Iran places 7 conditions on the new prime minister in Iraq

Baghdad / The Independent newspaper revealed that the future Iraqi Prime Minister, regardless of his name or the party that nominates him, will have to fulfill the seven conditions set by Iran, based on its economic, political and security needs.

The newspaper stated in a report that “usually, a lot of information about the Iranian conditions for appointing the Iraqi Prime Minister is not leaked to the media, because negotiations on this position have always taken place in complete secrecy between the Shiite parties close to Tehran, but that the Iranian capital is often It was the appropriate place to resolve any dispute over the most likely candidate to form a government.

It seems that the Iraqi demonstrations, which have been going on for more than three months, have changed many rules, including the formal circumstances accompanying the selection of the prime minister in Baghdad, but, according to observers, they will not be able to compromise the essence of the conditions governing this process.

Currency auction

In the forefront of the Iranian conditions for any Iraqi figure charged with forming a government, maintaining the laws governing what is known as the “auction of currency sales” in the Central Bank of Iraq.

Under the pretext of maintaining the stability of the Iraqi dinar exchange rate against foreign currencies, the Central Bank of Iraq sells large amounts of money daily from the US dollar currency, to traders who say they use them to import the goods that the country needs from abroad.

After the tightening of the American screws on the Iranian economy, specifically during the past year, the currency auction in the Central Bank of Iraq turned into the most important Iranian window for obtaining the dollar, while informed sources say that approximately $ 40 billion was transferred from Iraq to accounts abroad during 2019.

Iraq does not have a tight banking system, so money laundering operations are common, as well as the facilities smugglers get at Iraqi border crossings with neighboring countries, providing an ideal environment for smuggling foreign currencies.

Electricity contracts

The second Iranian condition that the new Iraqi Prime Minister must abide by is the maintenance of electricity purchase contracts between Baghdad and Tehran.

The Iraqi government does not provide clear data on these contracts, but informed sources say that it is centered around a thousand megawatts of energy sold by Tehran to Baghdad, in exchange for an amount that is very high compared to the prevailing prices in the region, noting that Baghdad does not get anything from this thousand megawatts during The summer months, when the demand for electricity inside Iran increases and the possibility of export disappears, yet Tehran gets its full dues from Baghdad, as if it had exported all of the agreed upon quantity.

In light of the scarcity of Iranian external resources, the revenues resulting from the contract to supply Iraq with electricity are an important financial source for Tehran.

Baghdad and Najaf airports

The Iraqi airspace is a vital navigational passage for Iran, as it is the link between its lands and its spheres of influence in Syria and Lebanon, so the Iraqi airports should always be open to Iranian aviation.

Tehran did not get rid of the headaches of Iraqi airports until the Badr Organization leader, Hadi al-Amiri, assumed the position of Minister of Transport in the government between 2010 and 2014, as he made a series of arrangements, which are still in effect so far, to ensure that Iranian aircraft pass through Iraqi airspace and airports smoothly.

Informed sources say that Iran has been transporting to Syria, through the airports of Najaf and Baghdad, for years, all that it needs to maintain its influence there, without hindrance. Therefore, maintaining this situation is the third Iranian condition for any new Iraqi Prime Minister.

International road

The fourth condition does not go far from the conditions of the third condition, but rather it relates to land rather than the air, as Iran wants the future Iraqi Prime Minister to keep the situation in the international roads linking Baghdad to Damascus and Amman as it is.

The sources say that the Iraqi militias allied with Iran have planted during the past two years about 60 monitoring and control teams along the international route between Baghdad, Damascus and Amman, which explains how to maintain support and support lines for the Popular Mobilization Forces stationed at several border points between Iraq and Syria, one of which is Recently bombed by the United States, and turned out to be a camp operated by the Hezbollah Brigades, Iraq.

Transfer visitors

Observers say that these four conditions are of strategic importance, in addition to three other conditions of lesser importance, but they are necessary to sustain Iranian momentum in the region.

