Friday, August 03, 2007
KRG approves part of own oil law
Kurdistan
(UPI) - The Kurdistan Regional government in Iraq has approved part of its own oil law while a federal law is far from approval. The KRG's Parliament met in special session Tuesday and approved four of the 62 articles of the law governing regional oil and natural gas resources, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports. Lawmaker Areez Abdullah said Parliament will continue taking up the law during upcoming special sessions.
The vast majority of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of oil is located in the Shiite-controlled south and Kurdish north. Iraq produces about 2 million barrels per day now, below the 2.6 million bpd pre-war level. Iraq's Parliament has been urged by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and pressured by President Bush to approve a federal oil law. That law is far from approval because of the varying standpoints of Iraq's political, ethnic and religious factions as well as the oil unions over how much control the central government should have over key oil fields vs. the regional/local governments as well as the role of foreign companies.
The Kurds have wanted action from Baghdad but are now moving forward on their own oil law. The KRG area is different from the violent and chaotic rest of Iraq. It has experienced relatively little violence and modest economic development. The two main KRG parties disagreed on the regional oil law last week. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, walked out of a session after its request to stall the regional law was denied.
Labels: Areez Abdullah, KRG, oil law
Situation in Basra shaky as political parties wrangle for control
Politics
(UPI) - Politics in Iraq's oil capital, Basra, are tense as its governor faces dismissal amid allegations Shiite parties are angling for control. Iraqi media reports indicate the area, where the vast majority of Iraq's 1.5 million barrels per day of oil exports are sent to market, is in danger of becoming inflamed. Mohammed Musbah al-Wa'ili, a Fadhila Party member and governor of Basra province, was dismissed in a vote dominated by another party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council.
SIIC is one of two major Shiite parties in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's governing coalition. Fadhila was a partner until it withdrew earlier this year over disagreements with Maliki's leadership. The Sadr Movement, another Shiite party with weight in Basra, has also quit Maliki's coalition, as has the largest Sunni bloc, the Accord Front.
Maliki was asked to overturn the council's vote on Wa'ili but refused. "I will appeal to the Iraqi Judicial System," Asarq al-Awsat reports Wa'ili saying. It goes on to say the Fadhila Party accuses the parties with more power in Baghdad of attempting to obtain power in Basra. It says a proposed federal oil law, which SIIC supports, will give local authorities more decision-making powers in the oil sector.
The law is far from approved as numerous political, religious and ethnic factions, as well as unions and civil society, are at odds over how strong the federal government's arm should be in the oil sector and to what extent foreign companies should be allowed. The Azzaman newspaper reports the Fadhila Party is urging its followers not to launch massive protests, as was planned, as negotiations continue.
Labels: Basra, Fadhela party, Mohammed Musbah al-Wa'ili, Sadr movement, SIIC
Iraq to offer three new mobile phone licences
Telecommunications
(Arabian Business) - Iraq is this month to offer three new mobile phone licences, according to Dow Jones Newswires. An auction will be held on August 16-17 with the winners announced on August 18, according to the report, which cited officials with one of the current operators. Iraq currently has approximately nine million mobile users in total, representing a mobile penetration rate of approximately 33%. MTC Atheer is the largest player with approximately 3.6 million subscribers to its mobile services at present.MTC in April said it was in talks with the Iraqi government to get a long-term mobile licence. It competes on the cellular market in Iraq with Orascom-owned Iraqna and Wataniya's Asiacell.
Labels: Asiacell, Iraqna, mobile phone licences, MTC Atheer, Orascom, Wataniya
Gates pessimistic about Iraq's political progress
Politics
(McClatchy newspapers) - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, returning from a four-day trip to the Middle East, offered a pessimistic view of Iraq's political progress Thursday, saying he thought that the United States had underestimated the level of distrust between the Shiite Muslim-led government and other ethnic groups.
"I just think in some ways we probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation, which, let's face it, is not just some kind of secondary thing," Gates said aboard his plane en route to Washington.
"The kinds of legislation they're talking about establish the framework of Iraq for the future, so it's almost like our constitutional convention. . . . And the difficulty in coming to grips with those we may all have underestimated six or eight months ago," when the Bush administration began implementing its policy of a U.S. troop buildup. Gates' assessment was the frankest by an administration official since the troop buildup began, and it came in the midst of heated debate in Washington about what the U.S. should do in Iraq in the face of an Iraqi government that hasn't met the benchmarks that Congress established in May.
While Gates was in the region, six Sunni Muslim ministers resigned from the Iraqi Cabinet, saying that Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a Shiite, has done nothing to meet their demands, including disbanding Shiite militias. Gates called the resignations "discouraging." The bad news continued Thursday, as Sunni Vice President Tariq al Hashemi, the only Iraqi Accordance Front member who remains in Maliki's government, told McClatchy Newspapers that he also is on the verge of resigning.
Hashemi said he'd told U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Wednesday that the Iraqi government needed a "political shock" to stop it from continuing to marginalize the Sunnis. He said that without a change, Crocker and Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, would be forced to issue a negative report on Iraq to Congress in September.
"We need these major political moves to tell everybody that what is happening is in no way tolerable," Hashemi said. "Nobody on earth or in Iraq is happy with the performance of the government."
Gates spoke at the end of a rare joint Middle East tour with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during which both warned of the growing regional threat from Shiite Iran, urged Sunni Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia to throw their support behind the Maliki government and promised U.S. support for Israel and the Palestinians in establishing a Palestinian state.
Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors expressed strong fears about the aftermath should U.S. troops pull out, but were reluctant to support the Maliki government, which Sunni politicians in Iraq accuse of turning a blind eye to Shiite militias' attacks on Sunnis.
"I just think in some ways we probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation, which, let's face it, is not just some kind of secondary thing," Gates said aboard his plane en route to Washington.
"The kinds of legislation they're talking about establish the framework of Iraq for the future, so it's almost like our constitutional convention. . . . And the difficulty in coming to grips with those we may all have underestimated six or eight months ago," when the Bush administration began implementing its policy of a U.S. troop buildup. Gates' assessment was the frankest by an administration official since the troop buildup began, and it came in the midst of heated debate in Washington about what the U.S. should do in Iraq in the face of an Iraqi government that hasn't met the benchmarks that Congress established in May.
While Gates was in the region, six Sunni Muslim ministers resigned from the Iraqi Cabinet, saying that Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a Shiite, has done nothing to meet their demands, including disbanding Shiite militias. Gates called the resignations "discouraging." The bad news continued Thursday, as Sunni Vice President Tariq al Hashemi, the only Iraqi Accordance Front member who remains in Maliki's government, told McClatchy Newspapers that he also is on the verge of resigning.
Hashemi said he'd told U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Wednesday that the Iraqi government needed a "political shock" to stop it from continuing to marginalize the Sunnis. He said that without a change, Crocker and Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, would be forced to issue a negative report on Iraq to Congress in September.
"We need these major political moves to tell everybody that what is happening is in no way tolerable," Hashemi said. "Nobody on earth or in Iraq is happy with the performance of the government."
Gates spoke at the end of a rare joint Middle East tour with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during which both warned of the growing regional threat from Shiite Iran, urged Sunni Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia to throw their support behind the Maliki government and promised U.S. support for Israel and the Palestinians in establishing a Palestinian state.
Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors expressed strong fears about the aftermath should U.S. troops pull out, but were reluctant to support the Maliki government, which Sunni politicians in Iraq accuse of turning a blind eye to Shiite militias' attacks on Sunnis.
Labels: Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, Tariq Al Hashemi
Islamic Group of Kurdistan suggest Sunnis participate in political alliance
Politics
(Kurdish Globe) - The head of the Islamic Group of Kurdistan (IGK) asks that Sunnis participate in any alliance among Kurds and Shiites. Ali Bapir, head of the IGK, said that the Council of Political Parties of Kurdistan does not agree that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) should establish a moderate alliance only with the Shiites.
The reason, according to Bapir, is that "the Shiites' situation is not good and other parties may be suspect of this alliance." The Council of Political Parties of Kurdistan consists of six members, but it still doesn't contain any Turkmen or Kaldo-Assyrian parties. A member of Kurdistan Parliament, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that due to internal problems, the Turkmen and Kaldo-Assyrians have failed to elect their representatives for the council.
Dr. Fuad Hussein, head of Kurdistan Region's Presidency Office, stated that there is a plan to invite the Iraqi Islamic Party in case any new alliance is established. Meanwhile, Mohammed Faraj, a member of the political bureau of Kurdistan Islamic Union, whose party is a member of the Council of Political Parties, showed his unawareness about the content of the plan and said that they haven't seen the project yet.
A few months ago, Massoud Barzani, regional president of Kurdistan, headed a delegation to Baghdad, where he met with some parties that participate in the Iraqi government alongside Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President. According to Hussein, the history of the issue dates back to that series of meetings and that has resumed.
"For the purpose of establishing this alliance, until now negotiations have been made with the Supreme Council of the Iraqi Revolution, Da'wa Party," Dr. Hussein said. "There are efforts to negotiate with the Islamic Party of Iraq." Stating that these plans have yet to be implemented, Dr. Hussein refuted that the former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's recent visit to Kurdistan was for that purpose. Jaafari, who is head of the Da'wa Party, visited Kurdistan Region in mid-July and met the political leadership of the region.
During his post as the Prime Minster of Iraq, Ibrahim Jaafari was accused of hindering the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which is about normalizing the situations in Kirkuk and other Arabized areas of the country and organizing a referendum at the end of this year. Allegedly, this very reason made the Kurds turn their backs on Jaffari.
Kurds attach a great importance to Article 140, since they hope the oil-rich city of Kirkuk again becomes part of Kurdistan Region. The referendum would be to decide whether people of Kirkuk are willing to be part of Kurdistan or not.
The reason, according to Bapir, is that "the Shiites' situation is not good and other parties may be suspect of this alliance." The Council of Political Parties of Kurdistan consists of six members, but it still doesn't contain any Turkmen or Kaldo-Assyrian parties. A member of Kurdistan Parliament, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that due to internal problems, the Turkmen and Kaldo-Assyrians have failed to elect their representatives for the council.
Dr. Fuad Hussein, head of Kurdistan Region's Presidency Office, stated that there is a plan to invite the Iraqi Islamic Party in case any new alliance is established. Meanwhile, Mohammed Faraj, a member of the political bureau of Kurdistan Islamic Union, whose party is a member of the Council of Political Parties, showed his unawareness about the content of the plan and said that they haven't seen the project yet.
A few months ago, Massoud Barzani, regional president of Kurdistan, headed a delegation to Baghdad, where he met with some parties that participate in the Iraqi government alongside Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President. According to Hussein, the history of the issue dates back to that series of meetings and that has resumed.
"For the purpose of establishing this alliance, until now negotiations have been made with the Supreme Council of the Iraqi Revolution, Da'wa Party," Dr. Hussein said. "There are efforts to negotiate with the Islamic Party of Iraq." Stating that these plans have yet to be implemented, Dr. Hussein refuted that the former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's recent visit to Kurdistan was for that purpose. Jaafari, who is head of the Da'wa Party, visited Kurdistan Region in mid-July and met the political leadership of the region.
During his post as the Prime Minster of Iraq, Ibrahim Jaafari was accused of hindering the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which is about normalizing the situations in Kirkuk and other Arabized areas of the country and organizing a referendum at the end of this year. Allegedly, this very reason made the Kurds turn their backs on Jaffari.
Kurds attach a great importance to Article 140, since they hope the oil-rich city of Kirkuk again becomes part of Kurdistan Region. The referendum would be to decide whether people of Kirkuk are willing to be part of Kurdistan or not.
Labels: Ali Bapir, Council of Political Parties of Kurdistan, Dawa party, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, IGK, Islamic Group of Kurdistan, Kaldo-Assyrians, KDP, PUK, Shiite Turkmen
KRG invests $350 mn. in extension of Erbil Airport
Kurdistan
(Kurdish Globe) - Director General of the Erbil International Airport, Tahir Horami, explained in an interview with The Kurdish Globe that credit for the idea of establishing the modern airport must be given to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who knew it would open up the Kurdistan Region to the rest of the world.
"This airbase needed to be drastically changed from a base that historically had been a site of destruction and disaster brought upon the Kurds, to a civil service establishment," Horami said. Now, nearly 30,000 people travel to and from Kurdistan monthly via the airport, which has also positively influenced business in the region. Immediately after it opened, construction and investment increased tremendously.
"Kurdistan was a closed zone before. Because of the neighbor's policy toward the region, some people, especially investors, were not ready to incur difficulties in order to do business in Kurdistan," he said. Due to the relative safety of Kurdistan, particularly the firm security measures taken at the airport, many other people around Iraq choose to travel via Erbil International Airport. Travelers sometimes get annoyed when passing through the check points, though. "We assure those people that the measures are for their own safety; we ask them to be more patient."
The airport, which accommodates travel to and from Baghdad, neighboring countries, and a number of European countries, is receiving more passengers than it expected to. They are building a new, longer runway and a bigger terminal building with modern standards, Horami said. The KRG has dedicated $350 million(USD) to the airport, most of it to be spent on a new project designed by the Scott Wilson group (a British company) and executed by Macul (a Turkish company).
The new landing strip currently under construction will be one of the biggest in the world, 4.8 kilometers long and 90 meters wide. Horami announced that the project would be finished at the end of 2007 and will then be able to accommodate the world's biggest planes, such as a Boeing 777 or an Airbus A380. The project's terminal will be wide enough to receive 3 million passengers annually.
"This airbase needed to be drastically changed from a base that historically had been a site of destruction and disaster brought upon the Kurds, to a civil service establishment," Horami said. Now, nearly 30,000 people travel to and from Kurdistan monthly via the airport, which has also positively influenced business in the region. Immediately after it opened, construction and investment increased tremendously.
"Kurdistan was a closed zone before. Because of the neighbor's policy toward the region, some people, especially investors, were not ready to incur difficulties in order to do business in Kurdistan," he said. Due to the relative safety of Kurdistan, particularly the firm security measures taken at the airport, many other people around Iraq choose to travel via Erbil International Airport. Travelers sometimes get annoyed when passing through the check points, though. "We assure those people that the measures are for their own safety; we ask them to be more patient."
