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  1. #1

    " The Dinar Daily " .... Friday, 8 March 2013

    Speaker Accuses Maliki of Meddling
    In Iraq's Independent Commissions

    By: Ali Abel Sadah for Al-Monitor Iraq Pulse. Posted on March 7.

    The speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq is back to criticizing the prime minister and accusing him of interfering in the work of independent bodies, while tension prevails in parliament between the State of Law and Iraqiya List blocks as their MPs continue to air dirty laundry.

    Summary :
    Iraqi Speaker of the Council of Representatvies Osama Al-Nujaifi has criticized Prime MInister Nouri Al-Maliki for interfering in Iraq's independent commissions, provoking strong responsens from Maliki's State of Law Coalition, reports Ali Abel Sadah.
    Original Title:
    Maliki and Nujaifi Camps Air Dirty Laundry
    Author: Ali Abel Sadah
    Translated by: Sami-Joe Abboud

    Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni leader from the Iraqiya List, deviated from executive measures taken by Nouri al-Maliki last February by isolating the head of the de-Baathification commission. Nujaifi said in a press conference held on Feb. 5 and attended by Al-Monitor that "Maliki continues to interfere with the work of independent bodies."

    In Iraq's political system, some institutions are inteded to work independently of the Iraqi government. The Iraqi constitution, however, is not sufficiently clear about the ultimate leadership of these bodies, particularly for the Commission of Integrity, the Electoral Commission and the Justice and Accountability Commission.

    Political forces are accusing Maliki, leader of the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party, of having gone to considerable lengths throughout his mandate to control those bodies, but Maliki has always denied this, saying that such accusations are attempts to blackmail him politically and to disrupt the work of those bodies.

    Last month, Maliki dismissed the head of the Justice and Accountability Commission out of anger at his decision to impose the sanctions intended for members of the dissolved Baath Party on Judge Medhat al-Mahmoud, head of the Iraqi Judiciary Council.

    "We constantly note the executive authority's interference in the work of independent bodies ... and we are opposed to this unconstitutional approach," Nujaifi said.

    Maliki's opponents say that the appointment of a replacement for Falah Shanshal, the head of the Justice and Accountability Commission, was a mistake and unlawful, as the Council of Representatives decided to keep Shanshal in office and condemned Maliki's interference.

    Shanshal is a Shiite leader active in controversial Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement. He has been head of the Justice and Accountability Commission since 2008, but the Iraqi parliament has not formally voted on his appointment to this position. Thus, Maliki appointed him by proxy, which in Iraq means the appointment is temporary. There is unofficial criteria according to which dozens of sensitive positions in the Iraqi government are filled on a temporary basis.

    Nujaifi revealed the content of letters exchanged between him and Maliki, saying that he answered Maliki with a detailed letter about Shanshal's dismissal. He added that he had received a letter from the prime minister explaining what to do with the temporary head of the Justice and Accountability Commission. Nujaifi told Maliki that he had violated the law, and thus Nujaifi had decided to keep him in his position in accordance with the Iraqi constitution, as the commission is affiliated with the parliament. He went on to say that "Maliki's decision is illegitimate."

    As the head of the Iraqi parliament attacked Maliki in the press-conference room, accusing him of monopolizing power, MPs from the State of Law Coalition, led by Maliki, rushed to respond to Nujaifi. Their answer did not, however, address Nujaifi’s comments on Shanshal's dismissal.

    The Shiite coalition leading the government preferred instead to bring up the issue of Nujaifi's dismissal. Meanwhile, a leader in the coalition used his press conference to air the dirty laundry of his rival leader in the Iraqiya List.

    Ali al-Shalah, State of Law Coalition MP, said the speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, Osama al-Nujaifi, "begged" one of the leaders of the Shiite National Alliance to mediate in order to keep him from getting sacked.

    The State of Law Coalition is trying to draw the attention of the Iraqi public to the state of weakness and dispersion seen in the Iraqiya List. Shalah said that the bloc led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi "is divided into seven parties, and every party is speaking on its own behalf."

    Allawi, who has been absent from the political arena since the outbreak of Sunni demonstrations against his rival Maliki, saw his bloc suffer a series of grave rifts. Some of the dissidents allied with the prime minister, especially in the Shiite-dominated cities of the south.

    Following the press conference held by the leader of the State of Law Coalition, the Iraqiya List coalition returned to the defense of its leader, Osama al-Nujaifi, who is currently a shadow leader and the main commander of the Iraqiya List.

    Mohammed al-Khalidi, a Sunni politician close to Nujaifi, said that the latter "has not and will not beg anyone," adding that "what MP al-Shalah said is incorrect and part of the rumors that he spreads from time to time against the speaker of the Council of Representatives. ... This simply demonstrates that he holds a personal grudge against Nujaifi."

