The Democrat Talks About An Agreement “Around The Corner” On The Presidency

Information / Baghdad… The Kurdistan Democratic Party confirmed, on Monday, that discussions have reached a very advanced stage with the Patriotic Union on agreeing on the personality of the President of the Republic, indicating that the agreement is close to being announced in the coming days.

The leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, MP Mahma Khalil, said in a statement to “The Information”, that “Pavel Talabani’s meeting with Nechirvan Barzani and Massoud Barzani reached a great rapprochement in the issue of choosing a Kurdish figure for the presidency of the republic,” stressing that “the talks have reached a very advanced stage with the Union.” the National ” .

He added that “the discussions between the Kurdish parties at the highest levels succeeded in removing the candidate from the national space and not exclusively in a specific party, and therefore it facilitated the process of reaching an agreement,” noting that “the agreement is just around the corner from announcing in the coming days.”

The head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party bloc in the Iraqi parliament, Vian Sabri, confirmed earlier that negotiations are underway, and the next session will not decide the position of the President of the Republic. finished / 25 AD

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Iraq is among the largest foreign holders of US Treasury bonds

Shafaq News / The US Treasury Department announced, on Monday, that Iraq has become one of the major foreign holders of US Treasury bonds.

The Treasury said in its latest schedule, seen by Shafak News Agency, that “Iraq has become among the 35 largest countries that have possession of US Treasury bonds than those that have bonds with a value of more than 30 billion dollars.”

And she added, “Iraq’s possession of these bonds amounted to 32.9 billion dollars for the month of May, an increase of 36.51 percent over the month of January of 2022, and an increase of 57.42 percent over the same month of last year 2021.”

She pointed out that “Iraq was the fourth largest Arab country in terms of the value of bonds after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, while Japan came at the top of the countries with the largest value of these bonds, followed by China second and the United Kingdom third,” indicating that the total US bonds owned by the countries of the world amounted to 7 trillion. and $421 billion.

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The Coordination Framework officially announces the candidacy of Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani for prime minister

Shafaq News / On Monday, the coordination framework officially announced the selection of Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani as a candidate for prime minister.

The framework stated in a statement that the selection of Al-Sudani came during a meeting “in a positive atmosphere, where the leaders of the coordination framework unanimously agreed on the nomination.”

Al-Sudani is one of the leaders of the Islamic Dawa Party. He ran several ministries in successive governments, and was nominated by Nuri al-Maliki to head the new government.

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Khoshnaw: The Union Has Never Proposed An Alternative Name For Barham Salih For The Presidency

The Information/Baghdad… A member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Mahmoud Khoshnaw, confirmed that the Union has never proposed any alternative figure to Barham Salih to run for the post of President of the Republic, pointing out that Salih will remain the only candidate for the Union for this position and no other figure will be presented.

Khoshnaw told Al-Maalouma, “The talk about putting up the name Rashid Latif as an alternative to Barham Salih as a candidate for the presidency, is nothing but poison in honey and a baseless talk.”

He added, “The National Union is insisting on presenting its candidate, Barham Salih, for the presidency, whether a consensual, settlement or competitive candidate, as the Union will not change it in any way.”

And he indicated that “the Union opened all its doors to the Democratic Party in order to discuss the position of the President of the Republic, as Barham Salih was nominated through mechanisms within the National Union and in agreement with the rest of the Kurdish forces that respect the will of the Union.”

Khoshnaw pointed out that “the Union retains its candidate for the presidential post, whether in agreement with the Democrat or by putting it forward as a competitive candidate in Parliament.”

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Barzani leaves Baghdad empty-handed: No agreement is expected on oil

The visit of Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani to Baghdad did not succeed in achieving any breakthrough in the oil and gas file, despite statements by Iraqi officials that were not without diplomacy in terms of stressing the importance of strengthening the dialogue approach to reach a settlement.

Baghdad – Kurdish political circles said that the visit of the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani to Baghdad, did not result in any actual breakthroughs in the contentious issues between the two parties, especially with regard to the oil and gas file, in light of the two parties’ adherence to their position.

These circles warn that the continuation of disputes between Baghdad and Erbil over oil and gas will have serious repercussions, as it disrupts the investment climate in this sector, especially with a number of Western companies expressing their intention to withdraw and some of them announcing the suspension of new projects they intended to undertake within the region.

On Saturday, Barzani moved to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on his second visit since taking office nearly three years ago, as the oil and gas file topped the visit’s agenda. The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, which has enjoyed autonomy since the 1990s, held meetings with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, and the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Faiq Zaidan.

A statement issued by Al-Kazemi’s office announced that it was agreed to “deepen dialogues between the Federal Ministry of Oil and the Ministry of Natural Resources in the region, to address outstanding issues, continue work to reach common solutions, and achieve a state of integration in managing the oil file.”