The airport, which accommodates travel to and from Baghdad, neighboring countries, and a number of European countries, is receiving more passengers than it expected to. They are building a new, longer runway and a bigger terminal building with modern standards, Horami said. The KRG has dedicated $350 million(USD) to the airport, most of it to be spent on a new project designed by the Scott Wilson group (a British company) and executed by Macul (a Turkish company).
The new landing strip currently under construction will be one of the biggest in the world, 4.8 kilometers long and 90 meters wide. Horami announced that the project would be finished at the end of 2007 and will then be able to accommodate the world's biggest planes, such as a Boeing 777 or an Airbus A380. The project's terminal will be wide enough to receive 3 million passengers annually.
Labels: Erbil International Airport, KRG, Macul, Scott Wilson group, Tahir Horami
Concern grows among Iraqi politicians following IAF withdrawal
Politics
(Voices of Iraq) - Iraqi politicians demonstrated their concerns about the implications of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front's (IAF) withdrawal from the government for the future of the Iraqi political process. Stressing the Iraqi political process's need for reform, MP Maisoon al-Damlouji from the Iraqi National Slate told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), "The political process, which is based on a sectarian quota system, is about to fall. We have to handle the situation before reaching the point of no return."
Urging Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to listen to the IAF's demands, al-Damlouji said that constructive dialogue at the current time is necessary for discussing all unresolved issues. "The IAF, the National Slate, the Sadrist movement, al-Fadila Party and the National Dialogue Front (NDF) are equally dissatisfied with the current situation… The Iraqi prime minister must listen to what we are saying before it is too late," al-Damlouji indicated.
The mostly secular Iraqi National Slate, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, holds 24 seats in the Iraqi parliament. Khalaf al-Alian, a leading IAF member, described the current Iraqi political process as a "failure" and indicated that the departure of his front, along with the Sadrist movement, from the government is a clear sign that al-Maliki's government is becoming increasingly unpopular in the Iraqi street. According to al-Alian, al-Maliki has two choices: to form a government of independent technocrats or to step down in favor of a more qualified person.
Meanwhile, MP Ali al-Alaq from the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), the largest parliamentary bloc with 111 seats, told VOI that the IAF's decision does not necessarily indicate retrogression in the political process, which he is said is "working fine."
Displaying pessimism about the future of the Iraqi political process, Hadi Aliwa, a political analyst, held the Iraqi government and parliamentary blocs responsible for the "failure" to reach political consensus. "Each bloc is working on its own. Several regional and international factors, the most important of which is the U.S. occupation, are affecting the political process," Aliwa explained.
The mostly secular Iraqi National Slate, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, holds 24 seats in the Iraqi parliament. Khalaf al-Alian, a leading IAF member, described the current Iraqi political process as a "failure" and indicated that the departure of his front, along with the Sadrist movement, from the government is a clear sign that al-Maliki's government is becoming increasingly unpopular in the Iraqi street. According to al-Alian, al-Maliki has two choices: to form a government of independent technocrats or to step down in favor of a more qualified person.
Meanwhile, MP Ali al-Alaq from the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), the largest parliamentary bloc with 111 seats, told VOI that the IAF's decision does not necessarily indicate retrogression in the political process, which he is said is "working fine."
Displaying pessimism about the future of the Iraqi political process, Hadi Aliwa, a political analyst, held the Iraqi government and parliamentary blocs responsible for the "failure" to reach political consensus. "Each bloc is working on its own. Several regional and international factors, the most important of which is the U.S. occupation, are affecting the political process," Aliwa explained.
Labels: Fadhela party, Iraqi Accordance Front, Iraqi National Slate, Maisoon al-Damlouji, National Dialogue Front, Sadrist bloc, Tawafuq Front, Unified Iraqi Coalition
Iraqi National List considers withdrawal from government
Politics
(Voices of Iraq) - A member in the Iraqi National List (INL) said on Thursday that his bloc is considering withdrawing from the Iraqi government, stressing that the withdrawal, if it happens, will be an outcome of the front's stance, not another bloc’s position. "A withdrawal decision of the (INL) ministers has not been made yet," Osama al-Negefi, an INL MP, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) by telephone.
"We have reservations about the government's performance and we presented a memorandum regarding this three months ago… in which we asked to reform the political process," he said, noting that the withdrawal option is open if demands are not met. The Iraqi National List is a secular bloc and the fourth largest bloc with 25 seats out of the 275-member parliament. The parliamentary bloc has four portfolios within al-Maliki's government.
He stressed that if the bloc withdraws from the government this will be an outcome of their position, not that of the Iraqi Accordance Front. The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) announced on Wednesday its withdrawal from the government and the resignation of five ministers in addition to Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie. The IAF had 44 seats in the parliament and it is the third largest bloc after the Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) and the Kurdistan Coalition (KC).
"The memorandum presented by the INL has 14 points, and we said that the political process had deviated from its right track and the security file was in the hands of a group belonging to certain parties," al-Negefi said. "The memorandum also included (demands concerning) the participation of some parties not included in the political process, the national reconciliation project and the detainees file," the legislator noted.
MP from the same bloc, Mayson al-Demlougi, said that their demands were ignored by al-Maliki's government, saying "we feel marginalized." She urged the premier to listen carefully to the demands of other blocs, which have reservations about the government's performance, warning of grave consequences if the current government keeps on ignoring blocs' demands.
Head of the INL, Iyad Allawi, described in a televised interview on Wednesday, after the withdrawal of the IAF, the current government as "a sectarian government," considering the withdrawal of the IAF as "a collapse of the political process," highlighting that his front is considering making a similar step.
"We have reservations about the government's performance and we presented a memorandum regarding this three months ago… in which we asked to reform the political process," he said, noting that the withdrawal option is open if demands are not met. The Iraqi National List is a secular bloc and the fourth largest bloc with 25 seats out of the 275-member parliament. The parliamentary bloc has four portfolios within al-Maliki's government.
He stressed that if the bloc withdraws from the government this will be an outcome of their position, not that of the Iraqi Accordance Front. The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) announced on Wednesday its withdrawal from the government and the resignation of five ministers in addition to Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie. The IAF had 44 seats in the parliament and it is the third largest bloc after the Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) and the Kurdistan Coalition (KC).
"The memorandum presented by the INL has 14 points, and we said that the political process had deviated from its right track and the security file was in the hands of a group belonging to certain parties," al-Negefi said. "The memorandum also included (demands concerning) the participation of some parties not included in the political process, the national reconciliation project and the detainees file," the legislator noted.
MP from the same bloc, Mayson al-Demlougi, said that their demands were ignored by al-Maliki's government, saying "we feel marginalized." She urged the premier to listen carefully to the demands of other blocs, which have reservations about the government's performance, warning of grave consequences if the current government keeps on ignoring blocs' demands.
Head of the INL, Iyad Allawi, described in a televised interview on Wednesday, after the withdrawal of the IAF, the current government as "a sectarian government," considering the withdrawal of the IAF as "a collapse of the political process," highlighting that his front is considering making a similar step.
Labels: Iraqi Accordance Front, Iraqi National List, Iyad Allawi, Osama al-Negefi
Former regime security personnel to attend conference
Security
(Azzaman) - Intelligence and security personnel who served under former leader Saddam Hussein have the right to attend a conference to discuss their problems, a senior official said. Rasheed Saleh al-Naseri, the head of the so-called “disbanded entities”, said the government was ready to listen to all those who served the former regime as members of security and intelligence organizations.
The move comes as the government has asked all these members, whether inside or outside Iraq, to fill in special forms in order to have them rehabilitated. Those living abroad can do so by completing these forms electronically, he said. Naseri said the government was serious to give everyone the opportunity of returning to work or getting a decent pension.
“Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered that no member of the entities which were disbanded, regardless of their position and function, should be be excluded. “The authorities should swiftly process their application to return to work or their desire to retire, Naseri said, quoting Maliki. “This decision is a gain for the Iraqi family and those covered will have all their privileges and salaries given to them retroactively,” he said.
“I call on the personnel of the former intelligence to organize a special conference to discuss the best ways to solve their problems. I guarantee that all will get their full rights. “We need them to work with us to rebuild the country. Intelligence and security are the basic pillars of a secure society,” he said. Asked whether Maliki’s ruling covers even members of “coercive organs”, Nasseri said he was not happy with term and whether a person or institution was oppressive it was for the courts to decide.
The disbanding of former institutions such as the army, the police, security, intelligence and information is believed to be one of the main reasons behind the upsurge in violence and anti-government and U.S. rebellion. Analysts say the government should have taken such a decision long time ago since hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have suffered hugely from the decision to disband the armed forces and security organs.
The move comes as the government has asked all these members, whether inside or outside Iraq, to fill in special forms in order to have them rehabilitated. Those living abroad can do so by completing these forms electronically, he said. Naseri said the government was serious to give everyone the opportunity of returning to work or getting a decent pension.
“Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered that no member of the entities which were disbanded, regardless of their position and function, should be be excluded. “The authorities should swiftly process their application to return to work or their desire to retire, Naseri said, quoting Maliki. “This decision is a gain for the Iraqi family and those covered will have all their privileges and salaries given to them retroactively,” he said.
“I call on the personnel of the former intelligence to organize a special conference to discuss the best ways to solve their problems. I guarantee that all will get their full rights. “We need them to work with us to rebuild the country. Intelligence and security are the basic pillars of a secure society,” he said. Asked whether Maliki’s ruling covers even members of “coercive organs”, Nasseri said he was not happy with term and whether a person or institution was oppressive it was for the courts to decide.
The disbanding of former institutions such as the army, the police, security, intelligence and information is believed to be one of the main reasons behind the upsurge in violence and anti-government and U.S. rebellion. Analysts say the government should have taken such a decision long time ago since hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have suffered hugely from the decision to disband the armed forces and security organs.
Labels: disbanded entities, former security forces, pensions, Rasheed Saleh al-Naseri
Maliki to visit Turkey and Iran
Regional
(AP) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will visit Iran and Turkey next week to discuss security issues and the need for cooperation amid tensions with both countries. The Shiite leader will lead a delegation to Turkey on Tuesday and to Iran the next day "to discuss the bilateral relations between Iraq and these two countries in the political, economic and security fields," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
The trips had been expected as Iraq seeks help from its neighbors in trying to end its rampant violence. Al-Maliki is likely to focus on persuading Turkey not to stage an incursion into the Kurdish north. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who invited al-Maliki last month, warned the Turkish military would act if the United States and Iraqi leaders failed to stem the Kurdish guerrillas operating from bases in northern Iraq.
The trip to Iran will be al-Maliki's second since taking office in May 2006. He has appealed to the close ally of his Shiite-led government for help in calming violence and developing Iraq's troubled oil industry. Iraq also needs to balance its relationships with Iran and the United States. Al-Maliki's Dawa Party is closely allied with Iran as are other Shiite parties in his government. The prime minister lived in Iran for part of his long exile during Saddam Hussein's rule. But Washington has accused Iran of fueling the violence in Iraq by training Shiite extremists and providing weapons for anti-U.S. activity. Iran denies the allegations.
The Iraqi government has said it wants good relations with Iran while insisting there should be no interference in its internal affairs. The U.S. and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq held rare talks in Baghdad on July 24 and agreed to set up a security subcommittee to carry forward talks on restoring stability in Iraq.
The trips had been expected as Iraq seeks help from its neighbors in trying to end its rampant violence. Al-Maliki is likely to focus on persuading Turkey not to stage an incursion into the Kurdish north. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who invited al-Maliki last month, warned the Turkish military would act if the United States and Iraqi leaders failed to stem the Kurdish guerrillas operating from bases in northern Iraq.
The trip to Iran will be al-Maliki's second since taking office in May 2006. He has appealed to the close ally of his Shiite-led government for help in calming violence and developing Iraq's troubled oil industry. Iraq also needs to balance its relationships with Iran and the United States. Al-Maliki's Dawa Party is closely allied with Iran as are other Shiite parties in his government. The prime minister lived in Iran for part of his long exile during Saddam Hussein's rule. But Washington has accused Iran of fueling the violence in Iraq by training Shiite extremists and providing weapons for anti-U.S. activity. Iran denies the allegations.
The Iraqi government has said it wants good relations with Iran while insisting there should be no interference in its internal affairs. The U.S. and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq held rare talks in Baghdad on July 24 and agreed to set up a security subcommittee to carry forward talks on restoring stability in Iraq.
Labels: Iran, Nouri Al-Maliki, Turkey
UNSC Iraq resolution may be approved soon
U.N.
(Al Jazeera) - A draft UN Security Council resolution to expand the world body's mandate in Iraq is expected to be approved soon. The draft sponsored by the US and Britain will give the UN scope to help promote political reconciliation, settle disputed internal boundaries, and plan for a national census. "I think it will get voted early next week," Emyr Jones Parry, Britain's ambassador to the UN, said. "There's no problem on it - it's straight forward."
Britain circulated the resolution to the other Security Council members on Wednesday and council experts went over the text. The experts were expected to meet again on Friday. Russia signalled its assent on Thursday, making approval by the Security Council almost certain. Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, said on Thursday that "it's overall a good draft ... I don't see any basic problems."
Britain circulated the resolution to the other Security Council members on Wednesday and council experts went over the text. The experts were expected to meet again on Friday. Russia signalled its assent on Thursday, making approval by the Security Council almost certain. Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, said on Thursday that "it's overall a good draft ... I don't see any basic problems."
The UN secretary-general has been under pressure from the US to expand the world body's role in Iraq. Ban Ki-moon said in June he would consider it, but said deteriorating security in Iraq was an obstacle. The small UN Mission in Iraq has helped to organise elections, promote a national dialogue, and develop institutions for representative government. Its current mandate expires next Friday.
The draft would extend the mission's mandate for a year and authorise it to help organise reintegration programmes for former combatants, assist the return of refugees and displaced people, and promote economic reform and the development of an effective civil service and social services for the Iraqi people.
It would also be asked to promote human rights and judicial and legal reforms "in order to strengthen the rule of law" and to assist the government "on initial planning for a comprehensive census". Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general, pulled all UN international staff out of Iraq in October 2003 after a spate of attacks on humanitarian workers and two bombings at UN headquarters in Baghdad killed dozens, including the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
In August 2004, Annan allowed a small U.N. contingent to return to Baghdad and imposed a ceiling of 35 international workers, which has steadily increased but remains relatively low because of the security situation.