    The local elections, scheduled for April 20, are increasing the political competition in Iraq. Recent tensions in parliament are nothing more than a part of the political polarization that has resulted from Maliki and Nujaifi’s election campaigns.

    This competition, however, has pushed rival MPs to resort to a political rhetoric that often irritates personal sensitivities between leaders rather than supports a vision for the administration of the state.

    Ali Abel Sadah is a writer and journalist from Baghdad working in both Iraqi and Arab media. He was the editorial manager of a number of local newspapers, and was a political and cultural reporter for over 10 years.


    Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...#ixzz2MverGWlz



  2. #2
    Mahdi: Endorsing Budget without Kurds’ approval to eliminate accord principal
    Friday, 08 March 2013 09:52 | | |

    Baghdad (AIN) –MP, Ruz Mahdi, of the Kurdistani Alliance assured that endorsing the Budget law without the Kurds’ approval will eliminate the principal of the accord.

    He stated to AIN “It is very critical issue to endorse this law without considering the opinion of the major community of Kurds.”

    “This will ruin the previous cooperation and coordination between Kurdistani Regional Government and the Federal Government,” he added.

    “This comes after several attempts by the State of Law Coalition to force Kurds to accept certain issues which is totally rejected,” he mentioned.

    “KR has the right to deal independently concerning the economic issues from now on after neglecting its demands over the Budget law,” he concluded.

    https://www.alliraqnews.com/en/index....tical&Itemid=2

  3. #3
    KA: "Kurdistan not to commit to oil exportation hereafter"
    Thursday, 07 March 2013 21:22 | | |

    Baghdad (AIN) -The Kurdistani Alliance announced on Thursday that "The Kurdistan Regional Government will not commit to the exportation of oil from now on, and will resort to the economic independence away from the Central Government."

    MP Muhsen al-Sadoun of the KA stated in a press conference in presence of the KA's MPs "The article No. 112 of the constitution grants the Kurdistan Region the authority to run its oil sector, so the Region will not adhere to the oil exports agreement with the CG and will be economically independent."

    "We have the right to appeal some of the federal budget's items at the Federal Court," he added describing not including the item of paying the dues of the oil companies working in KR within the federal budget of 2013 as "A dangerous step, especially because there are important oil companies working in Kurdistan Region."

    https://www.alliraqnews.com/en/index....tical&Itemid=2

  4. #4
    *** SOUNDS LIKE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BUDGET(S) TO ME ***

    MP calls to distribute 25% of superabundant of 2012, 2013 Budgets on Iraqis
    Thursday, 07 March 2013 19:19 | | |

    Baghdad (AIN) –MP, Amir al-Kinani, of the Parliamentary Legal Committee called to distribute 25% of the superabundant of 2012 and 2013 Budgets on the Iraqi people.

    Speaking to All Iraq News Agency (AIN), he said " Since the parliament included the law of distributing 25% of the superabundant of the 2013 Budget on the Iraqi people, the Iraqis will call to distribute the superabundant of the Budget of 2012 and 2013."

    It is worth mentioning that the parliament, during its session of Thursday, voted on distributing 25% of the superabundant of the 2013 Budget on the Iraqi people.

    https://www.alliraqnews.com/en/index....tical&Itemid=2

  5. #5
    America and Iraq to sign trade and investment agreement

    Friday, 08 March 2013 09:47

    Shafaq News / The U.S. Trade Representative's office said that an agreement between the United States and Iraq to promote trade and investment links is expected to come into force later this year after eight years of negotiation.
    U.S. companies operating activity in energy, defense, information, technology, automotive and transportation sectors are increasing in Iraq , which has been invaded by the United States 10 years ago.
    The United States negotiated with Iraq on a framework agreement for trade and investment (TIFA) in 2005 to set up a forum that brings together the two governments to discuss how to increase trade and investment flows between the two countries.
    The U.S. Trade Representative, Ron Kirk said that "after an exchange of diplomatic notes, TIFA put into practice later this year, the first meeting of the Joint Council for bilateral consultations on issues of trade and investment that can be held in 2014."
    The volume of bilateral trade between the United States and Iraq last year was $ 21.3 billion, including $ 2.04 billion in U.S. exports to Iraq while the value of Iraqi exports to the United States is dominated by $ 19.3 billion of oil.
    In another step aims at strengthening trade ties between the United States and the Muslim world , Kirk announced plans that would allow for more Egyptian companies to qualify to exempt its exports to the United States from tariffs as long as it use checkpoints to enter goods from Israel.
    Kirk said that he plans to expand the rating of "Qualified Industrial Zones" in Egypt that would make all current and future production facilities in those areas eligible to be included in the exemption of its exports from the United States from customs duties.

    https://www.shafaaq.com/en/news/5452-...greement-.html

  6. #6
    Iraq Shows the Failure of Militarism and Socialism
    by Jacob G. Hornberger

    With the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq upon us, there are three things that I find particularly fascinating.

