Thread: Rebuilding Iraq

A military agreement with Turkey.

Turkey, Iraq sign military agreement

ANKARA, Turkey, June 13 (UPI) -- A preliminary agreement on military cooperation between Iraq and Turkey will lead to further agreements, a Turkish military spokesman said Friday.

Gen. Metin Gurak, ... said the agreement lays the groundwork for more talks and cooperation, ...

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed this week by Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Hasan Igsiz for Turkey and Gen. Nasier Abadi for Iraq.

Turkey hopes for more Iraqi support in its fight against the PKK or Kurdistan Workers Party, the report said. The group has sometimes operated against Turkey from bases in the Kurdish region of Iraq.

Patience is wearing thin.

Laws Lag in Iraq, as Patience Wears Thin

21 June [NYTimes] BAGHDAD — Popular support for Iraq’s democratic institutions is being undermined steadily by official corruption, yet the country has no comprehensive anticorruption law.

The country’s economy is dependent almost entirely upon oil revenue, but because there is no single law regulating the industry, there is widespread confusion about investment, production and lines of authority.

And parts of northern Iraq continue to be beset by ethnic and sectarian violence that could engulf the rest of the country in a new wave of warfare, but there is little prospect of a political resolution being offered any time soon to settle competing claims in the disputed province of Kirkuk.

There is a growing concern that if the country’s Parliament does not soon approve a series of critical legislative measures, Iraq’s democratic experiment could erode as America pulls back, militarily and politically. By the end of this month, the United States is required to withdraw combat troops from Iraq’s cities and, by the end of 2011, from the entire country.

Some legislation that could help strengthen and diversify the economy has been awaiting passage in Parliament for as long as three years, even as large numbers of Iraqis live in poverty and without adequate housing, health care and other basic needs. ....

It is good that the VP goes over to give this a push.

Biden urges Iraq reconciliation

4 July [BBC] The US vice-president has marked American Independence Day in Baghdad, urging Iraqi leaders to do more to encourage political reconciliation. President Barack Obama has charged Joe Biden with overseeing the American departure from Iraq.

Earlier this week, US forces completed their withdrawal from Iraqi towns and cities, in preparation for a full departure by 2011. But the move has coincided with an increase in violence.

The vice president ended his three-day visit with a ceremony, conferring US citizenship on 237 men and women who have worked alongside the Americans in Iraq. .... Most were of Mexican or Filipino origin. But some were Iraqis, ....

But Mr Biden's visit was also an attempt to foster reconciliation between the various ethnic and religious groups in Iraq, in preparation for the full-scale departure of American troops by 2011. ...

Sounds a good idea, worth $25 billion.

Kuwait open to investing war reparations into Iraq

8 July [Forbes, AP] KUWAIT CITY -- Kuwait is open to investing into Iraq some $25 billion still owed it in reparations from the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis, Iraq's parliament speaker said while visiting the oil rich emirate Wednesday.

A United Nations commission has been deducting a percentage of Iraqi oil revenues to pay compensation to Kuwaitis and other nationals harmed by Saddam Hussein's invasion of this close U.S. ally in 1990.

Iraq, struggling to rebuild after decades of sanctions, war, and foreign occupation has asked Kuwait to forgo the reparations or reduce them, but Kuwait has insisted they should be paid.

"We tried to propose an alternative solution," Iraqi parliament speaker Ayad al-Samarraie said at the end of a visit to Kuwait. "There would be an agreement between the two countries that the money paid to Kuwait as compensation would be reinvested in Iraq in one way or another."

The speaker said there were "enormous opportunities" in his country where foreign investments have virtually stopped since 1980, at the start of an 8-year war with Iran. ....

There is nothing like winning the first football home game since 2003 to raise national morale and the spirit of unity. And this game was played in Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region.

Iraq wins first home match since 2003 invasion

ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq won the first international football match in the country since the US-led invasion in 2003, beating the Palestinian national football team 3-0 in a friendly on Friday.

The opening goal in the game at Francois Hariri stadium in the northern city of Arbil, in Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan, was let in by Palestinian player Hussam Fadi in the 20th minute. ....

"This match is the first step towards ending the ban imposed by FIFA on international matches in Iraq because of the situation our country was going through," Najih Hmud, vice-president of the Iraqi football association, said when the Arbil fixture was announced.

The Asian Football Confederation and FIFA, football's world governing body, both gave their approval for the game. ....

The two sides will meet again on Monday in Baghdad's al-Shaab stadium.