The new mandate, if approved, would come as the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate. Besides daily violence, residents in Baghdad have had their taps run dry at the height of summer when temperatures are close to 50 degrees celsius. Residents and city officials said on Thursday that large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days because the already strained electricity grid could not provide sufficient power to run water purification and pumping stations.
The problem highlights the larger difficulties in a capital beset by violence, crumbling infrastructure, rampant crime and too little electricity to keep cool in the sweltering weather more than four years after the US-led invasion.
The draft would extend the mission's mandate for a year and authorise it to help organise reintegration programmes for former combatants, assist the return of refugees and displaced people, and promote economic reform and the development of an effective civil service and social services for the Iraqi people.
It would also be asked to promote human rights and judicial and legal reforms "in order to strengthen the rule of law" and to assist the government "on initial planning for a comprehensive census". Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general, pulled all UN international staff out of Iraq in October 2003 after a spate of attacks on humanitarian workers and two bombings at UN headquarters in Baghdad killed dozens, including the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
In August 2004, Annan allowed a small U.N. contingent to return to Baghdad and imposed a ceiling of 35 international workers, which has steadily increased but remains relatively low because of the security situation.
The new mandate, if approved, would come as the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate. Besides daily violence, residents in Baghdad have had their taps run dry at the height of summer when temperatures are close to 50 degrees celsius. Residents and city officials said on Thursday that large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days because the already strained electricity grid could not provide sufficient power to run water purification and pumping stations.
The problem highlights the larger difficulties in a capital beset by violence, crumbling infrastructure, rampant crime and too little electricity to keep cool in the sweltering weather more than four years after the US-led invasion.
Labels: draft resolution, electricity, Emyr Jones Parry, Russia, UNAMI, UNSC, water
Second Sistani aide murdered in two weeks
Security
(AP) - On Friday, an aide to Iraq's top cleric was killed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, a security official there said on condition of anonymity out of safety concerns. Fadhil al-Akil was in charge of collecting a Shiite religious tax known as "khoms," which is paid to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and used to run his seminaries and charities.
Gunmen approached al-Akil and shot him dead around 10:30 p.m. Thursday, the security official said. He was the second al-Sistani aide murdered in less than two weeks, raising questions about the Shiite cleric's own safety. Sheik Abdullah Falak al-Basrawi, who also collected religious taxes for al-Sistani, was stabbed to death inside the cleric's fortified compound on July 27 or 28th, police said, and a security guard was arrested afterward.
A month earlier, yet another aide was killed in a drive-by shooting. It is unclear whether the killings are part of internal Shiite disputes or the work of Sunni insurgents opposed to the vast influence enjoyed by al-Sistani over Iraqi Shiites and politics.
Al-Sistani, who rarely leaves his compound and doesn't grant media interviews, has been the target of at least one assassination attempt since 2003. The cleric, who is in his 70s, commands the deep respect of Iraq's majority Shiites. A death other than one of natural causes could spark riots by millions of his followers and fuel more sectarian violence.
Najaf has been relatively safe compared to the violence in Baghdad or other cities in the volatile center and north of Iraq, but a series of unsolved murders in recent months have struck clerics, academics and security officials. None of the killings had an obvious motive or could be linked to tribal, personal or religious disputes.
Gunmen approached al-Akil and shot him dead around 10:30 p.m. Thursday, the security official said. He was the second al-Sistani aide murdered in less than two weeks, raising questions about the Shiite cleric's own safety. Sheik Abdullah Falak al-Basrawi, who also collected religious taxes for al-Sistani, was stabbed to death inside the cleric's fortified compound on July 27 or 28th, police said, and a security guard was arrested afterward.
A month earlier, yet another aide was killed in a drive-by shooting. It is unclear whether the killings are part of internal Shiite disputes or the work of Sunni insurgents opposed to the vast influence enjoyed by al-Sistani over Iraqi Shiites and politics.
Al-Sistani, who rarely leaves his compound and doesn't grant media interviews, has been the target of at least one assassination attempt since 2003. The cleric, who is in his 70s, commands the deep respect of Iraq's majority Shiites. A death other than one of natural causes could spark riots by millions of his followers and fuel more sectarian violence.
Najaf has been relatively safe compared to the violence in Baghdad or other cities in the volatile center and north of Iraq, but a series of unsolved murders in recent months have struck clerics, academics and security officials. None of the killings had an obvious motive or could be linked to tribal, personal or religious disputes.
Labels: Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Fadhil al-Akil, khoms, Najaf, Sheik Abdullah Falak al-Basrawi
Asian Cup Iraqi football champions fear for their lives
Sport
(AP) - Iraq anxiously awaited the arrival of its Asian Cup soccer champs Friday, but most Baghdad residents would be barred from the homecoming celebration because of security. Iraq's soccer team, which hasn't played a home game in 17 years, was due to land at Baghdad's international airport Friday afternoon. Iraqi officials, led by the minister of sport and youth, would receive them, ministry spokesman Hassan Qassim said. The team would then go to meet Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at his office in the heavily fortified Green Zone, said Yassin Majid, al-Maliki's media adviser.
But three players - team captain Younis Mahmoud, Nashat Akram and Hawar Mulla Mohammed - would not be with them. Mahmoud, who scored the winning goal in Iraq's 1-0 Asian Cup final win over Saudi Arabia, had said he feared for his life if he returned to Iraq to celebrate the stunning victory. Qassim said a welcome-home celebration would be held in a Baghdad hotel in the Green Zone, home to the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.
"I wish the celebration would take place in al-Shaab stadium, but that is impossible for security reasons," said Mohammed Kadhom, 35, who works at the country's oil ministry. Al-Shaab is a huge, Saddam Hussein-era facility on the capital's east side. "It is sad that we can't receive our national team in a public celebration as others do, I myself fear for their safety," Kadhom said.
Vehicles were banned from Baghdad's streets for four hours coinciding with prayer services on Friday, for a regular weekly curfew on the Muslim holy day. Several rings of security around the Green Zone would prevent ordinary Iraqis from welcoming the team, which has already had celebrations in Dubai and Amman en route back from Indonesia, where the winning match was played.
But three players - team captain Younis Mahmoud, Nashat Akram and Hawar Mulla Mohammed - would not be with them. Mahmoud, who scored the winning goal in Iraq's 1-0 Asian Cup final win over Saudi Arabia, had said he feared for his life if he returned to Iraq to celebrate the stunning victory. Qassim said a welcome-home celebration would be held in a Baghdad hotel in the Green Zone, home to the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.
"I wish the celebration would take place in al-Shaab stadium, but that is impossible for security reasons," said Mohammed Kadhom, 35, who works at the country's oil ministry. Al-Shaab is a huge, Saddam Hussein-era facility on the capital's east side. "It is sad that we can't receive our national team in a public celebration as others do, I myself fear for their safety," Kadhom said.
Vehicles were banned from Baghdad's streets for four hours coinciding with prayer services on Friday, for a regular weekly curfew on the Muslim holy day. Several rings of security around the Green Zone would prevent ordinary Iraqis from welcoming the team, which has already had celebrations in Dubai and Amman en route back from Indonesia, where the winning match was played.
Labels: Asian Cup final, football, Green Zone, Hawar Mulla Mohammed, Nashat Akram, soccer, vehicle ban, Younis Mahmoud
IAF spokesman accuses Maliki of running a 'non-inclusive' govt
Politics
(RFE/RL) - Iraqi Accordance Front spokesman Salim al-Juburi told Al-Jazeera television in an August 2 interview that the Sunni-led bloc's withdrawal from the Iraqi cabinet sent a clear message to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the importance of inclusion. "The front is an important factor [in the political landscape] that cannot be ignored, and what is significant about its withdrawal is that it stripped the al-Maliki government of its status as a national-unity government," al-Juburi said.
"What matters is that the government failed in creating a partnership [with Sunni Arabs], and this is a lesson that all future governments must understand," he added. The Accordance Front has long accused al-Maliki of keeping its members out of the decision-making process. Al-Juburi accused the U.S. administration of trying to make the Iraqi political process appear successful at any cost, regardless of the level of actual Sunni Arab participation. Al-Juburi told Al-Jazeera that the front's members in parliament will remain on the job, adding that the front believes it can use the parliamentarians to pressure the government to follow through with needed reforms.
Labels: Iraqi Accordance Front, Iraqi government, Nouri Al-Maliki, Salim al-Juburi, Tawafuq Front
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Peshmerga to protect power towers
Security
(VOI) - The Iraqi Kurdistan region's government is ready to send 12,000 Kurdish Peshmerga troops (Kurdistan national guard) to protect power towers, the spokesman for the peshmerga said on Sunday. "We're waiting for the approval of the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki," Jabbar Yawir, the undersecretary of the ministry of Peshmerga affairs, said.
He said "we are in agreement with the central government in Baghdad to send 6,000 troops to protect power facilities on the Taza-Baiji highway. "He pointed out that the central defense ministry in Baghdad has asked the Iraqi Kurdistan government in a meeting in Erbil, the region's capital, earlier in July for dispatching 6,000 Peshmerga soldiers to protect the oil pipeline in the district of al-Shurqat, 80 km south of Mosul, which leads to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The Kurdish 2nd Brigade Commander, Anwar Hama Amin, had said on Saturday that Kurdish Peshmerga forces will be deployed in several areas of Kirkuk to protect power towers and oil installations. "Bringing the Peshmarga to the province is part of an agreement and a protocol signed between the General Commander of the armed forces, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the President of Iraqi Kurdistan region, Masoud Barazani," said Amin in a press conference held on Saturday at the military training base of K1 in Kirkuk.
The Kurdish 2nd Brigade Commander, Anwar Hama Amin, had said on Saturday that Kurdish Peshmerga forces will be deployed in several areas of Kirkuk to protect power towers and oil installations. "Bringing the Peshmarga to the province is part of an agreement and a protocol signed between the General Commander of the armed forces, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the President of Iraqi Kurdistan region, Masoud Barazani," said Amin in a press conference held on Saturday at the military training base of K1 in Kirkuk.
Labels: al-Shurqat, Kirkuk, Kurdistan national guard, Major General Jabbar Yawir, Peshmerga, power towers, Taza-Baiji highway
Film released on U.S. occupation of Iraq
Film
The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality. Based on over 200 hours of footage, the film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003) as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts.
NO END IN SIGHT examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy – the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, and the disbanding of the Iraqi military – largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today. How did a group of men with little or no military experience, knowledge of the Arab world or personal experience in Iraq come to make such flagrantly debilitating decisions? NO END IN SIGHT dissects the people, issues and facts behind the Bush Administration’s decisions and their consequences on the ground to provide a powerful look into how arrogance and ignorance turned a military victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war. NO END SIGHT alternates between U.S. policy decisions and Iraqi consequences, systematically dissecting the Bush Administration’s decisions. The consequences of those decisions now include 3,000 American deaths and 20,000 American wounded, Iraq on the brink of civil war, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, the strengthening of Iran, the weakening of the U.S. military, and economic costs of over $2 trillion. It marks the first time Americans will be allowed inside the White House, Pentagon, and Baghdad’s Green Zone to understand for themselves what has become the disintegration of Iraq.
NO END IN SIGHT examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy – the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, and the disbanding of the Iraqi military – largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today. How did a group of men with little or no military experience, knowledge of the Arab world or personal experience in Iraq come to make such flagrantly debilitating decisions? NO END IN SIGHT dissects the people, issues and facts behind the Bush Administration’s decisions and their consequences on the ground to provide a powerful look into how arrogance and ignorance turned a military victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war. NO END SIGHT alternates between U.S. policy decisions and Iraqi consequences, systematically dissecting the Bush Administration’s decisions. The consequences of those decisions now include 3,000 American deaths and 20,000 American wounded, Iraq on the brink of civil war, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, the strengthening of Iran, the weakening of the U.S. military, and economic costs of over $2 trillion. It marks the first time Americans will be allowed inside the White House, Pentagon, and Baghdad’s Green Zone to understand for themselves what has become the disintegration of Iraq.
Labels: film, No End in Sight, U.S. occupation of Iraq
Danes withdraw, hand over to British Army
Military
(Voices of Iraq) - Danish forces handed over their remaining missions to the British army and started withdrawing the rest of their troops from Basra, the media spokesman for the Multi-National Forces in Southern Iraq said on Wednesday.
"Danish ground forces handed their missions to the British army so as to start pulling out the rest of their troops from Basra," Major Matthew Bird told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "Four Danish helicopters arrived at the Basra international airport, northwest of Basra, while 50 Danish soldiers left to back the choppers," he added.
Denmark had 470 soldiers working among the Multi-National troops in Iraq under British command. 250 left the country last week, before the scheduled time for withdrawal on August 10, 2007. The European country was considered one of the U.S.'s allies in its invasion in March 2003.
"Danish ground forces handed their missions to the British army so as to start pulling out the rest of their troops from Basra," Major Matthew Bird told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "Four Danish helicopters arrived at the Basra international airport, northwest of Basra, while 50 Danish soldiers left to back the choppers," he added.
Denmark had 470 soldiers working among the Multi-National troops in Iraq under British command. 250 left the country last week, before the scheduled time for withdrawal on August 10, 2007. The European country was considered one of the U.S.'s allies in its invasion in March 2003.
Labels: Basra, British army, Danish troops, Major Matthew Bird, troop withdrawal
Allawi's party office raided
Politics
(Voices of Iraq) - The National Accord Movement (NAM), headed by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, denounced on Wednesday raids on its office in Adhamiyah neighborhood in northern Baghdad by a joint Iraqi-U.S. force. "The forces tied up security guards, destroyed the office's doors and stole its contents," the movement said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
No comment was available from the U.S. army on the incident. "This was not the first time the movement's offices were attacked by Iraqi army and police forces," the statement also said. "Some of the movement's members were arrested two weeks ago in the city of Karbala," the statement added, noting that such measures show chaos in government's security institutions, which must protect citizens not attack them," it also said.
The movement urged the government to immediately free all captives and provide them with protection.
The NAM is one of the main components of the Iraqi National List, which has 25 seats out of the 275-seat parliament.
No comment was available from the U.S. army on the incident. "This was not the first time the movement's offices were attacked by Iraqi army and police forces," the statement also said. "Some of the movement's members were arrested two weeks ago in the city of Karbala," the statement added, noting that such measures show chaos in government's security institutions, which must protect citizens not attack them," it also said.