    Article posted Mar 08 2013, 2:31 AM

    First, the people who favored the invasion have different rationales for why they favored the invasion. Some of them say it's because Saddam Hussein conspired with al-Qaeda to commit the 9/11 attacks. Others say it's because there were terrorists inside Iraq. Others say that it was to bring democracy to Iraq. Others say it was to find WMDs, including those that the United States furnished Iraq to help Saddam with his war against Iran. Still others say that it was to enforce UN resolutions.

    It's as if the U.S. government placed a smorgasbord of rationales for invading the country before the American people and said, "To enable you to feel better about the massive death and destruction that U.S. forces are about to wreak on the country, we are providing you with a range of rationales on which you can base your support. You are free to take your pick."

    Second, except for libertarians and a few liberals there has never been any big push for an official investigation to determine whether every one of those that rationales for invading Iraq was bogus, as a way to cover up what was nothing more than a classic U.S. regime-change operation.

    Were the American people intentionally misled into supporting the invasion of Iraq? Was it a classic regime-change operation the entire time? Was the deep fear of terrorism generated by the 9/11 attacks misused to garner support for the operation? Alas, all too many Americans just don't want to know.

    But that's not to say that the passage of time won't change that sentiment. For example, right now there is a criminal trial taking place in Argentina for crimes committed during the 1970s and 1980s. The criminal defendants are former government officials, including military officials, from various South American countries who are charged with participating in a coordinated killing campaign known as Operation Condor, an operation in which officials of the U.S. national-security state, especially the CIA, actively participated. While it has taken more than 30 years to bring the defendants to trial, at least it shows that officials who purportedly commit such crimes can never sleep easy no matter how much time has elapsed.

    Third, while there are undoubtedly a few die-hards who claim that the invasion and multi-year occupation of Iraq converted the country into a paradise of freedom, prosperity, and harmony, I think it's safe to say that most Americans have arrived at the realization that Iraq is no different a place than when Saddam Hussein was in charge. Different faces but the same authoritarianism, torture, killing, violence, executions, and indefinite incarcerations without trial

    In fact, a strong piece of circumstantial evidence of how bad things are in Iraq is that not one single American neo-con and not one single American congressmen has taken his family on vacation to Iraq since the date of the U.S. invasion back in 2003. Indeed, not even President Obama dared to spend even one night in Iraq when he made one of his periodic unannounced visits to the country to see the troops.

    Why are things such a mess in Iraq? Possibly because God has created a consistent universe, one in which immoral means beget bad results.

    But there's another factor to consider, one that was detailed in an article entitled "Report Details Mistakes Made by U.S. in Improvement Projects for Iraq" in yesterday's New York Times. The article points out that the $60 billion in foreign aid to Iraq has essentially gone down a rat hole.

    U.S. officials blame the failure of their "rebuilding" projects on poor planning and supervision. They just don't get it. The projects are nothing more than socialist public-works projects, no different from those in socialist countries. As such, they are inherently defective. Therefore, it's not a question of incompetency or inefficiency. Instead, the problem is that the Pentagon embraces socialism as the way to rebuild the countries it destroys. It fails to realize that socialism has never worked and will never work.

    A fascinating insight into the military mindset was provided by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who stated in that NYT article that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq prevented the United States from dissuading Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki from making "bad decisions" and "going off a cliff." I can't help but wonder how exactly Panetta would have used those U.S. military forces to convince Maliki to do things differently. Of course though, what Panetta fails to recognize is that nothing, not even the threat of deadly force, can make socialism succeed.

    The federal government is facing a perfect storm of messes arising from its domestic and foreign programs, including Social Security, healthcare, welfare, spending, debt, the dollar, the drug war, the war on terrorism, Afghanistan, and, of course, Iraq. Americans would be wise to question the welfare-warfare system itself rather than hope that U.S. officials will keep trying to make it work.
    _
    Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on Fox News' Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano's show Freedom Watch.

    https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=43091

  7. #7
    *** A RULE OF CONSENSUS IN DECISION MAKING ( " the lie of accord " ) IS A FORM OF MINORITY PROTECTION - ESPECIALLY WHERE THE " RULE OF LAW " IS UNDERDEVELOPED AND WITHOUT A STRONG JUDICIAL BRANCH AND / OR CLARITY REGARDING CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES : IT MAY BE INDEED A NEW ERA IN IRAQI POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT AND MAYBE NOT FOR THE BEST ***

    White bloc calls resubmit Infrastructure Law to parliament for vote
    Friday, 08 March 2013 10:34 | | |

    Baghdad (AIN) –The White bloc called to resubmit the laws that are devoted for services to the parliament for a vote.