The first of the three additional conditions is to maintain the system for transporting Iranian visitors to Iraq in its current form, given the significant economic benefits that it accrue to Tehran.

No one knows publicly the circumstances that compelled Baghdad to sign contracts to transport Iranian visitors to visit the Shiite shrines offered in Iraq, because they lose the rights of Iraqis and cut off all economic benefits to them.

Some of these conditions stipulate that the transportation of visitors is an exclusive process for Iranian companies, and that even feeding them is not the right of the Iraqi cities that host them.

Crowd salaries

The other condition relates to ensuring the flow of the PMF’s salaries in the current formula, with about 30% of them going to special accounts, according to associates of this force.

When the previous Iraqi government required its military and civilian employees to open bank accounts and manage the process of receiving their monthly salaries via smart cards, to avoid fraud and get rid of the phenomenon of imaginary employees, leaders in the PMF created a ruse to get around the issue.

These leaders supervised the process of issuing salary cards to all members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, but they kept them with them after they took their secret operating numbers, and at the end of each month when the salaries were deducted in the fighters ’accounts, they spent them and paid part of them to the affiliate and kept another part, which saved large commissions.

Informed sources say that this operation was carried out on the advice of Iran, which contributed to providing a good financial liquidity for the leaders of the popular crowd, out of the sight of the government or regulatory agencies.

The seventh Iranian condition for the upcoming Iraqi Prime Minister is to guarantee customs facilities for Iranian goods at the border crossings between the two countries.

Informed sources say that the more pressure the American economic sanctions put on Iran, the more the Iraqi border outlets will provide additional facilities for the Iranian suppliers to help them pump more quantities into the Iraqi interior.

Iraqi facilities helped Iran to overcome many cases of financial deficit, as the Iraqi market received more Iranian goods than its absorptive capacity.

Ikhnews.com

Nechirvan Barzani: The attack on the US embassy endangers Iraq’s interests

Baghdad – The President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, considered, on Tuesday, the attack on the American embassy, which endangers Iraq’s interests.

“The assembly and civil demonstrations are a constitutional right, but the use of violence, irresponsible attacks and behaviors to target embassies and diplomatic missions is a dangerous development,” Barzani said in a statement received by Al-Akhbariya, noting that “we look with great concern at the recent events and the attack on the American embassy in Baghdad, and that It is totally unacceptable and unacceptable, and endangers Iraq’s interests. ”

He added: “The Americans are allies and friends of Iraq and the Kurdistan region and they were major partners in the liberation of Iraq and the victory against the terrorists of Al Qaeda and ISIS. To confront the dangers of terrorism and protect their interests, Iraq and the Kurdistan region still need the support and cooperation of America and the international coalition.”

He explained: “Representatives of countries and diplomats, the guests of Iraq, must be respected and protected.”

Ikhnews.com

Al-Sadr: The demonstrations in front of the American embassy are aimed at ending the reformist people’s demonstrations

Baghdad – Mawazine News, Saleh Muhammad al-Iraqi, minister of the Sadrist movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who is close to him, confirmed that the demonstrations that started today, Tuesday, in front of the American embassy in the Green Zone, are intended to end the people’s reform demonstrations.

And the Iraqi said, in a post on his Facebook page, and I saw it / Mawazine News /: “Hint !!! We demonstrated against the occupation from the first day when they wanted to desecrate (the sanctuary) in Najaf. An agreement with them, and we demanded the closure of the embassy of the Great Satan. ”

He added: “In public they were mocking and in the corridors mediating for them. Today, Iraq has become a scene of demonstrations, and today Iraq has become a burning field for embassies and diplomatic missions, as if Iraq is the only country that includes embassies and missions.”

He continued: “Then do not forget that all politicians seated the occupier not in secret, but in public with all their sects and their affiliations as a whole … except (our leader Sadr), today they are pouring out their anger at the embassy … So where were you !!!?” And he
added by saying: ” But according to my perception, God knows best … especially after what I heard from some militia leaders and in front of the evil embassy: The embassy is the real place to support the gangs, and it means: (revolutionaries), and this is a presumption that the demonstrations in front of the embassy are intended to end (the reformist people’s demonstrations). .