The movement urged the government to immediately free all captives and provide them with protection.
The NAM is one of the main components of the Iraqi National List, which has 25 seats out of the 275-seat parliament.
Labels: Ayad Allawi, NAM, National Accord Movement
Barzani warns of civil war if Baghdad govt do not implement Kirkuk clause
Kurdistan
(AP) - The leader of Iraq's Kurdish region warned Tuesday of a "real civil war" if the central government does not implement a constitutional clause on the future of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city claimed by the Kurds. Control over Kirkuk and the surrounding oil wealth is in dispute among the city's Kurdish, Arab and ethnic Turkish populations. Nationally, the dispute pits the Kurds, who want to annex it to their autonomous region in northern Iraq, against the country's Arab majority and its small minority of Turks, known locally as Turkomen.
Massoud Barzani, speaking in an interview with U.S.-funded Alhurra television, complained that the Baghdad government was dragging its feet on holding a referendum that could put Kirkuk under control of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. "There is procrastination (by the government) and if this issue is not resolved, as I said before, all options are open. ... Frankly I am not comfortable with the behavior and the policy of the federal government on Kirkuk and clause 140," he said.
The constitutional clause calls for a referendum in Kirkuk to decide its future status by the end of the year. Before the vote, the clause says Kurds expelled from the city during Saddam Hussein's rule must be allowed to return. A census would then be held to determine which ethnic group was a majority of the population. Tens of thousands of Kurds have returned to the city since Saddam's ouster in 2003, but a census has not been conducted.
"The Kurds will never relinquish or bargain over Kirkuk, but we accepted to regain Kirkuk through constitutional and legal methods. But if we despair of those constitutional and legal methods, then we will have the right to resort to other means," Barzani warned. "If clause 140 is not implemented, then there will be a real civil war," Barzani said, promising to visit Baghdad shortly to discuss the matter with the central government.
A blueprint for Kirkuk's future was laid out in Iraq's 2005 constitution, but the city is widely viewed as a time bomb that could plunge Iraq deeper into crisis and violence. Barzani accused unidentified countries of trying to delay a resolution of the Kirkuk issue and urged the Baghdad government not to succumb to regional pressures. It was clear he was referring to Turkey, where separatist Kurdish guerrillas are fighting government forces in the southeast of the country. Al-Maliki is due to visit Turkey in early August.
Adnan al-Mufti, the speaker of the Kurdish parliament, also criticized the central government's handling of the Kirkuk issue, saying it was partly to blame for missing a July 31 deadline to produce lists of eligible voters in the city and its surrounding districts. The lists were to be compiled by a Baghdad-based government commission that includes Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen officials.
"It is not completely the fault of the federal government because we do understand that the deteriorating security situation in Kirkuk has played a role in this delay," al-Mufti said. "The census issue is only part of the article and failing to carry it on time does not mean a total failure. We should work hard and fast with the federal government because we have limited time," he told The Associated Press from Irbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Barzani told the television interviewer that Kurdish nationhood was a "reality" rather than a dream. A Kurdish homeland, he said, was a "natural right for a nation of more than 50 million people in the Middle East. Why should we be denied this right?" He ruled out, however, the use of violence to establish a Kurdish homeland, a prospect that worries Iran, Turkey and Syria because it would set a dangerous precedent for their own restive Kurdish minorities. "It's a legitimate right but it must be realized at the suitable time," Barzani said of establishing a Kurdish nation.
Massoud Barzani, speaking in an interview with U.S.-funded Alhurra television, complained that the Baghdad government was dragging its feet on holding a referendum that could put Kirkuk under control of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. "There is procrastination (by the government) and if this issue is not resolved, as I said before, all options are open. ... Frankly I am not comfortable with the behavior and the policy of the federal government on Kirkuk and clause 140," he said.
The constitutional clause calls for a referendum in Kirkuk to decide its future status by the end of the year. Before the vote, the clause says Kurds expelled from the city during Saddam Hussein's rule must be allowed to return. A census would then be held to determine which ethnic group was a majority of the population. Tens of thousands of Kurds have returned to the city since Saddam's ouster in 2003, but a census has not been conducted.
"The Kurds will never relinquish or bargain over Kirkuk, but we accepted to regain Kirkuk through constitutional and legal methods. But if we despair of those constitutional and legal methods, then we will have the right to resort to other means," Barzani warned. "If clause 140 is not implemented, then there will be a real civil war," Barzani said, promising to visit Baghdad shortly to discuss the matter with the central government.
A blueprint for Kirkuk's future was laid out in Iraq's 2005 constitution, but the city is widely viewed as a time bomb that could plunge Iraq deeper into crisis and violence. Barzani accused unidentified countries of trying to delay a resolution of the Kirkuk issue and urged the Baghdad government not to succumb to regional pressures. It was clear he was referring to Turkey, where separatist Kurdish guerrillas are fighting government forces in the southeast of the country. Al-Maliki is due to visit Turkey in early August.
Adnan al-Mufti, the speaker of the Kurdish parliament, also criticized the central government's handling of the Kirkuk issue, saying it was partly to blame for missing a July 31 deadline to produce lists of eligible voters in the city and its surrounding districts. The lists were to be compiled by a Baghdad-based government commission that includes Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen officials.
"It is not completely the fault of the federal government because we do understand that the deteriorating security situation in Kirkuk has played a role in this delay," al-Mufti said. "The census issue is only part of the article and failing to carry it on time does not mean a total failure. We should work hard and fast with the federal government because we have limited time," he told The Associated Press from Irbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Barzani told the television interviewer that Kurdish nationhood was a "reality" rather than a dream. A Kurdish homeland, he said, was a "natural right for a nation of more than 50 million people in the Middle East. Why should we be denied this right?" He ruled out, however, the use of violence to establish a Kurdish homeland, a prospect that worries Iran, Turkey and Syria because it would set a dangerous precedent for their own restive Kurdish minorities. "It's a legitimate right but it must be realized at the suitable time," Barzani said of establishing a Kurdish nation.
Labels: Adnan al-Mufti, Article 140, Kirkuk, Massoud Barzani
Iraqi govt misses deadline on compiling electoral roll for referendum
Politics
(Financial Times) - Iraq's government has missed its deadline to compile a list of people eligible to vote in a December referendum that will determine the fate of a large, oil-rich and bitterly disputed swathe of the country, officials of northern Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region said yesterday.
Politicians from the Shia-led bloc that dominates the government and the Kurdish parties that are its main allies had agreed before the formation of the national unity government in June 2006 that today would be the deadline for a "census" of the inhabitants of Kirkuk and other "disputed territories" of northern Iraq. However, the deadline appears to have passed without a census being completed, raising doubts as to whether the government is willing to follow through on its commitments.
The failure to meet the deadline "shows a lack of seriousness from all parties to implement. . . articles that were in the constitution that people had agreed and voted upon," said Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the Kurdistan regional government's department of foreign relations. For many Kurds, the referendum is a chance to reclaim Kirkuk, which Jalal Talabani, Iraq's Kurdish president, has called the "Jerusalem of Kurdistan" - a historic capital purged of much of its non-Arab population by the regime of Saddam Hussein, the deposed leader.
But although Iraq's constitution calls for the referendum - which would ask people whether they wished to be part of the Kurdistan autonomous region - to be held no later than December 31, many Sunni and Shia Arabs strongly oppose Kirkuk ever becoming part of Kurdistan. The Article 140 process - designed to undo the "Arabisation" policies pursued by Saddam aimed at solidifying Arab control of northern oilfields - has also drawn criticism from others who fear it will feed instability.
The former regime pushed Kurds and other non-Arabs out. Arab settlers were brought in from other parts of the country, particularly the Shia south. In addition, it shuffled the borders of the region's provinces, handing away slices of Kirkuk to its neighbours in what Kurdish officials claim was an attempt at gerrymandering, ensuring the north's main oilfields were in an Arab-majority province.
To reverse this demographic engineering, Arab settlers are to be offered nearly $16,000 in compensation and land in their home provinces to leave. Kurdish officials claim 16,000 families have voluntarily signed up. Iraq's presidency council was supposed to have addressed the border issue by restoring the north's pre-Arabisation administrative boundaries. But the approval of parliament has yet to be granted.
Politicians from the Shia-led bloc that dominates the government and the Kurdish parties that are its main allies had agreed before the formation of the national unity government in June 2006 that today would be the deadline for a "census" of the inhabitants of Kirkuk and other "disputed territories" of northern Iraq. However, the deadline appears to have passed without a census being completed, raising doubts as to whether the government is willing to follow through on its commitments.
The failure to meet the deadline "shows a lack of seriousness from all parties to implement. . . articles that were in the constitution that people had agreed and voted upon," said Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the Kurdistan regional government's department of foreign relations. For many Kurds, the referendum is a chance to reclaim Kirkuk, which Jalal Talabani, Iraq's Kurdish president, has called the "Jerusalem of Kurdistan" - a historic capital purged of much of its non-Arab population by the regime of Saddam Hussein, the deposed leader.
But although Iraq's constitution calls for the referendum - which would ask people whether they wished to be part of the Kurdistan autonomous region - to be held no later than December 31, many Sunni and Shia Arabs strongly oppose Kirkuk ever becoming part of Kurdistan. The Article 140 process - designed to undo the "Arabisation" policies pursued by Saddam aimed at solidifying Arab control of northern oilfields - has also drawn criticism from others who fear it will feed instability.
The former regime pushed Kurds and other non-Arabs out. Arab settlers were brought in from other parts of the country, particularly the Shia south. In addition, it shuffled the borders of the region's provinces, handing away slices of Kirkuk to its neighbours in what Kurdish officials claim was an attempt at gerrymandering, ensuring the north's main oilfields were in an Arab-majority province.
To reverse this demographic engineering, Arab settlers are to be offered nearly $16,000 in compensation and land in their home provinces to leave. Kurdish officials claim 16,000 families have voluntarily signed up. Iraq's presidency council was supposed to have addressed the border issue by restoring the north's pre-Arabisation administrative boundaries. But the approval of parliament has yet to be granted.
Labels: Article 140, electoral roll, Falah Mustafa Bakir, Kirkuk, Kirkuk referendum
U.S. - $5.3 billion for mine resistant vehicles for Iraq
Military
(AP) -- The White House asked Congress Tuesday for $5.3 billion for new vehicles that are better able to withstand roadside bombs in Iraq. The $5.3 billion request for the vehicles - whose V-shaped undercarriages deflect roadside bomb blasts - will help get production lines humming at full capacity.
The funding comes on top of $5.6 billion already approved for 6,400 mine-resistant vehicles and will be added to the Pentagon's $141.7 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The additional money would help pay for those vehicles and purchase an additional 1,520 of them, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told the House Budget Committee.
Procurement of mine-resistant, ambush-protected, or MRAP, vehicles that have been saving lives in roadside bomb attacks has been a politically sensitive issue, with Republicans and Democrats alike demanding the Pentagon do more to protect troops from roadside bombs.
Congress has led the way in funding the MRAPs, the latest White House request coming only as the House is about to take up a huge Pentagon funding measure containing more than $4 billion for them. The White House requested just $400 million in its February budget.
The requests brings the budget for Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2008 budget year to $147 billion, said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs a spending panel responsible for the Pentagon and Iraq war budgets. But that figure is likely to jump to more than $170 billion, Murtha said, citing the rapid pace of Pentagon spending in Iraq.
The funding comes on top of $5.6 billion already approved for 6,400 mine-resistant vehicles and will be added to the Pentagon's $141.7 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The additional money would help pay for those vehicles and purchase an additional 1,520 of them, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told the House Budget Committee.
Procurement of mine-resistant, ambush-protected, or MRAP, vehicles that have been saving lives in roadside bomb attacks has been a politically sensitive issue, with Republicans and Democrats alike demanding the Pentagon do more to protect troops from roadside bombs.
Congress has led the way in funding the MRAPs, the latest White House request coming only as the House is about to take up a huge Pentagon funding measure containing more than $4 billion for them. The White House requested just $400 million in its February budget.
The requests brings the budget for Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2008 budget year to $147 billion, said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs a spending panel responsible for the Pentagon and Iraq war budgets. But that figure is likely to jump to more than $170 billion, Murtha said, citing the rapid pace of Pentagon spending in Iraq.
Labels: Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, MRAPS
Saudi considers re-opening embassy in Baghdad
Politics
(AP) - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Wednesday that his country would consider reopening an embassy in Baghdad, a step long sought by the Bush administration to help legitimize the Shiite-led Iraqi government. At a joint press conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said he told the visiting U.S. secretaries of state and defense that his country will soon send a diplomatic mission to Baghdad "and explore how we can start an embassy in Iraq."
Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim country, has had frosty relations with the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and has not hidden its suspicions that al-Maliki does not have the interests of Iraq's Sunni minority at heart. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thanked her Saudi host for considering diplomatic ties, calling it "an important step."
The Arab world has lagged far behind Europe in placing embassies in Baghdad. Responding to criticism from the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, al-Faisal said Saudi Arabia is already doing all it can to address concerns about the flow of terrorists over its border into Iraq. "All that we can do in order to protect the border in Iraq we have been doing," he said.
The foreign minister insisted his country was supportive of the Iraqi government. "As an indication of our good intentions, we let their (soccer) team win," al-Faisal joked, referring to Iraq's soccer victory over Saudi Arabia in the final of the Asia Cup.
Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim country, has had frosty relations with the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and has not hidden its suspicions that al-Maliki does not have the interests of Iraq's Sunni minority at heart. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thanked her Saudi host for considering diplomatic ties, calling it "an important step."
The Arab world has lagged far behind Europe in placing embassies in Baghdad. Responding to criticism from the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, al-Faisal said Saudi Arabia is already doing all it can to address concerns about the flow of terrorists over its border into Iraq. "All that we can do in order to protect the border in Iraq we have been doing," he said.
The foreign minister insisted his country was supportive of the Iraqi government. "As an indication of our good intentions, we let their (soccer) team win," al-Faisal joked, referring to Iraq's soccer victory over Saudi Arabia in the final of the Asia Cup.