    MP, Aziz al-Mayahi, of the White bloc stated to AIN “The political partners in the parliament changed the political map by voting on the Budget with the majority,” noting that “They eliminated the lie of accord that hindered many laws like the Infrastructure Law.”

    “The political accords hurdled many laws that concern citizens,” he added, noting that “This is a positive step towards improving the performance of the parliament to endorse the Infrastructure Law as soon as possible.”

    https://www.alliraqnews.com/en/index....tical&Itemid=2
    Last edited by chattels; 03-08-2013 at 08:02 AM.

  8. #8
    Kurds discuss Iraqi crises with U.S. envoy

    Published: March. 7, 2013 at 10:05 AM

    ERBIL, Iraq, March 7 (UPI) -- The foreign minister from the semiautonomous Kurdish government of Iraq said support was needed to ensure the country stays on the right path.

    Kurdish Foreign Minister Falah Mustafa met with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Robert Beecroft to discuss differences between the Kurdish and central government in Baghdad.

    Skirmishes late last year between Kurdish and Iraqi forces sparked concerns over the country's stability. A bombing in January in Kirkuk was said to have targeted the local office of Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region.

    Mustafa said the government welcomed the visit from Beecroft, saying it was a sign of Washington's commitments to the country.

    "We welcome the support from the U.S. for finding a lasting solution to the current political crisis," Mustafa said in a statement. "It is important that our allies continue to engage with Iraq, and encourage Iraq to stay on the path of democracy, federalism and adherence to the constitution."

    Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/...#ixzz2MvuEULp5

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/...6121362668750/

  9. #9
    Iraq 10 years on: The Shia are in power in Iraq – but not in control

    On paper Iraq's religious majority also runs the country. In reality, sectarian divisions make it virtually ungovernable

    Wednesday 06 March 2013 - Patrick Corburn



    Iraq is the first Arab country to be ruled by a Shia government since Saladin overthrew the Fatimids in Egypt in 1171. But Shia rule is deeply troubled, and Shia leaders have been unable to share power in a stable way that satisfies the Sunni, the Kurds and even the Shia community.

    This is not wholly the leaders’ fault. They fear the Kurds want independence and the Sunni hope to regain their old dominance. Qusay Abdul Wahab al-Suhail, the Sadrist deputy speaker of parliament, says “the problem is that the Sunni do not accept power in the hands of the Shia”.

    Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s response to all this has been to grab as much authority as he can, circumventing agreements that would parcel out power in a nominally fair way, that, in practice, paralyses the state machinery. The government in the Green Zone, the great fortress it inherited from the Americans, is not shy about its sectarian allegiance. Shia banners and posters of Imam Ali and Imam Hussein decorate checkpoints and block-houses in the Green Zone and much of the rest of Baghdad, including prisons and police stations.

    Mr Maliki’s efforts to monopolise power – though less effective than his critics allege – have alienated powerful Shia individuals, parties and religious institutions. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the pre-eminent Shia religious leader of immense influence, whom the Americans at the height of their power found they could not defy, will no longer see the Prime Minister’s emissaries. The marji’iyyah – the small group of men at the top of the Shia religious hierarchy – have come to see the Prime Minister as a provoker of crises that discredit Shi’ism and may break up the country. Iran, the only other large Shia-controlled state, with strong but not overwhelming influence in Iraq, says privately that it is unhappy with Mr Maliki, but does not want a political explosion in the country while it is facing ever-mounting pressure over Syria, its other Arab ally, and its economy is buckling under the impact of sanctions.

    Iran tells Iraqi politicians it would like Mr Maliki to stay in office until the parliamentary elections in 2014 but maybe not thereafter. Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support has been crucial for Mr Maliki in the past, says he wants the Prime Minister to go, though the Sadrists remain an important part of his government. The idea of including all the opponents of the government within it may have seemed a good way of giving all interests a share of the cake, but means a leadership so fragmented that no decision can be taken.

    The Sadrists’ position is the most interesting and significant because they have so frequently made the running in Iraqi politics before and after Saddam Hussein’s fall. They are highly religious, but also nationalistic and populist. In the 1990s, after the crushing of the Shia and Kurdish uprisings in the wake of the Gulf war, it was Muqtada’s father, Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr (sometimes called Sadr II), and his movement who provided the most important internal resistance to Saddam. He was killed by government assassins, along with two of his sons, in Najaf in 1999. In 1980, Saddam Hussein had executed Muqtada’s cousin and father-in-law, Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr (called Sadr I), a founder of the al-Dawa party which Mr Maliki now leads.

