 budget. Some of the cash was then used to buy US currency through the daily “dollar auction” — a process in which the central bank provides dollars to a commercial bank in exchange for Iraqi dinars.

Three people with knowledge of Iraq’s banking sector said the central bank and Rafidain must have both known about the scheme because the uptick in dollars bought at auction was higher than usual and the amounts withdrawn were so large. They also said that the sheer volume of cash being moved daily in Baghdad would have required armoured trucks, implicating government security agencies.

“This thing is outrageous even by Iraqi standards,” said one of the banking industry sources. “There is simply no way nobody noticed such large amounts were being withdrawn.”

So far, the judiciary has issued travel bans against nine named suspects, including five senior civil servants at the tax authority and finance ministry and the companies’ directors.

One of them, Nour Zuhair Jassim, was detained on the tarmac trying to leave Baghdad on a private jet. Six people with knowledge of the investigation say Jassim is the central suspect and the judiciary is probing his ties to Kadhimi aides, Sadrists, and Coordination Framework leaders, including former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and paramilitary strongman Hadi Al-Amiri. At least one of Kadhimi’s advisers has been called in for questioning by the judiciary.

Investigators are also querying the role played by senior officials at the central bank and in the finance ministry. Allawi declined to comment for this story. The directors of the finance ministry and the central bank’s media offices did not respond to a request for comment.

The former senior Kadhimi adviser denied any involvement by the ex-premier, his close aides and his former oil and finance ministers in the corruption scheme. The Sadrist Movement’s political wing did not respond to a request for comment. The secretary-general of the Coordination Framework declined to comment.

The investigation is already being used to settle scores, analysts said. “Those who are corrupt and powerful succeed by using their power to target those who are weaker: often anti-corruption mechanisms are the political tool used in their targeting,” said Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House.

In a system rife with corruption and vested interests, the investigation is likely to stall, analysts said. Jiyad added: “It’s not unrealistic to expect that some heads will roll at the banks, and then the issue will quietly go away. That seems to me the obvious game plan by the political elite, who will go back to their old ways.”

Ultimately, that so many competing political factions in Iraq are alleged to be involved shows their willingness to continue to collude for financial gain. “Corruption in Iraq is the political system,” Mansour said.

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Parliamentary Finance sets the date for the arrival of the budget and its details

Information/Baghdad… A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Jamal Kougar, suggested, on Saturday, that the draft budget law will arrive within the next two weeks, indicating that the draft will be different from the laws presented for several reasons.

In a statement to Al-Maalouma, Cougar said, “The draft budget is ready and needs additional details to be in harmony with the current government’s program and plans.”

He added, “The project is in two parts, including operational, and it is known, and the numbers cannot be tampered with too much, as they pertain to the salaries and allocations of employees and the investment section. Projects, services and job grades can be added according to the government’s need.”

Cougar pointed out that “the budget will be different due to the presence of the Minister of Finance, Taif Sami, who is the most experienced in managing and implementing the budget at the head of the ministry, as well as Muhammad Shia’a Al-Sudani’s ambition to establish service projects.” Done/25 d

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The weekly rate of the central bank sales of the dollar drops 32%, and next week it may drop 40%

Yes Iraq: Baghdad – For the first time in months, the central bank’s weekly sales did not exceed 800 million dollars, after the central bank’s sales of hard currency touched an average of 1.2 billion dollars per week, which means that the central bank’s weekly sales of dollars fell by 32%, while it is hoped that The decrease over the next week will be about 40%.

According to the data of the Central Bank, it sold during the past week for the five days in which the auction was opened, and from Sunday to Thursday, 792 million and 415 thousand and 787 dollars, at a daily rate of 158 million and 483 thousand and 157 dollars.

According to that, the average daily sales was about 158 ​​million dollars per day, while it was recording more than 200 million dollars per day during the past months.

And the central bank recorded during the week preceding last week sales of more than one billion and 150 million dollars.

And the actual decline began since the beginning of November, i.e. last Tuesday, when daily sales began to record only 120 million dollars, which means that the decrease amounted to 40%, which will be recorded during the next week, as sales next week are expected to not exceed 600 million dollars. , down 25% from last week and about 45% in the preceding week.

The real decrease, which amounts to about 50 million dollars per day, appears from the decrease in cash sales only, as foreign remittances sales for the purpose of import are still stable at 150 million dollars per day, while cash sales decreased from 50 to less than 10 million dollars per day.

Perhaps this decline is due to the lack of demand for the dollar as a result of citizens’ fears of a possible drop in the dollar’s price, amid the continuation of parliamentary statements calling for a decrease in the exchange rate.

Yesiraq.com

An American magazine reveals the “shadow government” in the United States

Shafaq News / Commentator “Brian Kamenker” saw in an article in the American Thinker magazine, that Joe Biden’s actions as president of the United States only indicate that the billionaire George Soros in particular runs America through the networks of his organizations.