Labels: Baghdad, embassy, Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia
Dawa party asks Accordance Front to reconsider resignation
Politics
(AP) - The Iraqi prime minister's party asked the country's largest Sunni Arab bloc Thursday to reconsider its withdrawal from government, in a last-ditch effort to restore Iraq's national unity government. All six Cabinet ministers from the Iraqi Accordance Front quit Nouri al-Maliki's regime a day earlier to protest what they called the prime minister's failure to respond to a set of demands.
Among them were the release of security detainees not charged with specific crimes, the disbanding of militias and the participation of all groups represented in the government in dealing with security issues. Their resignation left only two Sunnis in the 40-member Cabinet, undermining efforts to pull together rival factions and pass reconciliation laws the U.S. considers benchmarks toward healing the country's deep war wounds.
Al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party issued a statement Thursday calling on the Accordance Front to "reconsider its decision." "The party expresses its concern and regret about this setback for Iraqi politics, an action taken before exploring any dialogue," the statement said. "We need to stand side by side as a national unity government and set aside all differences and cooperate, in order to answer the challenges our people are suffering," it said.
But an Accordance Front lawmaker, reacting to the Dawa statement, said Thursday that the bloc would reconsider its withdrawal only if promised "the priority of real partnership." "If we were assured by tangible and concrete promises of real change ... and the priority of real partnership, we would reconsider our stance," Salim Abdullah, a Sunni parliament member, told The Associated Press. But he added that he was not optimistic such assurances would come from al-Maliki.
Washington has been pushing al-Maliki's government to pass key laws - among them, measures to share national oil revenues and incorporate some ousted Baathists into mainstream politics. But the Sunni ministers' resignation from the Cabinet - not the parliament - foreshadowed even greater difficulty in building consensus when lawmakers return after a monthlong summer recess.
The Accordance Front has 44 of parliament's 275 seats, and those politicians will continue in the legislature. The withdrawal of its six Cabinet ministers from the 14-month-old government is the second such action by a faction of al-Maliki's coalition. Five Cabinet ministers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government in April to protest al-Maliki's refusal to announce a timetable for the pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Among them were the release of security detainees not charged with specific crimes, the disbanding of militias and the participation of all groups represented in the government in dealing with security issues. Their resignation left only two Sunnis in the 40-member Cabinet, undermining efforts to pull together rival factions and pass reconciliation laws the U.S. considers benchmarks toward healing the country's deep war wounds.
Al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party issued a statement Thursday calling on the Accordance Front to "reconsider its decision." "The party expresses its concern and regret about this setback for Iraqi politics, an action taken before exploring any dialogue," the statement said. "We need to stand side by side as a national unity government and set aside all differences and cooperate, in order to answer the challenges our people are suffering," it said.
But an Accordance Front lawmaker, reacting to the Dawa statement, said Thursday that the bloc would reconsider its withdrawal only if promised "the priority of real partnership." "If we were assured by tangible and concrete promises of real change ... and the priority of real partnership, we would reconsider our stance," Salim Abdullah, a Sunni parliament member, told The Associated Press. But he added that he was not optimistic such assurances would come from al-Maliki.
Washington has been pushing al-Maliki's government to pass key laws - among them, measures to share national oil revenues and incorporate some ousted Baathists into mainstream politics. But the Sunni ministers' resignation from the Cabinet - not the parliament - foreshadowed even greater difficulty in building consensus when lawmakers return after a monthlong summer recess.
The Accordance Front has 44 of parliament's 275 seats, and those politicians will continue in the legislature. The withdrawal of its six Cabinet ministers from the 14-month-old government is the second such action by a faction of al-Maliki's coalition. Five Cabinet ministers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government in April to protest al-Maliki's refusal to announce a timetable for the pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Labels: Dawa party, Iraqi Accordance Front, Nouri Al-Maliki, Tawafuq Front
Islamic State of Iraq confiscates goods from Iran
Insurgency
(Al-Sharqiyah) - The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq has begun confiscating Iranian-made goods from shop owners in Al-Miqdadiyah, Iraqi media reported on July 31. Local residents told Al-Sharqiyah television that gunmen are roaming the markets of the city confiscating and destroying any goods produced in Iran.
The decision to confiscate the goods was announced by the Islamic State's so-called trade ministry. The group reportedly set a deadline for shop owners to get rid of the goods throughout the Diyala Governorate. While the Islamic State does not appear to have issued a formal statement on the decision, the order has been widely reported on Internet jihadist forums. According to the forums, the group has threatened punishment by the group's commission for promoting virtue and preventing vice.
Labels: Diyala, Iran, Islamic State of Iraq, Muqdadiya
Ministers reject proposal to merge ministries
Politics
(Al-Sharqiyah) - The Council of Ministers has rejected a proposal by Prime Minister al-Maliki to merge security and intelligence bodies under a unified command, Al-Sharqiyah television reported on July 31. Al-Maliki reportedly sought to merge the intelligence services, the National Security and Interior ministries, and military intelligence into one centralized body under the command of National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubay'i. According to Al-Sharqiyah, al-Maliki asked ministers to vote on the proposal and it was rejected by a majority of attendees.
Labels: Council of Ministers, ministries, Muwaffaq al-Rubay'i, Nouri Al-Maliki
Accord Front withdraws from parliament
Politics
(RFE/RL) - The main Sunni Arab political bloc today said it is withdrawing from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition government over his failure to meet a list of demands. Legislators told a Baghdad press conference that the six ministers of the Accordance Front will submit their resignations today, after they suspended their participation in government last week.
The ministers resigning are: Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zoubaie; Culture Minister Asaad Kamal al-Hashemi; Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab al-Ajili; Planning Minister Ali Baban; State Minister for Women's Affairs Fatin Abd al-Rahman Mahmud; and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Rafi al-Isawi.
The Accordance Front had demanded a greater say in security matters, and had accused al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition of failing to consult it on key issues. "It has been obvious that the government is sticking to its arrogant stand and is still insisting on closing all the doors on any reforms necessary for saving Iraq," party spokesman Muhannad al-Issawi said today at a news conference in Baghdad.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih today told the Reuters news agency that the bloc's withdrawal "is probably the most serious political crisis we have faced since the passage of the constitution."
The Accordance Front had demanded a greater say in security matters, and had accused al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition of failing to consult it on key issues. "It has been obvious that the government is sticking to its arrogant stand and is still insisting on closing all the doors on any reforms necessary for saving Iraq," party spokesman Muhannad al-Issawi said today at a news conference in Baghdad.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih today told the Reuters news agency that the bloc's withdrawal "is probably the most serious political crisis we have faced since the passage of the constitution."
COMMENT: This does not bode well, particularly at a time when the country requires political unity and equal representation. The constitution, the draft oil law and the referendum of Kirkuk (Article 140) are all current topics that require input from the Sunnis. Without the IAF, there will not be enough votes from the remaining Sunni parties on important issues and the Sunni political role will only be slightly stronger than after January 30 2005 when most Sunni Arabs boycotted the elections for Iraq's National Assembly. Since then, it has been a long and painful process to bring the Sunnis to the political table. This will also further undermine al-Maliki's government. COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: Iraqi Accordance Front, Iraqi parliament, Muhannad al-Issawi, resignation, Tawafoq Iraqi Front, withdrawal
Draft resolution proposes bigger role for UN in Iraq
International
(BBC) - The US and the UK have circulated a new draft resolution to United Nations Security Council members proposing a bigger role for the UN in Iraq. Under the plan, the UN would get a wider mandate, to help promote political reconciliation in Iraq. The UN has had a low-key presence in Iraq since a truck bomb devastated its headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003. Diplomats say a vote on any resolution will happen by 10 August, when the UN's existing mandate in Iraq expires.
This draft resolution comes days after meetings in Washington between President George W Bush and the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The resolution, if adopted, would give the United Nations a much more powerful advisory role in Iraq, authorising it to advise in the review of the Iraqi constitution and help settle disputed internal boundaries
The UN mission would also be asked to promote human rights and judicial and legal reforms and to assist the Iraqi government in planning for a national census. The draft resolution calls for more UN involvement in helping refugees to return and managing humanitarian aid and helping the entire national reconstruction effort. It also points out the importance of armed protection by mainly US forces for any enhanced UN team on the ground.
Former Secretary General Kofi Annan pulled all UN international staff out of Iraq after the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 other people died in a huge explosion at the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003.
This draft resolution comes days after meetings in Washington between President George W Bush and the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The resolution, if adopted, would give the United Nations a much more powerful advisory role in Iraq, authorising it to advise in the review of the Iraqi constitution and help settle disputed internal boundaries
The UN mission would also be asked to promote human rights and judicial and legal reforms and to assist the Iraqi government in planning for a national census. The draft resolution calls for more UN involvement in helping refugees to return and managing humanitarian aid and helping the entire national reconstruction effort. It also points out the importance of armed protection by mainly US forces for any enhanced UN team on the ground.
Former Secretary General Kofi Annan pulled all UN international staff out of Iraq after the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 other people died in a huge explosion at the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003.
COMMENT: The U.S. and U.K. need an exit strategy without losing face. The U.N. could step in and take assume a larger role relieving the U.S. and U.K. There is also a requirement for a larger humanitarian presence in Iraq, however, the problem of security will remain and insurgent forces will continue to operate against the government, and sectarian violence will continue. COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: draft resolution, Iraq, Iraqi constitution, U.K., U.S, UN, United Nations Security Council
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
KDP, PUK agree on security accord
Politics
(RFE/RL) - Iraq's two main Kurdish parties -- the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by President Talabani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party headed by Mas'ud Barzani -- have agreed on a security accord, Al-Sharqiyah television reported on July 28. Talabani said details of the arrangement will be released soon, and stressed that the agreement will not marginalize other, smaller Kurdish parties. He said the agreement will instead help foster stronger relations between various Kurdish forces and parties. Regarding the possibility of a Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq, Barzani said, "We hope that the Turkish Justice and Development party's victory in the latest parliamentary elections will assist in bolstering friendship and good neighborly relations between us and Turkey, and end tensions in the area."
To Improve The Country - Agreement To Establish A Federal Government In United Southern Iraq
Politics, Tribal
(Al Bayyna Al Jadidah Newspaper) - 30 JUL - Under the slogans of “Iraq’s Unity” and the “South Witnesses Justice, Equality, Love, and Peacefulness”…southern Tribal Sheikhs have agreed to: improve the country and make a good life available to our people of southern Iraq.
They (the southern leaders) said they are doing this for: “independent Iraq”, and to return balance to the community in the south. They (the Sheikhs) want to create a southern regional government [probably similar to the northern Kurdistan government] which will the respect the original Arab tribes (of the area)…and spread justice, freedom, and equality among the people of the south.
However, we (the Tribal Sheikhs/southern leaders) want everyone to understand that this does not mean that “we” agree with the idea of “federalism” as proposed by the Occupation…We are a part of Iraq; and, we will not break off from Iraq in the future! We have decided that we will run our own affairs… by ourselves…without “foreigners” management. Tomorrow, we will publish our statement of establishment (Declaration).
They (the southern leaders) said they are doing this for: “independent Iraq”, and to return balance to the community in the south. They (the Sheikhs) want to create a southern regional government [probably similar to the northern Kurdistan government] which will the respect the original Arab tribes (of the area)…and spread justice, freedom, and equality among the people of the south.
However, we (the Tribal Sheikhs/southern leaders) want everyone to understand that this does not mean that “we” agree with the idea of “federalism” as proposed by the Occupation…We are a part of Iraq; and, we will not break off from Iraq in the future! We have decided that we will run our own affairs… by ourselves…without “foreigners” management. Tomorrow, we will publish our statement of establishment (Declaration).
Labels: federalism, southern Iraq, tribal sheiks
US Army: 1920 Revolutionary Battalions Has Reconciled With The Iraqi Government
Politics, Insurgency
(Al Mashriq Newspaper) - 30 JUL - Yesterday, reconciliation was achieved between 1920 Revolutionary Battalions and the Iraqi government with the assistance of the US Army. A US Army statement clarified that the goal of this reconciliation is to assist the Iraqi government and MNF to smash Al Qaida in Iraq. It is worthy to mention that Iraqi security officials were upset with the US Army arming some insurgent groups with the Iraqi government’s approval.
Labels: 1920 Revolutionary Battalions, Al Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi government, reconciliation, U.S. military
Al Qaeda Members Gathering In Himrin Mountains To Avoid Operation “Arrowhead Ripper”
Security, Insurgency
(Al Mada Newspaper) - 30 JUL - On Saturday, an Iraqi Army source reported that Al Qaeda members, and their groups, have escaped into the Himrin Mountains. (The Al Qaeda members began hiding in these mountains more) especially after the ‘second stage’ of Operation Arrowhead Ripper began in Baquba’s area.
The “anonymous source, in a press statement”, said “Groups from the Al Qaeda organization have begun to gather in the Himrin Mountains, which are located on the ‘northeast border of Diyala Province’ with some areas of the Kurdistan region… And, these mountains also pass through parts of the Provinces of Salah Ad Din, Kirkuk (Tamim), and Mosul (Ninawa).”
The source continued, “This ‘gathering operation’ coincided with Operation Arrowhead Ripper finishing its first month. The result of this operation is that the Al Qaeda members have fled Arrowhead Ripper’s area of operations instead of facing the Security Forces… And, our information confirmed that 200-350 Al Qaeda members have reached various areas of Kirkuk and Salah Ad Din Provinces. They (these Al Qaeda) members are now gathering in order to conduct attacks in these areas.”
The source also mentioned, “The Himrin Mountains are located along the (Iranian border) and are adjacent to ‘Iranian mountains’. This area is very difficult terrain, and it has many caves. It is also near an unoccupied desert area which runs from Kirkuk to Diyala.” He added, “These areas have many different population groups; Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen living in the area. And, it is an open area which is easily used for smuggling …And, it is an area where people can easily and secretly cross into or out of Iraq. Most of the smuggling operations which occurred during the “old regime (Saddam)” used this area and, currently, this is still occurring.”
The source added, “Intelligence information indicates that most of these ‘armed groups’ (gathering in this area) belong to Al Qaeda. They are attempting to gather there, because it is a safe area for them… especially areas of the Himrin Mountains and the desert area between the town of Muqdadiya and the Mansuriyat Al Jabil and Dali Abbas area (two adjacent areas)… Muqdadiya is located 45 km northeast of Baquba; and, the Mansuriyat Al Jabil and the Dali Abbas area, both of which are located 50 km northeast of Baquba. [Therefore, there may be a large concentration of AQIQ in this 5 km long stretch of Diyala Province.] There are also gatherings occurring in semi-mountainous areas, such as: the Al Athim area, 100 km north of Baghdad.”