    After the US and British invasion, Muqtada opposed the US-led occupation and founded the Mehdi Army. When the US occupation authorities unwisely moved against him, his militiaman took over much of southern Iraq, an uprising that culminated in the siege of Najaf in 2004. I visited their cemetery – part of the Wadi al-Salaam, which is for all Shia and the largest cemetery in the world – where some 5,000 Mehdi Army fighters are buried. Large colour photographs of the dead, usually sincere-looking young men staring straight at the camera, form the headstones for the dead. Not far away, worshippers pray at the glittering tomb of Sadr II who was also called “the white lion” because of his snow-white beard.

    The appeal of the Sadrists is also tribal and social: in the cities and towns the shopkeepers in the market oppose the Sadrists and the porters and labourers support him. The devout strongly feel the appeal of a dynasty of Shia martyrs who combine religious activism with a strong sense of Iraqi identity. Sadrist veterans say that their striking power and unity is enhanced by strong tribal bonds, particularly in places like Sadr City, their biggest stronghold with a population of three million people.

    The Mehdi Army became the ruthless cutting edge of the Shia offensive against the Sunni after the blowing up of the al-Askari mosque in Samarra in February 2006. Thousands of tortured bodies were picked up in the streets of Baghdad over the next two years. For Sunni, Muqtada became a living symbol of the perpetrators of these atrocities against them, though he says the Mehdi Army was by then out of his control and he stood the militiamen down in 2007. It was later dissolved after bloody confrontations with government and US forces.

    The Sadrists are seeking to transform themselves from a feared paramilitary organisation into a respected political movement. There are parallels here with the way Sinn Fein and the IRA in Northern Ireland demilitarised during the 1990s in order to gain power constitutionally and share it with their former enemies. Earlier this year Muqtada attended a Christian service in the Our Lady of Salvation Church in central Baghdad where some 50 worshippers had been slaughtered by al-Qa’ida in 2010. He later prayed in the Sunni Abdul-Qadir al-Gailani mosque in central Baghdad. He supports the protests in Anbar and Sunni areas on the condition they do not demand regime change. He said: “We support the demands of the people but I urge them to safeguard Iraq’s unity.” He attacked Maliki for giving the impression that the Shia want domination over Sunni, Kurds, Christians, Mandeans and Jews in Iraq. He added that “what was happening in Anbar is not a crisis, but a healthy phenomenon that reflects a popular and democratic movement.”

    The Sadrists have gone back and forth with Mr Maliki over the last two years. They often denounce him but observers note that at crucial moments they appear to pull their punch. Muqtada, though often labelled by the Western media as a “firebrand cleric”, has always been a subtle and cautious politician, underestimated by the Americans during the occupation (“they never figured out that he was anti-Iranian”, says one Iraqi observer). Critics say the Sadrists are eager to have it both ways, simultaneously supporting and opposing Mr Maliki. In their defence, it should be said that the Kurds and other political parties behave similarly and this is the nature of Iraqi politics. Mr Maliki plays the same game, and, although the Sadrists have several ministers in his cabinet, he holds 600-1,000 of their militants in jail for fighting Americans and government forces before Muqtada reconciled with him.

    Probably the Sadrists do not want to go into outright opposition to Mr Maliki until they know they can displace him. Diaa al-Asadi, a linguistics expert, former minister and the secretary general of the al-Ahrar bloc, as the Sadrist movement is called, says that in his personal opinion: “We are not talking about Maliki’s integrity or him being good or bad. He is a person who does not know how to plan. He is a simple-minded person. He is focused on undermining his enemies. He doesn’t have a vision of rebuilding Iraq.” He ticks off as acceptable the Sunni protesters’ demands, such as the release of prisoners, but adds: “There are some slogans used by the demonstrators saying there should be a revolution against the Shia because they come from Iran.”

    The Sadrist movement is eager to show that it helps ordinary Iraqis who understandably do not believe that the state will do anything to aid them or, if it does, it will act only because of outside influence. At the Muhsin mosque in Sadr City last month two local Sadrist leaders, one a tribal dignitary, were sitting on a carpet with people, swiftly dealing with their requests and complaints.

    “We use the tribal connection because of the weakness of the police,” said a Sadrist official. One man called Jassim al-Hamash said: “My house was destroyed in the fighting between the Americans and the Mehdi Army in 2008 and I am still looking for compensation.” He was told that the relevant government department would be contacted and asked to take action. Another man wanted squatters removed from his property and a third said that his community wanted to build three schools but was facing government obstructionism. He was told that a member of al-Sadr’s office would accompany government officials for discussions at the school construction site. He appeared satisfied. This belief that government will not do anything without backing or “pull” is correct and not so different from the operation of political machines in Boston, New York or Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

    Outside Baghdad in the overwhelmingly Shia south of the country, people are poorer than the capital, though security is better and the atmosphere more relaxed. There are more schools, hospitals, bridges and roads under construction. In the holy city of Najaf there is a continuing sound of drills and jack-hammers in the construction site in front of the golden-domed shrine of Imam Ali. Until recently, business was booming and dozens of hotels are under construction to meet demand from hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims visiting the shrine. But economic sanctions on Iran have hit business and shops selling mementos and religious items are sacking workers. Everywhere in Iraq there is a hunger for government jobs, the only reliable source of employment. Diaa al-Asadi says he receives about 150 calls a day and most of them are about getting people jobs. Where one party is in control, as the Sadrists are in Maysan province in south-east Iraq, there are more signs of economic activity.