According to the article, Biden, who usually forgets names and suffers from “obvious dementia”, cannot independently sign “dozens of very extreme decrees” that have caused “devastating inflation”, immigration and energy crises and “terrifying” citizens.

The article added: “Everything points to the involvement of the Soros network of foundations in this. The people there are very smart and experienced, they hate America with a passion, they have aimed for it for decades, and they have access to unspeakable wealth and influence. They are more than capable of Organize all of the above.

According to the author of the article, Biden became president thanks to a large-scale coordinated effort aimed at undermining the American electoral process, during which billions of dollars and the most powerful American companies and political organizations were used.

“Looking at what’s happening now, and drawing lessons from the past, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that we are all passengers of a train rushing to hell. If we don’t stop it soon, there will be no turning back,” he said.

Shafaq.com

After the theft of the century.. another loot of 200 billion from the currency auctions

Information/private… Today, a member of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, Ali Turki Al-Jamali, revealed the value of the money that was stolen from the secretariats of companies and remittances in the process of buying the dollar from the currency auction, adding that the amount stolen so far amounted to 200 billion Iraqi dinars.

Turki said in an interview with “The Information”, that “200 billion Iraqi dinars were seized in the previous caretaker government,” stressing that “the theft took place from the funds of the companies that placed safe deposits before entering the currency auction and buying the dollar.”

He added, “In the time of the government of former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the condition for entering the auction for selling the dollar was transferred from written guarantees to financial guarantees.”

And he continued, “Some of the companies tried to retrieve these trusts, but they were shocked that their trusts had been stolen by a financial gang at the time of Al-Kazemi’s government,” noting that “all the trust funds were preserved in the governments that preceded Al-Kazemi’s government.”

This theft comes after the theft of the century, estimated at 2.7 billion dollars, from tax deposits carried out by an entire network, some of whom were arrested, as well as the theft of customs secretariats, which are now being investigated by the Public Integrity Committee and the competent authorities.

Almaalomah.me

The Central Bank’s sales have decreased by 40% since November.. One expectation may explain the reason

Yes Iraq: Baghdad – During the first days of this November, the Central Bank of Iraq sold 536 million dollars within 4 days, at a time when these amounts were equivalent to sales of only two days during the past months, which means a decrease in the percentage of central bank sales of hard currency between 40-50% since the beginning of October This November.

And the window for selling hard currency to the Central Bank showed that 151.8 million dollars were sold on Tuesday 1/11 this month, 120 million dollars on Wednesday 2/11 this month, and 128.7 million dollars on Thursday 3/11, while 135.5 million dollars were sold during an auction today. Next Sunday 6/11, according to the data of the auction on Sunday, which was conducted today, Thursday.

The total sales of the four days amounted to about 536 million dollars, which amounts were made within two or three days in the past months, which means that the Central Bank’s sales have decreased by nearly 40% since the beginning of this month.

The data show that the decrease came due to the decrease in sales of cash demand by about 80%, which can be explained by the fact that the decrease in central bank sales came due to the weak demand for the dollar by citizens, especially with fears that the price of the dollar could change in the coming days. As for foreign remittance sales for the purpose of import, they did not. change or be affected a lot.

Yesiraq.com

A new government in Iraq after more than a year of political crisis

After a year of tension that reached sometimes violent violence, Iraq finally got a new government after Parliament gave confidence to Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani and his team, who must now face many political and economic challenges.

This green light for the new government constitutes a decisive station in the path of a slow exit from a political crisis that Iraq has suffered for more than a year, that is, since the legislative elections in October 2021.

But finally, deputies in parliament , located in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, voted by an absolute majority for the new government, according to an official statement issued by Al-Sudani’s office.

Deputies voted by a majority of half plus one of 329 deputies, on the ministerial program and then on 21 ministers by show of hands inside the parliament hall in the capital during the session in which 253 deputies participated, according to the Parliament Information Service.

The new government consists of 12 Shiite ministers, the majority of whom are nominated by the coordination framework, six Sunni ministers, two Kurdish ministers, and one minister for minorities, while two ministries from the Kurdish component’s share are still under negotiation and have not yet been filled. Three women hold positions in the new government.

Al-Sudani, 52, succeeds Mustafa Al-Kazemi, who took over as prime minister in May 2020.

Prior to the start of the session, Al-Sudani said in a speech to Parliament, “Our ministerial team will address the responsibility at this stage in which the world is witnessing very large political and economic transformations and conflicts.”

Al-Sudani, a governor and former minister from the traditional Shiite political class, was commissioned on October 13 to form the government by the new President of the Republic, Abdul Latif Rashid, immediately after his election. He is the candidate of the pro-Iranian political forces involved in the coordination framework.