After his meeting with Barzani, who was also attended by the head of the Sunni resolve alliance, Khamis al-Khanjar, the Speaker of the House of Representatives considered that the opportunity is favorable to resolve all differences and outstanding issues between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, including the issue of oil and gas.

On the other hand, Barzani did not issue any position on his visit to Baghdad, and the Kurdish political circles clarified that this is due to the fact that the visit of the Prime Minister of Kurdistan was not up to expectations, as the central authority in Baghdad adheres to its vision of a settlement based on the implementation of a court decision. The Federal Supreme Council last February, which provides for the delivery of oil produced on the territory of Kurdistan to the central government, granting Baghdad the right to review and cancel oil contracts with the region.

The Federal Court, which is the highest judicial authority in Iraq, considered at the time that the law approved in Kurdistan in 2007 to regulate the oil and gas sector was contrary to the constitution.

The Kurdistan Oil Law stipulates that “the Ministry of Oil in the region or whoever it authorizes is responsible for organizing and supervising oil operations… as well as all activities related to them, including oil marketing, as well as negotiating and concluding agreements and implementing all licenses, including oil contracts concluded by the regional government.” .

The law states that the Iraqi government has the right to “participate in the management” of the fields discovered before 2005, but the fields discovered after that belong to the regional government.

The Iraqi central authority refuses to recognize this law, and the decision issued by the Federal Court has formed a strong support in the legal confrontation with the region, which seems to be heading towards escalation.

Based on a lawsuit submitted by the Iraqi Oil Ministry, a court in Baghdad in early July canceled four contracts between the Kurdistan region and Canadian, American, British and Norwegian companies.

It is also possible that the cancellation will affect three other foreign companies, the decision on which is expected to be decided by the same court, as a senior official in the oil sector in Baghdad warned in an interview with Agence France-Presse, preferring to remain anonymous.

According to a statement by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil issued earlier this month, the American oil field service companies, “Schlumberger”, “Baker Hughes” and “Halliburton” pledged that they would comply with the ruling of the Federal Supreme Court and withdraw from the Kurdistan region.

The ministry statement added that the three companies confirmed that they will not start new projects in the semi-autonomous region, and that they are in the process of “liquidating and closing existing tenders and contracts.”

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil had appointed the international law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton to communicate with some oil and gas companies operating in the Kurdistan region, “to start discussions to bring their operations in line with applicable Iraqi law.”

Observers believe that the response of some Western companies to the demands of the central authority in Iraq, which raised the concern of the Kurdistan leadership, is what made the KRG move towards opening negotiation channels with the Iraqi side, but it seems that the latter refuses to reach a solution that satisfies both parties.

The region had previously presented a proposal to establish two companies involved in oil exploration and marketing, working in partnership with Baghdad, but the latter did not respond to this offer.

Observers say that the best solution lies in agreeing on the legislation of the Oil and Gas Law of 2007, which is still locked up in the Iraqi parliament to draw up the common oil policy.

They point out that it is unlikely to see any settlement on the oil dispute between the region and the central authority, at least before the end of the political crisis that has afflicted Iraq since last October, and the formation of a new government.

Iraq is the second largest oil country in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and it exports an average of 3.3 million barrels of crude oil per day. As for Kurdistan, it produces more than 450 thousand barrels per day.

On the other hand, there are no official statistics on oil exported from the Kurdistan region, but the Iraqi Oil Ministry published an analysis last May in which it said that the regional government had committed “legal and procedural violations” in the sale of oil that caused great losses.

An analysis published on the ministry’s website pointed out that “the financial returns to the regional government constitute no more than 80 percent as an average after deducting production costs (the cost of producing a barrel of oil), while the financial returns for the first and second licensing rounds (established by Baghdad) range from 94.5 percent to 96.5 percent, and that the cost of production is equivalent to four times the cost of production in the licensing rounds of the Federal Ministry of Oil.”

On the other hand, the regional government signed on itself, through production-sharing contracts, a contractual commitment to exempt contractors from taxes, and allowed them to inflate their profits without imposing any kind of taxes or sharing those inflated profits, especially when global oil prices rose.

She added, “The Ministry of Oil would also like to clarify that the region did not adhere to the quotas allocated to Iraq under the “OPEC” agreements, which negatively affected the quantities of oil allocated to Iraq from the central and southern fields, and therefore negatively affected the financial returns of the federal government, despite bearing its burdens by securing the salaries of its people. in the region.”

The region rejects such accusations, stressing that the price difference is a result of the pressures that the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company “SOMO” has exercised and is still exerting against companies operating in the region, and that the partnership contracts signed by the Kurdistan region have nothing to do with the cost of extraction and production, and have nothing to do with the dispute. current between the two parties.