Al-Iraqi called on the revolutionaries to “persist and remain on their peace and not to contact them, and do not be sad or insignificant, if you see (green) open to them and closed to your faces.” The wise people, through its fair law, which will be the prelude of the people to end corruption and partisanship, so they entered it from the gates of the elections, safe and sound, Ghanem. ”

He concluded by saying, “Corruption pronounces its last breath, and God is the Guardian of success.” Ended 6/29 n

Mawazin.net

Two Other Top Pro-Iran Militia Commanders Arrested by US Marines in Baghdad

ERBIL — Commander of Badr Brigade, Hadi al-Ameri, and Commander of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Qais Khazaali, were arrested in Baghdad’s Jadiriyah District, local reports claimed early hours on Friday.

The two top commander, who worked under the umbrella of pro-Iran Hashd al-Shaabi, were reportedly arrested by US Marines, al-Hurra reported.

No official source has yet confirmed the arrest of Ameri and Khazaali.

It comes less than an hour after attacks on a vehicle convoy at Baghdad International Airport killed multiple militiamen and commanders, including Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Hashd al-Shaabi.

A US official previously confirmed that the US had hit two targets in Baghdad linked to Iran.

Hashd al-Shaabi and Iraq’s state TV confirmed the death of Soleimani and Muhandis.

Basnews.com

Here is the timeline of the News feed that originally broke this story…

Al Sura @AlSuraEnglish

#BREAKING – #US marines arrest #Iraqi Member of Parliament Hadi Al Ameri and leader of Iraq’s Political Party Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Qaiz al Khaizali, according to sources close to the Iraqi Badr Party.

6:00 PM – 2 Jan 2020
_________________________________________________________

Al Sura @AlSuraEnglish

#BREAKING – #Iraq’s Hadi Al Ameri and Qaiz al Khaizali confirmed not in #US custody. No US troops arrested either leader.

12:23 AM – 3 Jan 2020

Kurdistan’s powerful #Barzani family accused of using London real estate to corrupt Iraq regulators

While 2019 marked the ten-year anniversary of the withdrawal of most British troops from Iraq, court filings in the United States have shed new light on how the UK, specifically London’s notoriously opaque real estate market, continues to play a role in the governance issues roiling Iraq to this day, writes Louis Auge.

A request for discovery filed last month in the US District Court in the state of Pennsylvania, targeting the law firm Dechert LLP, has laid out in detail an alleged scheme to use pricey London homes to bribe Iraqi telecommunications regulators and effectively rob some of the country’s most prominent foreign investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Allegedly engineered by Raymond Rahmeh, one of Lebanon’s most influential businessmen, for the benefit of Sirwan Barzani, a scion of Iraqi Kurdistan’s most powerful family, the case demonstrates how £2.3 million in real estate was reportedly enough to help expropriate over $800 million invested in Iraq by France’s largest telecom firm and a major Kuwaiti logistics company.

While the case is playing out in jurisdictions from Dubai to Pennsylvania, its most serious implications are in Iraq itself, where popular frustration with entrenched corruption has thrown the future of the political order the UK helped create into doubt.

Joint misadventure

The proceedings in question revolve around the ownership of Iraqi telecoms carrier Korek, launched in 2000 as a regional carrier with operations limited to Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2007, Korek obtained a nationwide mobile telecoms license from Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC). That license, however, carried with it a $1.25 billion price tag, as well as a provision requiring CMC approval for any ownership changes involving 10% or more of the company’s shares.

To pay this licensing fee, Korek turned to outside investors, namely Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility Public Warehousing and its partner, French telecoms giant Orange. Together, and with the CMC’s approval, Agility and Orange invested over $800 million in Korek via a joint venture, Iraq Telecom, in 2011.