    Amara, the capital of the province with about 500,000 inhabitants, has the benefit of 24-hours-a-day electricity from Iran. Even so, in a province with a population of 1.1 million, 130,000 are unemployed. One lesson is that a permanent supply of electricity is essential for the restoration of a normal life in Iraq. Relying on small generators is not enough, particularly when people need air-conditioning and fridges in the scorching summers. Farmers lack power to pump water from the rivers to their fields and orchards, which they then abandon. Prices have gone up. It used to be said in Iraq that “if you are poor, live on bread and tomatoes” but tomatoes that once cost 40¢ a kilo now sell at the equivalent of over a dollar.

    After visiting the cities of southern Iraq on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers I was left with the impression that in the Shia heartlands, development is painfully slow even if it is more evident than in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein’s wars and UN sanctions mean that very little was built for 30 years. People need jobs but lack skills. Slums in Basra looked terrible before 2003 and they still do. Heaps of rotting garbage line the streets often with empty garbage trucks mysteriously parked beside them. Herds of goats graze on them. A local official in Basra explained “the minister knows about this but can’t get his director generals to do anything.”

    Iraqi politicians say the Sadrists may lose some votes in the local elections in April because of Muqtada’s openly expressed sympathy for the Sunni protesters. “But in the long term I expect they will be kingmakers who decide what happens after Maliki,” said one leader.

    Yet, all these calculations may become obsolete if Iraq is destabilised by the reverberations from the war in Syria. The moderation of the Sunni protesters in Anbar and the sympathetic response of Sadrists is important because these were the two main protagonists in the sectarian civil war six years ago. But suspicions run deep and people fear the ingredients are there for a new sectarian war, however much the thought horrifies them.

    Where are they now? Tariq Aziz

    In the early 1980s, when Iraq was at war with Iran, Tariq Aziz was a friend of the West. He was often described as the international face of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and as deputy prime minister he was fiercely loyal to the Iraqi leader.

    Aziz, a Christian from the city of Mosul, was an omnipresent spokesman for Saddam’s 1991 invasion of Kuwait – an adventure he later claimed to have tried to dissuade Saddam from undertaking. He was equally visible years later, haranguing the international media as he tried to prevent the 2003 invasion of his own country.

    After surrendering to US forces on April 24, 2003, he was sentenced by an Iraqi court to 22 years for complicity in a bloody campaign against Iraq’s Kurds. He received the death penalty in 2010 for the persecution of Islamic opposition parties during Saddam’s rule.

    Aziz, now 76, is currently being held at Camp Cropper in western Baghdad. His lawyers say he is suffering from depression, as well as diabetes and heart disease. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has previously said he will never sign off on Aziz’s death sentence.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...l-8523280.html

  10. #10
    Iraq 10 years on: from death to dollars - how Kurds struck it rich

    Iraqi Kurdistan was the scene of Saddam’s greatest crime. It is also the home of the country’s newest oil fields, which present both an opportunity – and a threat – to its people

    Thursday 07 March 2013



    Kurdistan presents itself as the new economic tiger of the Middle East, flush with the prospect of exploiting its oilfields. The tall towers of two new luxury hotels rise high above the Kurdish capital Erbil, the oldest inhabited city in the world whose skyline had previously been dominated by its ancient citadel for thousands of years.

    Nearby, a glittering new airport has replaced the old Iraqi military runway. In contrast to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities the cars in the streets look new. Above all, and again in sharp contrast to further south, there is a continuous supply of electricity.

    “I cannot find employees to go and work in the oilfield,” complains a Kurdish manager in a Western oil company. “I cannot even find rooms in the new hotels for visiting executives because they are so full.” Convoys of shiny black vehicles conveying delegations of visiting businessmen from Germany, France, the UAE and Turkey race through the city. Many of those now coming to Kurdistan could not have found it on the map a few years ago and – so Kurds who have met them caustically remark – are often still unsure of its location when they leave. But there is no doubting international business enthusiasm for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the semi-independent enclave in northern Iraq that is prospering like no other part of the country. A Kurdish businessman says: “We are benefiting from having a boom at a time of austerity and slow growth in the rest of the world, so the boardrooms of international companies are particularly interested in us.”