According to this source Operation Arrowhead Ripper “was closing in on the AQIQ members so, they fled to these open areas in which they can move freely about without being observed by Iraqi Security Forces.”
The “anonymous source, in a press statement”, said “Groups from the Al Qaeda organization have begun to gather in the Himrin Mountains, which are located on the ‘northeast border of Diyala Province’ with some areas of the Kurdistan region… And, these mountains also pass through parts of the Provinces of Salah Ad Din, Kirkuk (Tamim), and Mosul (Ninawa).”
The source continued, “This ‘gathering operation’ coincided with Operation Arrowhead Ripper finishing its first month. The result of this operation is that the Al Qaeda members have fled Arrowhead Ripper’s area of operations instead of facing the Security Forces… And, our information confirmed that 200-350 Al Qaeda members have reached various areas of Kirkuk and Salah Ad Din Provinces. They (these Al Qaeda) members are now gathering in order to conduct attacks in these areas.”
The source also mentioned, “The Himrin Mountains are located along the (Iranian border) and are adjacent to ‘Iranian mountains’. This area is very difficult terrain, and it has many caves. It is also near an unoccupied desert area which runs from Kirkuk to Diyala.” He added, “These areas have many different population groups; Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen living in the area. And, it is an open area which is easily used for smuggling …And, it is an area where people can easily and secretly cross into or out of Iraq. Most of the smuggling operations which occurred during the “old regime (Saddam)” used this area and, currently, this is still occurring.”
The source added, “Intelligence information indicates that most of these ‘armed groups’ (gathering in this area) belong to Al Qaeda. They are attempting to gather there, because it is a safe area for them… especially areas of the Himrin Mountains and the desert area between the town of Muqdadiya and the Mansuriyat Al Jabil and Dali Abbas area (two adjacent areas)… Muqdadiya is located 45 km northeast of Baquba; and, the Mansuriyat Al Jabil and the Dali Abbas area, both of which are located 50 km northeast of Baquba. [Therefore, there may be a large concentration of AQIQ in this 5 km long stretch of Diyala Province.] There are also gatherings occurring in semi-mountainous areas, such as: the Al Athim area, 100 km north of Baghdad.”
According to this source Operation Arrowhead Ripper “was closing in on the AQIQ members so, they fled to these open areas in which they can move freely about without being observed by Iraqi Security Forces.”
Labels: Al Qaeda in Iraq, Arrowhead Ripper, Diyala, Himrin Mountains, Muqdadiya
Pentagon confirms it is working with Turkey to stop PKK
Region
(The Guardian) - The Pentagon confirmed yesterday that it is working closely with the Turkish government to stop Kurdish guerrillas operating from bases in northern Iraq. But it refused to comment on a report that the US is planning a covert operation to send special forces into action to try to neutralise the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), which has been mounting attacks inside Turkey.
The US is trying to persuade the Turkish army against taking matters into its own hands by invading northern Iraq, where the Kurds have established an autonomous region. Washington, faced with a myriad of problems in Iraq, does not need a new front opening up in the country.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, would neither confirm nor deny that a covert operation was being planned. But he said yesterday: "We recognise that the PKK is a serious problem and we're working closely with both the government of Iraq and the government of Turkey to resolve this."
In the Washington Post, the veteran columnist Robert Novak, disclosed that Eric Edelman, an undersecretary of defence and former ambassador to Turkey, told selected congressmen in private last week about the planned covert operation. The administration is required by law to inform Congress of any such operations.
Novak wrote the US forces would "behead the guerrilla organisation by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years". The PKK has been fighting for the breakaway from Turkey of the large Kurdish population in the east of the country. Some of the members of Congress informed were alarmed by the development at a time when they are working to find ways of stabilising Iraq and withdrawing US forces.
Two weeks ago, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened a military incursion inside the Iraqi Kurdish area. This followed a build-up of Turkish forces along the Iraqi border. The 250,000-strong Turkish force on the border is confronting an estimated 4,000 PKK fighters.
The US is trying to persuade the Turkish army against taking matters into its own hands by invading northern Iraq, where the Kurds have established an autonomous region. Washington, faced with a myriad of problems in Iraq, does not need a new front opening up in the country.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, would neither confirm nor deny that a covert operation was being planned. But he said yesterday: "We recognise that the PKK is a serious problem and we're working closely with both the government of Iraq and the government of Turkey to resolve this."
In the Washington Post, the veteran columnist Robert Novak, disclosed that Eric Edelman, an undersecretary of defence and former ambassador to Turkey, told selected congressmen in private last week about the planned covert operation. The administration is required by law to inform Congress of any such operations.
Novak wrote the US forces would "behead the guerrilla organisation by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years". The PKK has been fighting for the breakaway from Turkey of the large Kurdish population in the east of the country. Some of the members of Congress informed were alarmed by the development at a time when they are working to find ways of stabilising Iraq and withdrawing US forces.
Two weeks ago, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened a military incursion inside the Iraqi Kurdish area. This followed a build-up of Turkish forces along the Iraqi border. The 250,000-strong Turkish force on the border is confronting an estimated 4,000 PKK fighters.
Labels: Bryan Whitman, Pentagon, PKK, Turkey, U.S.
British firms emerge as finalists for largest U.S. security contract in Iraq
Contracts, Reconstruction
(Washington Post) - Two British firms have emerged as finalists to win the largest U.S. security contract in Iraq, according to sources familiar with the matter. In what has become a contentious competition, Aegis Defence Services and ArmorGroup International are considered top contenders for a contract worth up to $475 million to provide intelligence services to the U.S. Army and security for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction work in Iraq. Aegis won the initial contract in 2004, a three-year, $293 million deal.
The Army has eliminated another British firm, Erinys Iraq, but that company is contesting the decision in sealed documents filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract review process is confidential. It was unclear yesterday whether the Army had chosen other finalists, but two other firms confirmed that they, too, are out of the running -- Control Risks of Britain and Blackwater Security Consulting of North Carolina.
The battle for the lucrative contract has drawn the attention of members of Congress who have questioned the use of private security contractors, about 20,000 of whom operate in Iraq, and whether the military should be outsourcing such critical tasks as security and intelligence to private firms. Based on a request from a member of Congress, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is conducting its second audit of Aegis.
Meanwhile, federal lawmakers have requested that the Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm, also look into the use of private security contractors in Iraq. The GAO has begun to review contractors there, building on previous reports, spokesman Paul Anderson said. "We're still early in the process."
"The Army's decision to once again remove Erinys from the bidding process is bad economics and demonstrates the fundamental flaws in this procurement," said an Erinys spokesman. "We are taking steps to ensure that our proposal is given fair treatment on a level playing field, in accordance with applicable government laws and regulations."
ArmorGroup spokesman Patrick Toyne Sewell declined to comment. ArmorGroup already is one of the largest security firms in Iraq, with more than 1,200 employees. Aegis, which also has about 1,200 contractors in Iraq, declined as well to comment on the new contract, but Kristi M. Clemens, the firm's executive vice president, touted its work on the current contract.
The Army is expected to make a final decision soon. "We are proceeding with discussions and preparation for award," said Chuck D. Martino, deputy chief of staff of the Joint Contracting Command-Iraq/Afghanistan in Baghdad.
The Army has eliminated another British firm, Erinys Iraq, but that company is contesting the decision in sealed documents filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract review process is confidential. It was unclear yesterday whether the Army had chosen other finalists, but two other firms confirmed that they, too, are out of the running -- Control Risks of Britain and Blackwater Security Consulting of North Carolina.
The battle for the lucrative contract has drawn the attention of members of Congress who have questioned the use of private security contractors, about 20,000 of whom operate in Iraq, and whether the military should be outsourcing such critical tasks as security and intelligence to private firms. Based on a request from a member of Congress, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is conducting its second audit of Aegis.
Meanwhile, federal lawmakers have requested that the Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm, also look into the use of private security contractors in Iraq. The GAO has begun to review contractors there, building on previous reports, spokesman Paul Anderson said. "We're still early in the process."
"The Army's decision to once again remove Erinys from the bidding process is bad economics and demonstrates the fundamental flaws in this procurement," said an Erinys spokesman. "We are taking steps to ensure that our proposal is given fair treatment on a level playing field, in accordance with applicable government laws and regulations."
ArmorGroup spokesman Patrick Toyne Sewell declined to comment. ArmorGroup already is one of the largest security firms in Iraq, with more than 1,200 employees. Aegis, which also has about 1,200 contractors in Iraq, declined as well to comment on the new contract, but Kristi M. Clemens, the firm's executive vice president, touted its work on the current contract.
The Army is expected to make a final decision soon. "We are proceeding with discussions and preparation for award," said Chuck D. Martino, deputy chief of staff of the Joint Contracting Command-Iraq/Afghanistan in Baghdad.
Labels: Aegis Defense Services, Armorgroup, Blackwater Security Consulting, Chuck D. Martino, contracts, Control Risks, Erinys Iraq, GAO, Iraq, Iraq reconstruction, USACE
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help
Humanitarian
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help:
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help:
According to The UN High Commissioner on Refugees, in terms of raw numbers, the nearly two-and-a-half million Iraqi refugees displaced because of the war is a bigger crisis than Darfur. It’s also the largest mass migration in the Middles east since the exodus of Palestinians from Israel in 1948. The vast majority of Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria and Jordan, further straining already overstretched infrastructures in two of the region's poorer countries.
The result is inflated housing costs, scarce water resources and crowded public health facilities and schools. Well over a million Iraqis are internally displaced. According to The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that as many as a third of externally displaced refugees now outside Iraq is Christian. [And it really matters not what religion they may follow. They are in need of help. Call or write your congress person today and tell them to support the Responsibility to Iraqi Refugees Act. Or make a contribution to the International Rescue Committee or Direct Relief International or American Friends Service Committee or International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent
Very few organizations are working on getting aid to Iraqi refugees, and of those that are, many are too small or too beleaguered to accept individual donations; the Iraqi Red Crescent, for example, has suffered bombings and mass kidnappings, yet its volunteers continue to deliver aid to displaced families inside Iraq. One of the larger relief organizations working with the refugees is the Catholic group Caritas. Caritas helps a few thousand families a year, but "the demand far outstrips the money available to us," says Magy Mahrous, who oversees the project.
You can make a contribution at: International Catholic Migration Commission, Citibank USA, 153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor, New York, NY 10043. To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.
You can make a contribution at: International Catholic Migration Commission, Citibank USA, 153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor, New York, NY 10043. To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.
Labels: Caritas Iraq, Direct Relief International, IDPs, International Committee of the Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Iraqi refugees, Jordan, Syria, UNHCR
Iraq's Interior Ministry - "a federation of oligarchs"
Government
(Los Angeles Times) - Iraq's Ministry of Interior — the balkanized command center for the nation's police and mirror of the deadly factions that have caused the government here to grind nearly to a halt. The very language that Americans use to describe government — ministries, departments, agencies — belies the reality here of militias that kill under cover of police uniform and remain above the law.
Until recently, one or two Interior Ministry police officers were assassinated each week while arriving or leaving the building, probably by fellow officers, senior police officials say. That killing has been reduced, but Western diplomats still describe the Interior Ministry building as a "federation of oligarchs." Those who work in the building liken departments to hostile countries. Survival depends on keeping abreast of shifting factional alliances and turf.
On the second floor is Gen. Mahdi Gharrawi, a former national police commander. Last year, U.S. and Iraqi troops found 1,400 prisoners, mostly Sunnis, at a base he controlled in east Baghdad. Many showed signs of torture. The interior minister blocked an arrest warrant against the general this year, senior Iraqi officials confirmed.
The third- and fifth-floor administrative departments are the domain of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party, a Shiite group. The sixth, home to border enforcement and the major crimes unit, belongs to the Badr Organization militia. Its leader, Deputy Minister Ahmed Khafaji, is lauded by some Western officials as an efficient administrator and suspected by others of running secret prisons.
The seventh floor is intelligence, where the Badr Organization and armed Kurdish groups struggle for control. The ninth floor is shared by the department's inspector general and general counsel, religious Shiites. Their offices have been at the center of efforts to purge the department's remaining Sunni employees. The counsel's predecessor, a Sunni, was killed a year ago."They have some bad things on the ninth," says the colonel, a Sunni who, like other ministry officials, spoke on condition of anonymity to guard against retaliation.
The ministry's computer department is on the 10th floor. Two employees were arrested there in February on suspicion of smuggling in explosives, according to police and U.S. military officials. Some Iraqi and U.S. officials say the workers intended to store bombs there. Others say they were plotting to attack the U.S. advisors stationed directly above them on the top floor.
The factionalization of the ministry began quickly after Saddam Hussein's fall. As with most Iraqi government departments, deputy ministers were appointed to represent each of the country's main political parties. Deputies then distributed jobs among party stalwarts. The initial winners were the Kurdish Democratic Party and the two Shiite parties, Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which sponsors the Badr Organization. The Kurdish party is one of two factions that control Iraq's northern provinces.
Sadr's Al Mahdi militia started late in the patronage game but has made significant inroads, particularly among the guard force that surrounds the ministry compound.Parties representing the Sunni minority, which controlled Iraq in Hussein's day, have been almost entirely purged from the ministry in the last two years. Three of the ministry's longest-serving Sunni generals have been killed in the last year.
Interior Minister Jawad Bolani, a Shiite leader who took office last summer, has attempted to repair the ministry's reputation. He has removed the leaders of eight of nine national police brigades and 17 of 27 police battalions, which have been accused of killings and mass kidnappings. But change has come slowly. "There is a lot of pressure, there is influence from everywhere, from everyone: political parties, religious groups, the government itself, from familial and tribal influences," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, who supervised the U.S. advisors to the national police until last month. "It would be very difficult for anybody to operate as a leader in this environment, and the Iraqis do," Pittard said.
No floor has posed more of a challenge than the seventh, which houses the intelligence division. In theory, the intelligence office should be key to tracking and combating the insurgents who bomb Iraq's streets and marketplaces and attack U.S. soldiers. Instead, the division has been hobbled by a power struggle between two of America's nominal allies in Iraq, the Kurds and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. The fight came to a head earlier this year with a death threat against the Kurdish deputy minister in charge of intelligence, Hussein Ali Kamal.