In turn, Iraq Telecom received a 44% stake in Korek, with a “call option” that would allow the venture to obtain a majority stake of 51% in the company in 2014. Just as the joint venture sought to exercise that call option, however, the court filings detail how the CMC’s attitude towards the foreign investors ‘suddenly and inexplicably’ turned sour.

In June 2014, the regulator informed Korek it no longer considered the company Iraqi, ordering it to pay over $43 million in extra regulatory fees on account of its ‘foreign ownership.’ Less than one month later, the CMC declared that Iraq Telecom’s investment in the Kurdish operator was ‘void, null and invalid’ and ordered that all shares be returned to the company’s original shareholders, chief among them Kurdish businessman and Peshmerga commander Sirwan Barzani.

Critically, while the shares were returned to Barzani and fellow shareholders Jawshin Hassan Jawshin Barazany and Jiqsy Hamo Mustafa, the $800 million-plus invested by Agility and Orange were not. The foreign investors have taken the dispute to international arbitration, with cases before the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

From Barn Hill to Banstead

Subsequent investigations have allegedly revealed the explanation for this inexplicable turn of events. According to the ex parte application for discovery filed in Pennsylvania, two business associates of Raymond Rahmeh, the supposedly independent member of Korek’s supervisory committee who in fact has a close business relationship with Sirwan Barzani, purchased two homes in London that were then used by the very CMC members helping to decide Korek’s fate.

The first of those two homes, located at Barn Hill in Wembley, was reportedly purchased wholly in cash by Raymond Rahmeh associate Pierre Youssef for £830,000 in September 2014. The second home, on Higher Drive in Banstead, was also purchased wholly in cash by Mansour Succar, another associate of Raymond Rahmeh, for £1.5m in December 2016.

Neither Mr. Youssef nor Mr. Succar lived in these homes. Instead, the property in Wembley seems to have been occupied for nearly three years by Dr. Ali Nasser al-Khwildi, the current director general of the CMC, and his family. The Banstead property was occupied by former CMC director general Dr. Safa Aldin Rabee and his family until this past September, when a complaint filed by Iraq Telecom revealed their connection to the address.

These property acquisitions also explain Dechert and Pennsylvania’s connection to the alleged bribery. The filings indicate Dechert, which is headquartered in Philadelphia and has previously worked with both Sirwan Barzani and Raymond Rahmeh on matters related to Korek, represented both Mr. Youssef and Mr. Succar in these transactions and used the same client reference number for both sales, demonstrating that the same individual or organization was behind them.

According to the court documents, the use of these properties by CMC leaders constitutes a corrupt ‘quid pro quo’ in which the regulators were rewarded for expropriating Orange and Agility with London real estate. The request for discovery seeks to produce additional evidence to that end.

Policy implications in Britain and Baghdad

The alleged bribery scheme, partially uncovered by the Financial Times last year, casts a harsh spotlight on the British government’s efforts to stop the use of the UK as an avenue for corruption. In addition to the 2010 Bribery Act, the 2017 Criminal Finances Act provides for unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) designed to combat corrupt real estate transactions. These tools, however, remain new and largely tested, with the National Crime Agency’s UWOs targeting a foreign official’s homes this past May representing only thesecond time that they have been used.

In Iraq itself, meanwhile, the idea of regulators being corrupted by powerful business figures will hardly come as a surprise to the demonstrators who have turned out in force since October to demand the destitution of the country’s post-invasion political order. Corruption is a key driving factor behind the protest movement, which forced Iraqi premier Adel Abdel-Mehdi to tender his resignation at the start of December. Given the Iraqi state’s failure to address corruption at home, legal actions such as those targeting Korek’s shareholders could help bring at least some measure of transparency to one of the world’s most corrupt countries.

Iraq-businessnews.com

Gold rises due to weak dollar and US strikes

Economy News – Baghdad: Gold prices rose to the highest level in more than two months, Monday, amid weak dealings at the end of the year while the US dollar went down while American military strikes in the Middle East pushed investors towards the metal, which is a safe haven.