    At the heart of the boom are 50 or 60 foreign oil companies seeking to find and exploit Kurdistan’s oil, on better terms and with greater security and official backing than they could find in the rest of Iraq. This influx started with small and obscure foreign companies in the years after the fall of Saddam in 2003. But foreign interest deepened, the size of the oil companies increased, and in 2010 ExxonMobil signed an exploration contract with the KRG. The central government in Baghdad was furious and threatened to punish Exxon, which has large interests in southern Iraq, but failed to do so as other oil majors – Chevron, Total and Gazprom – had also signed their own deals.

    When the Kurds first encouraged foreign oil companies to look for oil on territory they controlled, Baghdad was sanguine. In 2007 Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani, now Deputy Prime Minister in charge of energy-related issues, said to me that, even if foreign oil companies found oil, they would not be able to export it. He asked sarcastically: “Are they going to carry it out in buckets?” It is this calculation that has changed radically in the last year. A new pipeline is being built between the KRG and Turkey, which in theory would enable the Kurds to export crude and get paid for it without permission from Baghdad. This would give the five million Iraqi Kurds an economically and politically independent state for the first time in their history after decades of war, ethnic cleansing and genocide. On the other hand, Turkey may decide that it is not in its interests to defy Baghdad and break up Iraq.

    Self-determination is close, but not quite there yet. One Kurdish observer said: “We Kurds have one of the most complicated political situations in the world.” It is easy to forget this in the present boom-town atmosphere of the KRG. First, the Kurdish autonomous zone is landlocked and on all sides faces powers – Turkey, Iran, Syria and the rest of Iraq – that are oppressing Kurds or have oppressed them in the recent past. The KRG may be a haven of peace for the moment but violence is not far away. Syria, Iraq and Turkey are fighting guerrilla insurgences of varying levels of intensity just beyond the KRG’s frontiers. In recent weeks al-Qa’ida suicide bombers blew up the main police station in Kirkuk 50 miles south of Erbil and assassinated a senior general and his bodyguards in Mosul, a similar distance to the west.

    The political geography of the Middle East is changing in ways that so far are to the advantage of the Iraqi Kurds, though the trends may not always be so. The KRG consists of three provinces – Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaimanya – that won de facto autonomy in 1991 after the Kurdish uprising in the wake of the first Gulf War. This area expanded dramatically in 2003 as the Kurdish pesh merga militiamen advanced and Saddam Hussein’s forces collapsed. The Kurds captured Kirkuk and its oilfields as well as a swathe of territory north and east of Mosul and have never been likely to give it up. An explosive aspect of the deal with ExxonMobil in 2010 is that three of its six exploration blocks are outside the KRG, but inside territories disputed between Kurds and Arabs and between the governments in Erbil and Baghdad. Last year pesh merga and Iraqi troops confronted each other along the so-called “trigger” line, stretching from the Syrian to the Iranian border.

    It is a moment of unprecedented political change in the region. Iraq as a country is getting close to disintegration as a single state, but this is not inevitable. Old alliances are being junked and hated enemies embraced. Massoud Barzani, long demonised in Turkey, was a guest at the conference of Turkey’s ruling AKP party and was given a standing ovation. The Iraqi Kurds are tipping towards Ankara and away from Baghdad. For a decade Turkish companies have poured into KRG and are doing trade worth at least $8bn (£5.3bn) a year there. The Shia-Kurdish alliance is the backbone of the post-Saddam settlement brokered by the Americans, but is today it is looking frayed. Mr Barzani and the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are barely on speaking terms. The Kurds feel, as do other opponents of Mr Maliki, that he has repeatedly reneged on power-sharing agreements, particularly when it comes to military and security appointments.

    When it seemed likely in 2003 that the US would invade Iraq from the north accompanied by 40,000 Turkish troops, the Iraqi Kurds were terrified and demonstrated vigorously in protest. These days a Turkish alliance with the KRG appears to many to be a reassuring alternative to dealing with the chaotic and increasingly hostile government in Baghdad. Arab-Kurdish links are weakening at many levels. At the top, Kurdish influence in Baghdad is declining, particularly since the incapacitating illness of President Jalal Talabani who had previously played a conciliatory role at the centre of Iraqi politics. At street level fewer Kurds speak Arabic compared to 20 years ago when many were former conscripts in the Iraqi army. Few Kurds travel to Baghdad except for urgent business because it is dangerous, though many travel to Turkey on holiday. Only a few years ago the Turks would regularly close the Khabour bridge, the main crossing point between the KRG and Turkey, leading to enormous traffic jams. These days it is Baghdad that tries to emphasise the KRG’s isolation, refusing even to allow the plane carrying the Turkish Energy Minister to cross its airspace for a conference in Erbil.