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Al-Sadr requires Al-Maliki to leave the scene before talking about reconciliation

BAGHDAD – Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is in a difficult situation after the leaks in which he attacked everyone, including his allies and those who protect his back, such as the Marjaiya and the Popular Mobilization Militia, at a time when these leaks strengthened the position of the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, who now requires Maliki’s departure from The scene is a condition for any settlement with his Shiite opponents.

This comes in conjunction with statements by Saleh Muhammad al-Iraqi, who is described as al-Sadr’s minister and spokesman, calling on the judiciary to take action to confront those he called outlaws, in reference to al-Maliki, after the leaks attributed to him included distorting his opponents and harming their private lives and targeting the state with all its institutions.

Iraqi political circles said that al-Sadr regained the initiative against al-Maliki, after the latter had pushed him to flee the political arena and abandon the right of the current to form a government, and that the leader of the state of law and the leader of the coordinating framework had no choice but to search for a settlement that would leave his opponent the first role and allow him to Remain in the scene until circumstances change and regain the initiative.

Al-Maliki’s words about reconciliation with Al-Sadr are meaningless, and his calls to meet Al-Sadr were met with disdain by the Sadrists

These circles indicated that the leaks left al-Maliki alone, and that the components of the coordinating framework will have to break with him and search for a path to a settlement without him, and that the popular crowd, which was a strong card in his hand, will find itself obliged to neutrality, and even Iran, which is strengthened by it, will be forced to search for an alternative for him. The same applies to the Dawa Party, which will be forced to withdraw its protection and search for a new face to represent it in the next phase’s consultations.

Al-Iraqi ruled out a reconciliation between Al-Sadr and Al-Maliki against the background of the audio leaks attributed to Al-Maliki, which “offended Al-Sadr” and the various actors in Iraq.

Al-Iraqi said in a press statement distributed on Friday evening that “the audio leaks attributed to Nuri al-Maliki include an attack on the authority, insults to the Iraqi people, abuse of the security forces, assault on the crowd, stirring up sedition, accusations of national leaders without evidence, and dealing with the outside without legal cover.”

The leaks also included “the formation of factions, the purchase of heavy weapons, incitement to murder, a sectarian tone that violates the law, destabilizing security, empowering impudent militias, and acknowledging the cold-blooded killing of Iraqis under the name of the law in Basra and Karbala.”

It is unlikely that a reconciliation between al-Sadr and al-Maliki will take place on the background of the audio leaks

Saleh al-Iraqi, who is close to al-Sadr, addressed the Islamic Dawa Party, saying, “Is this how we deal with the people, with the reference and with the sects?”

He added, “Do you want our leader Muqtada al-Sadr to refrain from transgressing the authority, bloodshed, insulting the people and the crowd, or do you want him to stop accusing him of working for Israel and reconcile with the owner of the leaks, Nuri al-Maliki… What is this thinking of you, leaders of Shiites and the nation?”

And he stressed that “elimination is at stake, either justice and the application of the law or bias and cover up for outlaws.”

The Supreme Judicial Council in Iraq had revealed that the Baghdad / Karkh investigation court had received a request submitted to the Public Prosecution to take legal measures regarding the audio leaks attributed to Nuri al-Maliki and that the court was conducting a fundamental investigation in accordance with the law.

Last Wednesday, al-Maliki announced his readiness to hold a direct meeting with al-Sadr after the uproar of audio leaks attributed to him, in which he offended al-Sadr, the religious authority and the security forces.

“My hand is outstretched to find good relations with al-Sadr and leave the differences of the past,” he said.

Al-Maliki stated that there are “parties and some tribal leaders who are currently moving to arrange a direct meeting for us with al-Sadr… It is possible to meet with him directly because we want positive relations.”

Al-Maliki’s attempt to deny the recordings and say that they are fabricated and will not change anything from the reality that produced them did not succeed, especially since his opponents at home, especially the leader of the Sadrist movement, are keen to employ them as much as possible to block the way for his efforts to control the political process, especially his assumption of the presidency of the government.

Last Monday, al-Sadr called on the leader of the State of Law coalition to retire from the political process and resort to seeking forgiveness or surrendering himself. And he wrote in a tweet he posted on his Twitter account that his opponent has no choice but to “declare seclusion and retire from political work and resort to seeking forgiveness, or surrender himself and those who seek refuge from the corrupt to the judicial authorities, perhaps it will be a repentance for him before God and before the Iraqi people.”

The previous parts of the audio leaks revealed a broad plan by al-Maliki for an open confrontation with the Sadrist movement and its Sunni and Kurdish allies based on preparing armed factions with full loyalty to him to resolve the situation in Iraq by force.