And gold rose in spot trading 0.2 percent to 1513.29 dollars an ounce (0600 GMT) by 0633 GMT. Earlier in the session, gold hit its highest level since October 25 at $ 1515.80. In futures trading in the United States, the yellow metal fell 0.1 percent to $ 1516.60.

Gold is considered a safe investment in times of geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

Gold also supported the decline of the dollar against a basket of competing currencies, making the yellow metal cheaper for holders of other currencies.

In terms of other precious metals, silver rose 0.9 percent to $ 17.92 an ounce, while platinum increased 0.7 percent to $ 951. Palladium lost 0.1 percent to $ 1903.39 an ounce.

Economy-news.net

Al-Halbousi condemns the attacks against the crowd and calls for the protection of the coalition forces

Baghdad / … Parliament Speaker Muhammad Al-Halbousi condemned, today, Monday, the attack on pieces of the popular crowd, which left a number of martyrs and wounded, considering this targeting a violation of the sovereignty of Iraq.

The President of the House of Representatives said, in a statement received by “Eye of Iraq News”, that while we call for restraint, we renew our call for all forces to be under the command of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

He stressed the need to adhere to providing protection for diplomatic missions and international coalition forces that are present on Iraqi soil at the request and approval of the government, and to unite efforts to complete the war against ISIS.

The Security Media Cell announced, earlier on Sunday evening, December 29, 2019, that the headquarters of the 45th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization had been subjected to three American air strikes, which resulted in the death of four fighters, including the brigade commander’s aide, and the injury of 30 others.

The Popular Mobilization also said, in a statement, that the attack targeted the leadership of the Al-Jazeera Operations Sector in Anbar Province and the location of the 45th and 46th Brigade, and resulted in 19 martyrs and 35 wounded.

Earlier, the US Department of Defense announced that its air force had carried out “defensive” raids on 5 targets of this armed group in the territories of both Iraq and Syria in response to attacks that had previously targeted US bases in Iraq. Finished 2

Aynaliraqnews.com

The President of the Republic meets with the Construction Alliance and the National Alliance

Baghdad – news: A political source confirmed today, Monday, that the President of the Republic, Barham Salih, met with the Construction Alliance and the National Alliance.

The source said to “Al-Akhbaria”, “The President of the Republic, Barham Salih, ended a meeting with the National Coalition on Monday morning.”

He added, “After the first meeting, he held a new meeting with the Construction Alliance to discuss the issue of the new prime minister’s nomination.”

It is noteworthy that the President of the Republic Barham Saleh refused earlier, to assign the candidate of the Construction Alliance Asaad Al-Eidani, to head the Council of Ministers.

The MP revealed that Al-Fateh Al-Mandawi and Parliamentary Bloc Ahmed Al-Kinani revealed today that the coming hours will witness an agreement to name the new Prime Minister.

It is worth noting that the candidate for the presidency of the Council of Ministers, Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi, affirmed earlier yesterday, Sunday (December 29, 2019), that he was not prepared to assume the position of prime minister, succeeding Adel Abdul Mahdi, unless he agreed with the demonstrators.

Ikhnews.com

A significant increase in Central Bank sales to reach 257 million dollars!!

The Central Bank of Iraq announced, on Sunday, a large increase in its sales in the currency auction to reach $ 257 million.

The Central Bank of Iraq witnessed during its auction for the sale and purchase of foreign currencies today, an increase in its sales to reach 257 million and 242 thousand dollars, covered by the bank at a basic exchange rate of 1190 dinars per dollar, compared to last Wednesday, which amounted to 194 million and 412 thousand dollars.

The request was distributed by 234 million and 822 thousand dollars to enhance the balances abroad in the form of transfers and credits, while the remaining 22 million and 420 thousand dollars were distributed in the form of a cash sale that was fully covered by the bank at an exchange rate of 1190 dinars per one dollar.

While none of the 33 banks in the currency auction made any offers to sell the dollar.

It is mentioned that the central bank conducts daily sessions to buy and sell foreign currencies except for the official holidays that the bank stops from these auctions.

Alsumaria.tv