Friday, June 29, 2007
Iraqi govt allocates $168 mn. for Al Anbar reconstruction
Reconstruction
(Iraq Directory) - Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih reports the government has allocated 210,000,000,000 (US$ 168 million) IQD to support reconstruction in the province of Al-Anbar, after its extensive destruction by terrorist and military operations.
During a meeting held in the Cabinet on Wednesday attended by a number of ministers and the Governor of Al-Anbar, as well as the United States ambassador, that "77,000,000,000 IQD of the total is allocated for economic investment projects, and the remaining 135,000,000,000 IQD is budgeted for developing the regions."
Labels: Al Anbar, Barham Salih, reconstruction
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Kurds stress need for a non-sectarian united government
Politics
(RFE/RL) - Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told Al-Arabiyah television that all political parties in Iraq agree that the current political landscape in Iraq must change, the news channel reported on June 1. "We undoubtedly have observations about the performance of the government," he said, speaking about the Kurdish position. "The political, sectarian, and nationalist quota system produced a government that is not on the required level in various fields." Salih said that parliament might consider a no-confidence vote. "Iraq has a parliamentary system, and alliances change every now and then," he said.
Referring to former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's efforts to gain support for a nonsectarian-based national-unity government, Salih said: "Iyad Allawi is our friend [and] we have good relations. He discussed this issue [of a new front] with the Kurdish leaders. We stressed the need to have an alliance for the moderates in Iraq and in the Iraqi parliament.... We believe in the need to bring these forces together so that they can serve as a political base for rule in Iraq. Talks were held on this issue with Iyad Allawi and other leaders in the [United Iraqi] Alliance and the Iraqi Accordance Front and we continue to discuss this issue."
Labels: Barham Salih, Iyad Allawi, no-confidence vote, politics
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Iraq urges to Turkey to persue diplomatic means in PKK issue
Security, Turkey
(Reuters) - Iraq urged its northern neighbour Turkey on Sunday to pursue diplomatic means as it attempts stop armed Kurdish separatists operating out of northern Iraq. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told reporters after meeting with a Turkish delegation in Baghdad that Iraq would not accept a breach of its sovereignty.
"We spoke about what are perceived to be security threats to Turkey coming from Iraqi territory. We emphasised the need of dealing with the perceived threats based on established channels between the governments of Iraq and Turkey," he said. Turkish envoy Oguz Celikkol said a number of issues had been discussed, including Ankara's growing anger at recent violence it blames on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The Turkish rebel group has thousands of fighters in the mountains of northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
"Iraq is our neighbour and what happens here is important to us. We aren't here to discuss one matter but all the matters that concern the two countries," he said. Last month Turkey's armed forces chief called for a military operation into Iraq to quash PKK rebels, but Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Friday that parliament had no current intention to approve military action.
Last Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed six people in Ankara but the PKK denied involvement. A day later six soldiers were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a landmine believed to have been planted by the guerrillas. More than 30,000 people, most of them Kurds, have been killed since the PKK took up arms to fight for a Kurdish homeland in Turkey in 1984.
"We spoke about what are perceived to be security threats to Turkey coming from Iraqi territory. We emphasised the need of dealing with the perceived threats based on established channels between the governments of Iraq and Turkey," he said. Turkish envoy Oguz Celikkol said a number of issues had been discussed, including Ankara's growing anger at recent violence it blames on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The Turkish rebel group has thousands of fighters in the mountains of northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
"Iraq is our neighbour and what happens here is important to us. We aren't here to discuss one matter but all the matters that concern the two countries," he said. Last month Turkey's armed forces chief called for a military operation into Iraq to quash PKK rebels, but Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Friday that parliament had no current intention to approve military action.
Last Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed six people in Ankara but the PKK denied involvement. A day later six soldiers were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a landmine believed to have been planted by the guerrillas. More than 30,000 people, most of them Kurds, have been killed since the PKK took up arms to fight for a Kurdish homeland in Turkey in 1984.
Labels: Abdullah Gul, Barham Salih, Oguz Celikkol, PKK, Turkey
Friday, May 11, 2007
Kurdish officials to meet central government over draft oil law
Oil
(Reuters) - Senior Iraqi Kurdish officials will travel to Baghdad next week hoping to end an impasse with the central government over a draft oil law to share revenues from the world's third-largest oil reserves. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, speaking ahead of the meeting in Egypt in which industrialised powers pressed reforms in Iraq in exchange for aid, told reporters in Saudi Arabia last week that Kurds were "very happy" with the draft law and that all the groups had agreed to pass it by the end of May.
But an oil industry source told Reuters on Thursday the bill was in a state body charged with drafting legislation, and that Kurds still had misgivings over annexes they say would wrest oilfields from regions and place them under a new state-oil firm. Iraq's Kurdish Prime Minister Nejruvan Barzani said he will lead a high-level delegation of Kurdish officials to discuss the annexes with the central government next week.
"Next week, new negotiations will start over the appendixes to the oil law and the revenue distribution law. I will participate in a large part of these negotiations," Barzani told reporters in the northern city of Arbil late on Wednesday. "The Kurds had a big role in writing the draft of the suggested oil law. I am optimistic in resolving the disputes."
Barzani has insisted that Kurds want to include a separate law on oil revenue management that would set up a Kurdish fund. The central government has said it wants revenues put in a central account and distributed according to Iraq's population. Iraq's Deputy Prime minister Barham Salih, the chief architect of the draft oil law, told Reuters in an interview earlier this month he was confident a draft oil law would be approved in parliament after officials from the central government and Kurdistan meet to iron out differences.