During the session, opposition MP Alaa Al-Rikabi of the extension movement emanating from the Tishreen protests expressed his objection to the new government, which led to a quarrel inside the hall. But the session continued after that.

After the session, al-Rikabi told reporters, “For two decades, the same parties in power have been in harmony with each other… They form quota governments that have destroyed the country.” He added, “We are against this government, and it was born… and a political opposition was born with it in the Iraqi parliament.”

Relationship with the chest

The Sadrist movement, the main opponent of the coordination framework, was not represented in this government, while its leader, the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, had previously pledged that he would not participate in it.

During the past year, the differences and tension between the two sides of the crisis, the Sadrist movement and the coordination framework, escalated dramatically. In late August, bloody violence was evident in the street, in which more than 30 al-Sadr supporters were killed in clashes with the army and the Popular Mobilization Forces, an alliance of armed factions that have become affiliated with the state and represented a large part in the coordination framework.

Professor at the University of Baghdad and head of the Center for Political Thinking, Ihsan Al-Shammari, believes that “the relationship with Al-Sadr is the most important challenge for the government of Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani, given that Al-Sadr gave pre-positions towards a government formed by the framework, towards the candidate himself.”

From here, Al-Shammari explains that Al-Sudani and the coordinating framework should “establish quick bridges with the leader of the Sadrist movement” and give them “guarantees that are reassurances on the issue of the requirements of the leader of the Sadrist movement in relation to the reform process and even holding early elections.”

If this does not happen, “the challenge will be very great” and may lead to an “extremist reaction by the leader of the Sadrist movement and even his followers”, i.e. resorting to the street again.

Al-Sudani included in the program of his new government, the clause “amending the parliamentary elections law within three months and holding early elections within a year,” one of the demands of al-Sadr, who says he is against the quota system that has dominated the way of government in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.

Political and Social crises

But what Iraqis expect from this government is a response to the political and social crises they are experiencing.

This country, which has enormous wealth in oil, suffers from a deterioration in the electricity network, while every four young people out of 10 are unemployed and a third of the population is poor.

In a statement, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq welcomed the granting of confidence to the new government, warning of “serious challenges that require decisive measures” awaiting it, such as “addressing corruption” and “the effects of climate change.”

Also, the US Ambassador to Baghdad Alina Romanovsky, in a tweet, congratulated the new government for gaining confidence and said, “We look forward to working with the new government to advance our common goals during this pivotal stage for Iraq and its people.”

In his program, Al-Sudani seeks to “address the phenomenon of unemployment and create job opportunities for young people of both sexes” and “reform the economic and financial sectors, especially the agricultural, industrial and banking sectors, and support the private sector.”

The new prime minister must also deal with the 2022 budget that has not yet been approved, allowing the benefit of 87 billion dollars of foreign currency reserves, the majority of which are from oil revenues, that lie in the central bank, awaiting a new government.

These are real challenges in a country that suffers from chronic corruption and nepotism that dominates the joints of the state, while Iraq is also facing a severe drought crisis, with the decline in rain and river levels, affecting the lives of the population.

Iraqi political analyst Ali Al-Baydar expects that the popular anger, and the anger of Muqtada al-Sadr’s supporters, will be manifested in “joint protests” between these and the “October Movement protesters”, which shook Iraq in October 2019.

Rawabetcenter.com

Al-Sudani officially receives his duties from Al-Kazemi

Shafaq News / Today, Friday, Prime Minister Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani officially assumed his duties as Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

This came during the handover ceremony with former Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, which took place today, Friday, according to a statement issued by the Iraqi government.

On Thursday, October 27, the Iraqi parliament voted on the cabinet of the new Prime Minister, Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani, after it voted by an absolute majority on his ministerial program.

Shafaq.com

Sovereignty: The Sudanese government will pass without the objection of the Sunni blocs

Information / Anbar…  The representative of the Sovereignty Alliance, Yahya al-Muhammadi, confirmed, on Thursday, that the government of Prime Minister-designate Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani will proceed without the objection of the Sunni blocs, except for the coalition’s demands to change some names, denying the existence of any tendency to boycott the session by the Sunni blocs.

Al-Muhammadi said in a statement to the “Information” agency, “The government of Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani will pass in today’s session, and there is no tendency to boycott today’s session by the Sunni blocs and parties, and no objection was registered except by the Sovereignty Alliance about changing many of the names and if Al-Sudani did not respond.” This demand may be another position of the sovereignty.”

He added, “Sunni blocs and parties did not object to the quotas of the Sunni component of six ministries, but the objection to the names and the demand from the Prime Minister-designate, Muhammad Shia, to replace them according to the demands of the leaders of the Sovereignty Alliance.”

Al-Mohammadi confirmed, “The political blocs and parties’ determination to pass the Sudanese government, and so far no boycott of the session by any of the participating parties has been recorded.” finished/ 12a

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