    Kurdistan has changed enormously in the last decade. At several moments over the last 40 years the Kurdish cause seemed irretrievably lost. In 1975 their forces, then led by Mullah Mustafa Barzani, the father of the current KRG President Massoud, were betrayed by the US and the Shah of Iran who suddenly withdrew support as the Kurds were locked in battle with the Iraqi army. Saddam Hussein seemed triumphant and Kurdish prospects for self-determination were apparently extinguished forever. But the Shah fell and Saddam invaded Iran in 1980, leading the Iranians to renew support for the Iraqi Kurds. They took over much of the country, only to see Iran forced to agree a truce in 1988 leaving the Kurds to face Saddam’s vengeance. Many were gassed in Halabja and 180,000 civilians slaughtered in the al-Anfal campaign in 1988 and 1989. Again, everything looked dark for the Kurds until Saddam invaded Kuwait and was defeated in 1991. The Kurds rose up, failed to get US support, and were forced to flee in their millions in the face of an Iraqi counter-attack. In the midst of an international outcry, US relented and rescued the Kurds by declaring a no-fly zone.

    But Kurdistan was devastated. People had been forced into cities and 3,800 villages and towns were destroyed. This was oppression on the level of Hitler’s armies in Poland and Ukraine. The very land was carpeted with anti-personnel mines like large yellow and white mushrooms. The mountains were stripped bare of trees for heating and cooking. The two main parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Mr Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Mr Talibani – made a bad situation worse by fighting a ferocious and wholly unnecessary civil war.

    The contrast between Kurdistan as a ruined battlefield and its appearance today is so striking as to take one’s breath away. It may also be so great as to unbalance its leaders’ sense of the feasible. One critic says: “We are making the same mistake with the Turks today as we did with the Americans and the Shah in 1975. We are once again becoming over-reliant on foreign powers.” For all the economic development in KRG it remains dependent on getting a 17 per cent share of Iraqi oil revenues proportionate to its population. The KRG likes to present itself as “the other Iraq” so different from the rest of the country. But some things work the same. For instance, some 660,000 Kurds have official jobs though at least half do nothing at all. Much government revenue goes on paying them and without a share of Iraq’s oil revenues the economy would collapse. “Ease of doing business in Erbil compared to Baghdad is very good,” says a businessman. “Compared to the rest of the world it is rubbish.” A sign that many Kurds do realise their continued economic dependence on Baghdad is a sharp drop in the last three months in property prices in Erbil, a fall attributed to disagreements with Baghdad.

    Kurdistan may have greater security and better political direction than Baghdad, but it is similarly corrupt. “I call it ‘Corruptistan’,” said one woman. “I live in an area surrounded by the houses of director generals working for the government,” said another source. “I have a higher salary than any of them but they have houses three times bigger than mine.” He complained that it has taken him months to find a decent school for his daughter and, likewise, a good hospital for a sick friend. Erbil may have several five-star hotels, but so few ordinary Kurds visit them that local taxi drivers often do not know where they are.

    In many respects the exaggerated expectations generated by the Kurdish tiger resemble those surrounding the Celtic tiger in Ireland before 2008. Both nations are small, long-oppressed and impoverished, and feel history has treated them unfairly. Having endured hard times for so long, both may be vulnerable to seeing a boom as being permanent when it is in fact part-bubble.

    Momentous decisions must be taken by the Kurds and their neighbors when the pipeline to Turkey is finished. One expert on Kurdistan asks “is Turkey playing a game of bluff or will it give up on Baghdad? Do they see it as having fallen permanently into the hands of Iran?” The Kurds are gambling for high stakes in balancing between Turkey, Iran and Baghdad. They have hitherto done so with success but they are in danger of over-playing their hand.

    Where are they now? Hans Blix

    Few people were more qualified to find out whether Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction than Hans Blix.

    As director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 1981 to 1997, he was in charge of overseeing inspections of the country’s nuclear programme. During that time Iraq concealed the programme from inspectors – it was only discovered after the 1991 Gulf War. As head of the UN team responsible for searching for weapons of mass destruction, Mr Blix returned to Iraq in December 2002 and remained until the week before the war began in March 2003. In his final report to the Security Council, Mr Blix reported minor infractions by Iraq, but said there was no compelling evidence that it had a hidden arsenal or was blocking the work of the inspectors. He repeatedly called for more time to search for the WMD.

    Following the 2003 invasion, Mr Blix became a fierce critic of the US and the UK. The 82-year-old Swede is now retired, but Blix has warned against making the same mistake, this time with Iran. “Today there is talk of going on Iran to eradicate intentions that may not exist. I hope that will not happen.”

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...h-8525346.html

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