The Kurdish leader, who controls the eastern wing of the floor, was battling for control of the intelligence apparatus with his deputy, a Badr militia commander who dominates the western side. Several months ago, U.S. advisors warned Kamal that his life was in danger, most probably from the Badr militia, and advised him to stay in the Green Zone, away from the ministry building in east Baghdad. He stayed out of the ministry for several weeks. The Shiite deputy, Basheer Wandi, better known as Engineer Ahmed, was appointed in the spring of 2005. Around the same time, Shiite militias began aggressive efforts to target and kill Sunnis in Baghdad, often using police cover to detain Sunnis in secret prisons and carry out assassinations.
Kamal, the Kurdish deputy minister, says he believes the ministry has started reining in Shiite militias but knows suspect figures still operate openly in the ministry, including Gen. Gharrawi on the second floor. Even the remaining Sunni members of the police force respect Bolani for trying to rein in the ministry. But they know he depends on a web of fragile political alliances and wonder whether any political figure can undo the effects of several years of recruiting hard-line militia members to the ministry. "Even if they brought the prophet Muhammad or Jesus, they couldn't control them," said a senior ministry official. "They have an agenda. They follow their parties."
Labels: Ahmed Khafaji, Badr Corps, Basheer Wandi, Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, Dawa party, Engineer Ahmed, Gen. Mahdi Gharrawi, Hussein Ali Kamal, Jawad Bolani, KDP, Mahdi Army, Ministry of Interior, SIIC
Tragetting of Baath party members leads to further displacements
Security, Politics
(IRIN) - Militants in southern areas of Iraq are reportedly targeting former members of the Baath Party in a bid to exterminate them, causing new displacements, according to local non-governmental organisations (NGOs). At least 200 ex-members of the Baath Party of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have been killed so far.
According to local police, hundreds of families have been forced to flee their homes. “Militias are conducting a campaign to exterminate over 4,000 members of the Baath Party,” said Hassan Dureid, spokesperson for Iraqi Brothers Relief, a local NGO working in southern Iraq. “Most of these people didn’t have a choice and were obliged to join the party during the ex-regime.” “Dozens of new widows of ex-members of the Baath Party have reported [the deaths of their husbands] in the past three weeks to southern governorates, and their numbers could increase, according to experts,” Dureid added.
We want to prevent Saddam’s followers from returning to power and the best way is to exterminate them. Militants affiliated with Shia groups refused to give detailed information about the campaign but said their action was to guarantee the “cleansing of any remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime”. “We want to prevent Saddam’s followers from returning to power and the best way is to exterminate them,” Abu Khalid Alawi, who said he was a senior local Shia militia member but declined to name his organisation, told IRIN.
We want to prevent Saddam’s followers from returning to power and the best way is to exterminate them. Militants affiliated with Shia groups refused to give detailed information about the campaign but said their action was to guarantee the “cleansing of any remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime”. “We want to prevent Saddam’s followers from returning to power and the best way is to exterminate them,” Abu Khalid Alawi, who said he was a senior local Shia militia member but declined to name his organisation, told IRIN.
“Only Shia families in the southern governorates really know what we suffered in their hands and we don’t want to risk having them back,” he added. The Iraqi Brothers Relief said they were worried about the number of newly displaced families which have been seeking protection in displacement camps in southern areas, mostly on the outskirts of the cities of Najaf, Missan and Basra.
“We have received information from our volunteers that at least 2,000 Iraqis, mostly women and children, have joined displacement camps in the south over the past three weeks,” Farid Abbas, a spokesman for Najaf-based NGO the Muslim Organisation for Peace (MOP), said. “These families are without their husbands or fathers because either they have been killed or were forced to flee to the northern governorates for being ex-Baath Party members,” Abbas said.
Change of policy Current government policy, supported by the US, is to reinstate some former Baath party members in government posts to bolster the government’s effectiveness. This is believed to be one of the reasons for the current campaign by Shia militants in the south. “In 2003, the temporary Iraqi government set up by Paul Bremer started firing all Baath Party members from government posts,” Professor Abdel-Qader Azize, a displacement analyst at Baghdad University, said. “The problem is that most of these people didn’t have a choice and were forced by Saddam’s regime to follow orders or would have been killed.” “This move failed and the US government is now forcing the Iraqi parliament to reverse the law and accept ex-Baath Party members back into government jobs,” Azize said, adding that this was causing local resentment.
The Iraqi government couldn’t be reached for comment but the governing council of Basra said they had started negotiations with militant leaders to get them to stop such attacks.
The Iraqi government couldn’t be reached for comment but the governing council of Basra said they had started negotiations with militant leaders to get them to stop such attacks.
Labels: Baathists, Basra, IDPs, Iraqi Brothers Relief, Maysan, Muslim Organisation for Peace, Najaf, Shia militias
Al-Jaafari leads internal revolt against Maliki
Politics
(AP) - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki faces a revolt within his party by factions that want him out as Iraqi leader, according to officials in his office and the political party he leads. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, al-Maliki's predecessor, leads the challenge and already has approached leaders of the country's two main Kurdish parties, parliament's two Sunni Arab blocs and lawmakers loyal to powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Jaafari's campaign, the officials said, was based on his concerns that al-Maliki's policies had led Iraq into turmoil because the prime minister was doing too little to promote national reconciliation. The former prime minister also has approached Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, proposing a "national salvation" government to replace the al-Maliki coalition. The Iranian-born al-Sistani refused to endorse the proposal, the officials said.
"Al-Jaafari is proposing a national and nonsectarian political plan to save the nation," said Faleh al-Fayadh, a Dawa party lawmaker familiar with the former prime minister's contacts. Other officials, however, said al-Jaafari had only an outside chance of replacing or ousting al-Maliki. But they said the challenge could undermine al-Maliki and further entangle efforts at meeting important legislative benchmarks sought by Washington. They spoke of the sensitive political wrangling only on condition of anonymity.
The officials would not give details of the rift between al-Maliki and al-Jaafari, saying only that it began two months ago when a Dawa party congress voted to replace al-Jaafari with al-Maliki as its leader. Al-Jaafari and other senior Dawa members are questioning the legality of that vote and the former prime minister has since boycotted all official party functions, said al-Fayadh.
The usually secretive Dawa, which is made up of two factions, has 25 of parliament's 275 seats but draws its strength from being a key faction of a large Shiite alliance. Ali al-Dabbagh, the government's spokesman, declined to comment on the rift between al-Maliki and al-Jaafari, arguing that it was a matter for the Dawa to deal with. "There should be no objections for a figure like al-Jaafari to try and put together a new political bloc provided that this will be of service to the political process," he said.
Al-Jaafari's own record in office was not any better than al-Maliki's has been so far, but al-Jaafari was widely perceived as an open-minded Islamist who is at total ease dealing with his American backers. To the Sunni Arabs he is courting now, the officials said, al-Jaafari was proposing a change in Iraq's sectarian, power-sharing formula. He wants the president's job, now held by Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to be given to a Sunni Arab to achieve a better balance between Iraq's ethnic and religious factions and to improve ties with Arab nations.
To win the support of the Kurds, al-Jaafari is pledging the implementation of a clause in the constitution that provides for a referendum before the end of 2007 on the fate of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northern Iraq that the Kurds want to annex. To compensate them for the loss of the presidency, al-Jaafari is proposing that they fill the post of parliament speaker, now occupied by a Sunni Arab.
Al-Jaafari's bid to topple al-Maliki runs counter to ongoing negotiations to form what is being billed an "alliance of the moderates" that would include the country's four largest Shiite and Kurdish parties and independent Shiites. It excludes hardline Shiites and Sunni Arabs. It also comes at a time when al-Maliki is facing a threat by the largest Sunni Arab bloc to pull its ministers from his coalition unless he meets a long list of demands, which include overtures to minority Sunni Arabs, political inclusion and commitment to human rights.
Al-Jaafari's campaign, the officials said, was based on his concerns that al-Maliki's policies had led Iraq into turmoil because the prime minister was doing too little to promote national reconciliation. The former prime minister also has approached Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, proposing a "national salvation" government to replace the al-Maliki coalition. The Iranian-born al-Sistani refused to endorse the proposal, the officials said.
"Al-Jaafari is proposing a national and nonsectarian political plan to save the nation," said Faleh al-Fayadh, a Dawa party lawmaker familiar with the former prime minister's contacts. Other officials, however, said al-Jaafari had only an outside chance of replacing or ousting al-Maliki. But they said the challenge could undermine al-Maliki and further entangle efforts at meeting important legislative benchmarks sought by Washington. They spoke of the sensitive political wrangling only on condition of anonymity.
The officials would not give details of the rift between al-Maliki and al-Jaafari, saying only that it began two months ago when a Dawa party congress voted to replace al-Jaafari with al-Maliki as its leader. Al-Jaafari and other senior Dawa members are questioning the legality of that vote and the former prime minister has since boycotted all official party functions, said al-Fayadh.
The usually secretive Dawa, which is made up of two factions, has 25 of parliament's 275 seats but draws its strength from being a key faction of a large Shiite alliance. Ali al-Dabbagh, the government's spokesman, declined to comment on the rift between al-Maliki and al-Jaafari, arguing that it was a matter for the Dawa to deal with. "There should be no objections for a figure like al-Jaafari to try and put together a new political bloc provided that this will be of service to the political process," he said.
Al-Jaafari's own record in office was not any better than al-Maliki's has been so far, but al-Jaafari was widely perceived as an open-minded Islamist who is at total ease dealing with his American backers. To the Sunni Arabs he is courting now, the officials said, al-Jaafari was proposing a change in Iraq's sectarian, power-sharing formula. He wants the president's job, now held by Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to be given to a Sunni Arab to achieve a better balance between Iraq's ethnic and religious factions and to improve ties with Arab nations.
To win the support of the Kurds, al-Jaafari is pledging the implementation of a clause in the constitution that provides for a referendum before the end of 2007 on the fate of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northern Iraq that the Kurds want to annex. To compensate them for the loss of the presidency, al-Jaafari is proposing that they fill the post of parliament speaker, now occupied by a Sunni Arab.
Al-Jaafari's bid to topple al-Maliki runs counter to ongoing negotiations to form what is being billed an "alliance of the moderates" that would include the country's four largest Shiite and Kurdish parties and independent Shiites. It excludes hardline Shiites and Sunni Arabs. It also comes at a time when al-Maliki is facing a threat by the largest Sunni Arab bloc to pull its ministers from his coalition unless he meets a long list of demands, which include overtures to minority Sunni Arabs, political inclusion and commitment to human rights.
Labels: al Sadr, Article 140, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Dawa party, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Kirkuk, Kurdish Coalition, Nouri Al-Maliki
Monday, July 30, 2007
Gold found in Al Anbar, red mercury in Maysan
(Voices of Iraq) - An economic expert said that the lack of interest by Iraqi government in exploration of other minerals other than oil refers to weak economic policies. Ali Al-Manii, from the Center of Economic Studies, added, reliance on oil and gas as basis of the natural wealth is not a correct perspective in economic terms, because the State must seek to adopt plans for exploration of other minerals in Iraq, especially in southern and central regions, and abandon the unilateral economic strategy."
He added, "Field economic studies showed that gold is found in Anbar province and red mercury, which is the most expensive among minerals, is found in south-eastern of Maysan province."
Al-Manii explained, "The western region of Iraq, being of vast desert nature, comprises ethylene phosphate and sulpfur, while copper is found in Karbala and Najaf." He continued, "The results of these studies require the provision of means of research and exploration of non-oil minerals, which are expected to be found in larger proportions than the rough estimates, for not conducting exploration and production for many years."
Al-Manii called relevant authorities and specialists to achieve strategic plans to prospect for minerals other than oil.
He added, "Field economic studies showed that gold is found in Anbar province and red mercury, which is the most expensive among minerals, is found in south-eastern of Maysan province."
Al-Manii explained, "The western region of Iraq, being of vast desert nature, comprises ethylene phosphate and sulpfur, while copper is found in Karbala and Najaf." He continued, "The results of these studies require the provision of means of research and exploration of non-oil minerals, which are expected to be found in larger proportions than the rough estimates, for not conducting exploration and production for many years."
Al-Manii called relevant authorities and specialists to achieve strategic plans to prospect for minerals other than oil.
Labels: Al Anbar, Ali Al-Manii, copper, gold, Karbala, Maysan, Najaf, red mercury, sulphur
Security Minister says Iranians involved in violence in Iraq
Region
(Azzaman) - An Iraqi cabinet minister says Iranians are involved in violence in the country by helping insurgents obtain better weapons and training. Shirwan al-Waili, state minister for security affairs, said insurgents were improving their tactics and that their attacks on sensitive targets in Baghdad were hitting their targets with better precision.
Waili was referring to recent attacks on the so-called Green Zone which houses government offices, U.S. administrative quarters as well as embassy. “Militia elements and Iranian experts are pounding the Green Zone on almost daily basis,” he said. Waili is part of the Shiite coalition ruling the country which is alleged to have strong ties with Iran.
Asked about accusations that he himself was closely related to Iraq, Waili said: “I only belong to Iraq.” He said his ministry was praised by U.S. troops recently. However, he expressed disquiet at the newly formed Iraqi Intelligence Organization, saying there were many in the government who were not totally happy with its chief Mohammed al-Shahwani.
He did not elaborate but said the government was not involved in Iraqi intelligence activities as the organization is being financed and administered by the United States. On whether he had received any Iranian demands, Waili said Tehran’s only request has been the closure of camps run by Iranian exiles, Mujahideen Khalq in Iraq.
Waili was referring to recent attacks on the so-called Green Zone which houses government offices, U.S. administrative quarters as well as embassy. “Militia elements and Iranian experts are pounding the Green Zone on almost daily basis,” he said. Waili is part of the Shiite coalition ruling the country which is alleged to have strong ties with Iran.
Asked about accusations that he himself was closely related to Iraq, Waili said: “I only belong to Iraq.” He said his ministry was praised by U.S. troops recently. However, he expressed disquiet at the newly formed Iraqi Intelligence Organization, saying there were many in the government who were not totally happy with its chief Mohammed al-Shahwani.