But an oil industry source told Reuters on Thursday the bill was in a state body charged with drafting legislation, and that Kurds still had misgivings over annexes they say would wrest oilfields from regions and place them under a new state-oil firm. Iraq's Kurdish Prime Minister Nejruvan Barzani said he will lead a high-level delegation of Kurdish officials to discuss the annexes with the central government next week.
"Next week, new negotiations will start over the appendixes to the oil law and the revenue distribution law. I will participate in a large part of these negotiations," Barzani told reporters in the northern city of Arbil late on Wednesday. "The Kurds had a big role in writing the draft of the suggested oil law. I am optimistic in resolving the disputes."
Barzani has insisted that Kurds want to include a separate law on oil revenue management that would set up a Kurdish fund. The central government has said it wants revenues put in a central account and distributed according to Iraq's population. Iraq's Deputy Prime minister Barham Salih, the chief architect of the draft oil law, told Reuters in an interview earlier this month he was confident a draft oil law would be approved in parliament after officials from the central government and Kurdistan meet to iron out differences.
Labels: Barham Salih, draft oil law, Hussain al-Shahristani, KRG, Nejruvan Barzani
Friday, April 27, 2007
Iraqi oil ministry says oil contracts not signed with central govt. will be considered illegal
Oil
(Reuters) - Iraq's oil ministry said on Thursday foreign firms should sign oil contracts only with the central government until a new oil law is passed, adding that deals outside its jurisdiction would be considered illegal.
An oil industry source told Reuters the warning, made in a ministry statement after Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani met the Russian envoy to Baghdad, referred to contracts signed recently without the approval of the central government.
"Foreign companies should only sign contracts through the central government and the oil ministry. The ministry warns companies who violate Iraqi law of the consequences of their actions and any contract that is signed outside the jurisdiction of the central Iraqi government is considered illegal." Iraq's Kurdistan regional government has signed several agreements with foreign companies, including a service contract last week with United Arab Emirate's Dana Gas.
While Kurds favour agreements that would share production with foreign firms, such deals have drawn criticism from some Shi'ite and Sunni Arab nationalists. Ashti Hawrami, the Kurdish region's minister of natural resources, said it could clinch deals with any company it chose. "If they do not want to agree on the remaining contentious points we will implement our own laws for the Kurdistan region according to the constitution," he told Reuters.
Iraq's central government and Kurdish officials are currently trying to resolve disputes over the draft oil law, which would determine control of the world's third-largest oil reserves. The law has yet to be approved by parliament. Hawrami has said annexes to the draft law that would wrest oilfields from regional governments and place them under a new state-oil company are unconstitutional.
Shares of Norway's DNO, an independent producer about to start drilling for oil at its Tawke field in the Kurdish-controlled north, fell as much as 4.5 percent after the oil ministry comments appeared to cast doubt on its production agreement with the Kurdish region. Shares later pared their losses. An oil industry source told Reuters in Baghdad that the Iraqi government had no problem with a "Norwegian firm" that had signed a deal with the Kurds, without specifying DNO by name. In Olso, DNO said it was confident about the validity of its oil production deal with Iraq's regional Kurdish authorities.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, an architect of the draft oil law, told Reuters after the cabinet passed it in February that it would allow the Kurdish regional government to review existing contracts it has signed with foreign firms to ensure consistency with the terms of the new law. Salih said a commission of independent experts would ratify consistency in case of contention and that regional authorities would be able to negotiate oil contracts with foreign companies based on "maximising revenues for Iraqi people."
An oil industry source told Reuters the warning, made in a ministry statement after Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani met the Russian envoy to Baghdad, referred to contracts signed recently without the approval of the central government.
"Foreign companies should only sign contracts through the central government and the oil ministry. The ministry warns companies who violate Iraqi law of the consequences of their actions and any contract that is signed outside the jurisdiction of the central Iraqi government is considered illegal." Iraq's Kurdistan regional government has signed several agreements with foreign companies, including a service contract last week with United Arab Emirate's Dana Gas.
While Kurds favour agreements that would share production with foreign firms, such deals have drawn criticism from some Shi'ite and Sunni Arab nationalists. Ashti Hawrami, the Kurdish region's minister of natural resources, said it could clinch deals with any company it chose. "If they do not want to agree on the remaining contentious points we will implement our own laws for the Kurdistan region according to the constitution," he told Reuters.
Iraq's central government and Kurdish officials are currently trying to resolve disputes over the draft oil law, which would determine control of the world's third-largest oil reserves. The law has yet to be approved by parliament. Hawrami has said annexes to the draft law that would wrest oilfields from regional governments and place them under a new state-oil company are unconstitutional.
Shares of Norway's DNO, an independent producer about to start drilling for oil at its Tawke field in the Kurdish-controlled north, fell as much as 4.5 percent after the oil ministry comments appeared to cast doubt on its production agreement with the Kurdish region. Shares later pared their losses. An oil industry source told Reuters in Baghdad that the Iraqi government had no problem with a "Norwegian firm" that had signed a deal with the Kurds, without specifying DNO by name. In Olso, DNO said it was confident about the validity of its oil production deal with Iraq's regional Kurdish authorities.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, an architect of the draft oil law, told Reuters after the cabinet passed it in February that it would allow the Kurdish regional government to review existing contracts it has signed with foreign firms to ensure consistency with the terms of the new law. Salih said a commission of independent experts would ratify consistency in case of contention and that regional authorities would be able to negotiate oil contracts with foreign companies based on "maximising revenues for Iraqi people."
Labels: Ashti Hawrami, Baghdad government, Barham Salih, Dana gas, DNO, draft oil law, Hussain al-Shahristani, Norway, Oil Ministry, UAE
