Wednesday, May 02, 2007
INM daily summary – 2 May 2007
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- The Iraqi government has sent to parliament a landmark draft oil law, the oil minister said on Wednesday.
- U.S. President George W. Bush has vetoed legislation that would have required him to begin withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq this year.
- A coalition of Sunni militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda today denied that al-Masri had been killed.
- Iraqi parliamentarian Liqa al-Yasin read a letter from Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to U.S. President Bush during the April 28 session of parliament.
- Iran has extended $1 billion in credits for reconstruction projects in Iraq, a senior official said Tuesday ahead of an international conference on stabilizing Iraq.
- Some governments key to Iraq's future are balking at entering into an ambitious contract with the country that commits them to substantial aid in exchange for a promise of unity in Iraq within five years.
- Major-General Hussein Kamal, said the government was "trying to investigate and confirm the report" that al-Masri had been killed in a battle within his own group or by tribesmen.
- The U.N. refugee agency says it has signed an agreement with Syria to help the country cope with the health and education needs of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees.
- Hundreds of Yazidi rioters attacked the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the towns of Khana Sor and Jazira, west of Mosul, and took down the Kurdish flag and burned it, according to several Kurdish and Yazidi websites.
- Kurdish political factions operating in the Sunni Arab-dominated Province of Nineveh have become a main target for attacks by insurgent groups in the area.
- Kish Free Trade Zone and Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to expand bilateral exchanges.
- Security round-up.
- The Iraqi military has banned heavy vehicles from crossing most of Baghdad's bridges, a senior military official said on Wednesday.
- Officials in the Iraqi Ministry of Construction and Housing have asked Iraqis to be wary of vendors who sell properties belonging to the displaced under false pretences.
- Top diplomats from around the world converged on the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday for the biggest diplomatic push to solve Iraq's woes since the 2003 invasion.