The leaks mean that al-Maliki has reached a conviction that he accepts a Shiite-Shiite war to get out of the impasse in the relationship with al-Sadr, who described him as a murderer and ignorant, and called his members cowards.

Al-Maliki said, “Iraq is on the verge of a devastating war from which no one will emerge, unless the project of Muqtada al-Sadr, Massoud Barzani and Muhammad al-Halbousi is dropped. If we drop their project, Iraq will survive, and if we are unable to do so, Iraq will enter the red circle.”

He continued, “I know that al-Sadr will target me first, because I destroyed him, and I will not keep Shi’ism and Iraq in the hands of Muqtada al-Sadr, and if the Ministry of the Interior is unable, I will not. Al-Sadr, he is a spiteful man, and he has three bad qualities, he wants blood, he is a coward, he wants money and stole the whole country, and he wants to be your ‘highest Lord’, and the Imam Mahdi, as his group claims to do so.

Al-Maliki added, “I told Al-Kazemi that the army and police are not reliable, and they will not do anything, and I will not trust you or your army. He (Al-Kazemi) replied that there is an army and police, so I told him no.”

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Barzani Haggles With Al-Kazemi: The Second Term In Exchange For Ignoring The Judiciary’s Decision On Oil

Information / Baghdad… The leader of the State of Law coalition, Jassem Al-Bayati, confirmed, on Sunday, that the visit of the Prime Minister of the Regional Government, Masrour Barzani to Baghdad, has multiple goals, foremost of which is an attempt to persuade the government and the Ministry of Oil to disregard the implementation of the Federal Court’s decision in exchange for his support for Al-Kazemi, as well as an attempt to win the favor of the framework forces. And other political forces not to the Democratic candidate for the presidency.

Al-Bayati said in a statement to / the information /, that “the Kurdistan Regional Government, after the decision of the Federal Court and the start of the implementation of the Ministry of Oil by implementing the provisions of the decision, the Kurds are facing great embarrassment, and if the Ministry of Oil continues Rescinding corporate contracts would be a disaster, so Masrour Barzani is trying during his visit to find a way out.”
He added, “The head of the regional government is trying to persuade the government and the Ministry of Oil to disregard the implementation of the Federal Court’s decision in exchange for his support for Al-Kazemi for a second term.”

Al-Bayati indicated that “the other goal is Barzani’s attempt to win the affection of the framework forces and other political forces by not rejecting the Democratic candidate for the presidency.” finished / 25 AD

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To facilitate the receipt of salaries.. Al-Rasheed Bank is setting up automatic teller machines that operate throughout the day

Shafaq News / Al-Rasheed Bank announced, on Sunday, that it has started setting up three “out door” ATMs in the capital, Baghdad.

In a statement received by Shafak News Agency, the bank’s media office said that these exchanges operate for 24 hours.

He added that they were distributed in three branches (Rabat, Yarmouk and Dora) as a first step to facilitate the receipt of salaries, noting that work is underway to create and distribute ATMs in other branches of the bank.

Shafaq.com

A Representative Of The State Of Law Reveals A Surprise About The Candidate For Prime Minister

Earth News / Representative of the State of Law coalition, Hussein Mardan, revealed today, Sunday, a surprise about the candidates for prime minister.

Mardan said in an interview with Earth News, “The coordinating framework meets every day and puts forward a group of names that could serve Iraq and Iraqis and be efficient, impartial and strong,” noting that “this is a prerequisite because the current stage is a difficult stage.”

Mardan added that “the country needs a very strong prime minister who can confront the forces that are working against the current political project or are not convinced of it.”

He pointed out that “many names were put forward, many of which are not present on the meeting table and announced in the media, but they are incorrect,” stressing that “there are new names and new personalities that will be surprising.”

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A Source In The Framework: We Are Ready To Announce Our Candidate For Prime Minister If The Kurds Agree On The Republic

Information / Baghdad .. A parliamentary source in the coordination framework confirmed, on Saturday, that the coordination framework is ready to announce its candidate for prime minister and within hours if the two Kurdish parties reach an agreement regarding the nomination of the president of the republic, indicating that the presidential election session will witness directly assigning the framework candidate to head the government.

The source said in a statement to “Al-Maalouma”, that “the mechanisms established by the coordination framework and the liquidation of candidates for the prime minister’s office into five candidates, one of whom will be elected by the General Authority for the Coordination Framework, and within hours, if the two Kurdish parties reach an agreement regarding the nomination of the President of the Republic, whether they agree on a personality Consensus between the two parties or by election within the dome of Parliament.”

He added, “The main reason for delaying the election of the framework candidate is to wait for the Kurds to resolve the presidential candidate, and there are no differences within the framework about the candidates or the mechanism.”

The source indicated that “the presidential election session will witness directly assigning the framework candidate to head the government.” Ended / 25 AD

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