He did not elaborate but said the government was not involved in Iraqi intelligence activities as the organization is being financed and administered by the United States. On whether he had received any Iranian demands, Waili said Tehran’s only request has been the closure of camps run by Iranian exiles, Mujahideen Khalq in Iraq.
Labels: Green Zone, Iran, Iraqi Intelligence Organization, Mohammed al-Shahwani, Mujahideen Khalq, Shirwan al-Waili
Al-Maliki to visit Turkey
Regional
(AP) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will visit Turkey next month to discuss security issues as the Turkish government weighs a possible offensive into northern Iraq to thwart Kurdish separatists. Al-Maliki will travel to the Turkish capital Ankara in the second week of August, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Saturday. He declined to give a more specific date for security reasons.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued the invitation to al-Maliki earlier this month and warned of an incursion if the United States and Iraqi leaders failed to stem the Kurdish guerrillas operating from bases in northern Iraq. Erdogan's party won a new mandate last Sunday, but it faces pressure from opposition parties that say it lacks determination to stage an incursion, a move that could seriously strain ties with Iraq and Turkey's NATO ally, the United States.
"This visit will be a security and political one as there are many important issues between the two neighboring countries like the presence of PKK in northern Iraq," al-Dabbagh said, referring to the acronym for the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party.
"The Iraqi government is keen to develop bilateral relations after the elections and is looking forward to have Turkey as an important partner to Iraq," he added. Turkey has been fighting PKK rebels since 1984 in a war that has killed tens of thousands.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued the invitation to al-Maliki earlier this month and warned of an incursion if the United States and Iraqi leaders failed to stem the Kurdish guerrillas operating from bases in northern Iraq. Erdogan's party won a new mandate last Sunday, but it faces pressure from opposition parties that say it lacks determination to stage an incursion, a move that could seriously strain ties with Iraq and Turkey's NATO ally, the United States.
"This visit will be a security and political one as there are many important issues between the two neighboring countries like the presence of PKK in northern Iraq," al-Dabbagh said, referring to the acronym for the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party.
"The Iraqi government is keen to develop bilateral relations after the elections and is looking forward to have Turkey as an important partner to Iraq," he added. Turkey has been fighting PKK rebels since 1984 in a war that has killed tens of thousands.
Labels: Ali al-Dabbagh, Nouri Al-Maliki, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
Petraeus and al-Maliki clash
Politics
(AP) -- A key aide says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's relations with Gen. David Petraeus are so poor the Iraqi leader may ask Washington to withdraw the overall U.S. commander from his Baghdad post. Iraq's foreign minister calls the relationship "difficult." Petraeus, who says their ties are "very good," acknowledges expressing his "full range of emotions" at times with al-Maliki. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who meets with both at least weekly, concedes "sometimes there are sporty exchanges."
It seems less a clash of personality than of policy. The Shiite Muslim prime minister has reacted most sharply to the American general's tactic of enlisting Sunni militants, presumably including past killers of Iraqi Shiites, as allies in the fight against al-Qaida here. An associate said al-Maliki once, in discussion with President Bush, even threatened to counter this by arming Shiite militias.
A tangle of issues confronts them, none with easy solutions:
- Al-Maliki, a Shiite activist who spent the Saddam Hussein years in exile, hotly objects to the recent U.S. practice of recruiting tribal groups tied to the Sunni insurgency for the fight against the Sunni extremists of al-Qaida, deemed "Enemy No. 1" by the Americans. His loud complaints have won little but a U.S. pledge to let al-Maliki's security apparatus screen the recruits.
- Aides say the Iraqi leader also has spoken bitterly about delivery delays of promised U.S. weapons and equipment for his forces.
- Petraeus, meanwhile, must deal with an Iraqi military and police force, nominally under al-Maliki's control, that often acts out of sectarian, namely Shiite, interests, and not national Iraqi interests. He faces a significant challenge in persuading al-Maliki to shed his ties to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who runs the Mahdi Army militia.
- On the political front, Crocker is grappling with the prime minister's seeming foot-dragging or ineffectiveness in pushing through an oil-industry law and other legislation seen as critical benchmarks by the U.S. government. Reporting to Congress in September, Crocker may have to explain such Iraqi inaction while U.S. troops are fighting and dying to give al-Maliki political breathing space.
First word of strained relations began leaking out with consistency earlier this month. Sami al-Askari, a key aide to al-Maliki and a member of the prime minister's Dawa Party, said the policy of incorporating one-time Sunni insurgents into the security forces shows Petraeus has a "real bias and it bothers the Shiites," whose communities have been targeted by Sunnis in Iraq's sectarian conflict.
"It is possible that we may demand his removal," al-Askari said.
A lawmaker from the al-Sadr bloc, who wouldn't allow use of his name because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said al-Maliki once told Petraeus: "I can't deal with you anymore. I will ask for someone else to replace you." Such a request isn't likely to get much of a hearing in Washington, where the Bush administration presents Petraeus as one general who can improve the Iraq situation.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Newsweek magazine the Petraeus-al-Maliki relationship is "difficult." For one thing, the Americans retain control of the Iraqi military. "The prime minister cannot just pick up the phone and have Iraqi army units do what he says. Maliki needs more leverage," Zebari said.
The prime minister has complained to President Bush about the policy of arming Sunnis, said the Sadrist lawmaker. "He told Bush that if Petraeus continues doing that, he would arm Shiite militias. Bush told al-Maliki to calm down," according to this parliament member, who said he was told of the exchange by al-Maliki. In Washington, White House officials who have sat in on Bush's video conferences with al-Maliki denied that exchange took place.
It seems less a clash of personality than of policy. The Shiite Muslim prime minister has reacted most sharply to the American general's tactic of enlisting Sunni militants, presumably including past killers of Iraqi Shiites, as allies in the fight against al-Qaida here. An associate said al-Maliki once, in discussion with President Bush, even threatened to counter this by arming Shiite militias.
A tangle of issues confronts them, none with easy solutions:
- Al-Maliki, a Shiite activist who spent the Saddam Hussein years in exile, hotly objects to the recent U.S. practice of recruiting tribal groups tied to the Sunni insurgency for the fight against the Sunni extremists of al-Qaida, deemed "Enemy No. 1" by the Americans. His loud complaints have won little but a U.S. pledge to let al-Maliki's security apparatus screen the recruits.
- Aides say the Iraqi leader also has spoken bitterly about delivery delays of promised U.S. weapons and equipment for his forces.
- Petraeus, meanwhile, must deal with an Iraqi military and police force, nominally under al-Maliki's control, that often acts out of sectarian, namely Shiite, interests, and not national Iraqi interests. He faces a significant challenge in persuading al-Maliki to shed his ties to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who runs the Mahdi Army militia.
- On the political front, Crocker is grappling with the prime minister's seeming foot-dragging or ineffectiveness in pushing through an oil-industry law and other legislation seen as critical benchmarks by the U.S. government. Reporting to Congress in September, Crocker may have to explain such Iraqi inaction while U.S. troops are fighting and dying to give al-Maliki political breathing space.
First word of strained relations began leaking out with consistency earlier this month. Sami al-Askari, a key aide to al-Maliki and a member of the prime minister's Dawa Party, said the policy of incorporating one-time Sunni insurgents into the security forces shows Petraeus has a "real bias and it bothers the Shiites," whose communities have been targeted by Sunnis in Iraq's sectarian conflict.
"It is possible that we may demand his removal," al-Askari said.
A lawmaker from the al-Sadr bloc, who wouldn't allow use of his name because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said al-Maliki once told Petraeus: "I can't deal with you anymore. I will ask for someone else to replace you." Such a request isn't likely to get much of a hearing in Washington, where the Bush administration presents Petraeus as one general who can improve the Iraq situation.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Newsweek magazine the Petraeus-al-Maliki relationship is "difficult." For one thing, the Americans retain control of the Iraqi military. "The prime minister cannot just pick up the phone and have Iraqi army units do what he says. Maliki needs more leverage," Zebari said.
The prime minister has complained to President Bush about the policy of arming Sunnis, said the Sadrist lawmaker. "He told Bush that if Petraeus continues doing that, he would arm Shiite militias. Bush told al-Maliki to calm down," according to this parliament member, who said he was told of the exchange by al-Maliki. In Washington, White House officials who have sat in on Bush's video conferences with al-Maliki denied that exchange took place.
Labels: Al Qaeda, General David Petraeus, Hoshyar Zibari, Nouri Al-Maliki, Ryan Crocker, Sami al-Askari, Shiite militias, Sunni militants
Oxfam - eight million Iraqis require emergency aid
Humanitarian
(Al Jazeera) - Up to eight million Iraqis require immediate emergency aid, with nearly half of the population living in "absolute poverty", according to a report by Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi groups. About four million people are lacking food and "in dire need of different types of humanitarian assistance", said the report, released in Amman on Monday.
"Iraqis are suffering from a growing lack of food, shelter, water and sanitation, health care, education, and employment," said the report, compiled by Oxfam and the NGO Co-ordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI). The report also says two million people within the country are currently displced, while more than two million are refugees.Most of those refugees have fled to Jordan and Syria.
"Many of the figures and percentages in the report were actually derived from UN sources… so we concur with the findings" said Said Arikit, spokesman for the UN mission in Iraq. Said Arikit, a spokesman for the UN mission in Iraq, told Al Jazeera the report painted a "grim picture. Many of the figures and percentages in the report were actually derived from UN sources… so we concur with the findings," he said.
"Iraqis are suffering from a growing lack of food, shelter, water and sanitation, health care, education, and employment," said the report, compiled by Oxfam and the NGO Co-ordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI). The report also says two million people within the country are currently displced, while more than two million are refugees.Most of those refugees have fled to Jordan and Syria.
"Many of the figures and percentages in the report were actually derived from UN sources… so we concur with the findings" said Said Arikit, spokesman for the UN mission in Iraq. Said Arikit, a spokesman for the UN mission in Iraq, told Al Jazeera the report painted a "grim picture. Many of the figures and percentages in the report were actually derived from UN sources… so we concur with the findings," he said.
"The government of Iraq is definitely the authority in Iraq and it bears responsibility for the welfare of its people." Iraqi services have been left in crisis as most of those seeking refuge are professionals, according to the report. "The 'brain drain' that Iraq is experiencing is further stretching already inadequate public services, as thousands of medical staff, teachers, water engineers, and other professionals are forced to leave the country," it said.
The entry of Iraqi refugees to neighbouring countries has placed a growing strain on health, education and social services in the two countries. Only 60 per cent of the four million people who depend on food assistance have access to rations from the government-run public distribution system, down from 96 per cent in 2004, the report said.
The number of Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies has risen from 50 per cent to 70 per cent since 2003. The lack of effective sanitation was also highlighted by the joint report, which said 80 per cent of people in Iraq did not have safe access. The report said children were the hardest hit by the fall in living standards, stating child malnutrition rates have risen from 19 per cent before the US-led invasion in 2003 to 28 percent currently.
"Despite the constraints imposed by the government of Iraq, the UN and the international donors can do more to deliver humanitarian assistance to reduce unnecessary suffering," the report said. One recommendation called for the government of Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, to decentralise the distribution of aid to local authorities, and make it easier for civil society organisations to operate.
The entry of Iraqi refugees to neighbouring countries has placed a growing strain on health, education and social services in the two countries. Only 60 per cent of the four million people who depend on food assistance have access to rations from the government-run public distribution system, down from 96 per cent in 2004, the report said.
The number of Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies has risen from 50 per cent to 70 per cent since 2003. The lack of effective sanitation was also highlighted by the joint report, which said 80 per cent of people in Iraq did not have safe access. The report said children were the hardest hit by the fall in living standards, stating child malnutrition rates have risen from 19 per cent before the US-led invasion in 2003 to 28 percent currently.
"Despite the constraints imposed by the government of Iraq, the UN and the international donors can do more to deliver humanitarian assistance to reduce unnecessary suffering," the report said. One recommendation called for the government of Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, to decentralise the distribution of aid to local authorities, and make it easier for civil society organisations to operate.
Labels: aid, children, Co-ordination Committee in Iraq, humanitarian aid, IDPs, Iraqi refugees, Oxfam, poverty, Said Arikit
Iraq wins Asian Cup final
Sport
(RFE/RL) - Iraq's soccer team has won the Asian Cup final for the first time, beating Saudi Arabia 1-0 in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. The victory prompted thousands of Iraqis, including members of the security forces, to celebrate with barrages of gunfire, in defiance of a strict government curfew. Captain Yunis Mahmud was the hero as Iraq stunned three-time champions Saudi Arabia 1-0 with a goal in the 72nd minute to claim the Asian Cup title for the first time.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called the victory "a lesson in how to triumph over the impossible to realize victory" and announced that each player on the Iraqi team would receive $10,000 for their achievements. Baghdad security officials had imposed an overnight vehicle curfew in order to prevent car-bomb attacks, and ordered police to arrest anyone who took part in the traditional celebratory gunfire.
The decision came after at least 50 celebrating fans were killed by car bombs in Baghdad on July 25, following Iraq's semifinal victory over South Korea. However, large crowds did gather today at some road junctions, waving flags. Members of security forces were among those firing in the air in the capital. Civilians also shot from the roofs of buildings. At least four people were reported killed by the gunfire.
The Iraqi team's success in the tournament has been a rare source of shared national celebration in a country torn apart by violence and rifts between the Sunni and Shi'ite communities.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called the victory "a lesson in how to triumph over the impossible to realize victory" and announced that each player on the Iraqi team would receive $10,000 for their achievements. Baghdad security officials had imposed an overnight vehicle curfew in order to prevent car-bomb attacks, and ordered police to arrest anyone who took part in the traditional celebratory gunfire.
The decision came after at least 50 celebrating fans were killed by car bombs in Baghdad on July 25, following Iraq's semifinal victory over South Korea. However, large crowds did gather today at some road junctions, waving flags. Members of security forces were among those firing in the air in the capital. Civilians also shot from the roofs of buildings. At least four people were reported killed by the gunfire.
The Iraqi team's success in the tournament has been a rare source of shared national celebration in a country torn apart by violence and rifts between the Sunni and Shi'ite communities.
Labels: Asian Cup final, football, Iraq, Jakarta, Nouri Al-Maliki, Saudi Arabia, soccer, Yunis Mahmud