The Iraqi national team won the Asian Cup in 2007 but last month, under new Serbian coach Bora Milutinovic, they crashed out of the Confederations Cup in South Africa without scoring a single goal.

After visiting Iraq the Palestinian team will head to China for a friendly on July 18. .....

Iraq security forces passed the first big test.

Iraqi troops pass festival test

19 July [BBC] Iraqi security forces have passed the first big test of their capabilities since US troops withdrew from towns and cities late last month.

A major religious festival in the capital, Baghdad, passed off with no large-scale violence.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across Iraq and abroad visited for one of the most important dates in the Shia religious calendar.

Gatherings like this have been targets for sectarian attacks in the past.

The authorities in Baghdad say up to five million pilgrims descended on the capital over the past week to visit the shrine of Imam Moussa Al-Kadhim.

Only three were killed - in two separate bomb-attacks on Friday; in all more than 30 others were wounded.

In most countries this would be considered a tragedy. In Iraq, it is counted as a success.

For the first time since the American-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi forces alone were in charge of providing security for such a large-scale event. ...

This is one of the wishes of the US when they withdrew the troops.

Iraq, on its own finally, might settle Kirkuk: lawmaker

19 July BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An end to U.S. political dominance in Iraq could encourage feuding Kurds and Arabs to seek a settlement over the oil-producing northern province of Kirkuk, a top lawmaker said.

But parliament speaker Ayad al-Samarai acknowledged it would be difficult, even in the best of circumstances, to put end to a struggle that has blocked vital energy legislation for years and now threatens to delay national elections slated for January.

"Over the last six years there have been no (real) steps to settle Kirkuk ... Samarai, a leading Sunni Arab politician, said on Sunday. ....

"But the situation may be better now ... The responsibility now rests with Iraq and it's up to Iraq on its own to deal with this issue," he said in an interview.

Kirkuk not only combines historic feuds over oil and land but is now seen as a serious security threat just as Iraq emerges from the worst of the bloodshed unleashed by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Minority Kurds' claims that Kirkuk is a rightful part of their northern enclave have stirred objections from the region's Arabs and Turkmen and raise concerns about Iraq's future stability as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, part of Iraq's Shi'ite Arab majority, declared Iraq had reclaimed its sovereignty last month when U.S. combat troops pulled out of Iraqi cities and towns. American political influence, once almost boundless, is fading.

But violence continues and Iraq remains mired in political quarrels that some fear could plunge it back into all-out war. ....

Samarai suggested that the election of a new, temporary provincial council might with the help of the United Nations be able to satisfy the region's feuding factions. ....

Handing Kirkuk to Iraqi Kurds could fuel ambitions of creating an independent Kurdish state, anathema to neighbor Turkey which has its own Kurdish minority.

OIL, GAS, POWER
Control of Kirkuk is tied up with oil and gas legislation that will define how export revenues are shared and will set an outline for foreign firms in Iraq, which has the world's third largest oil reserves but is in dire need of outside investment.

Until the laws are passed, the Oil Ministry's steps to renew the oil sector will be shrouded by legal doubts -- lawmakers are currently threatening to block the ministry's recent deal with BP and China's CNPC to develop giant oilfield Rumaila. ....

This is an unusual and interesting move by Assad.

Syria president calls for national reconciliation of Iraq

DAMASCUS, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday met here with Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and urged him to push forward the process of Iraqi national reconciliation, Syria's official SANA news agency reported.

Al-Assad told the Iraqi cleric that Syria is keen to help promote reconciliation among Iraqi people in order to boost stability in the country and the region, SANA said.

Al-Sadr expressed his appreciation for Syria's support "for the interests of Iraqi people" and for the unity of the country and its people, according to the report. ....

Bolstered by a base of predominantly poor urban Shiites, al-Sadr, a radical anti-American cleric and the head of the Mahdi Army, is one of the most influential religious and political figures in the country without holding any official title in the Iraqi government. 　

hopefully they wont hire the same contractor that built baraks for us army, everyone knows electricity and water don't mix, everyone but those ppl.

Rebuilding a war torn country is a long process. It needs the cooperation of neighboring countries.

Iraq wants urgent water talks with Turkey, Syria

4 hrs ago [AFP] BAGHDAD — Iraq's water resources ministry on Monday called for talks with neighbouring Turkey and Syria after the flow of water in the Euphrates river fell by more than half in less than a month.

The ministry is aiming for "an urgent meeting with ministers and experts from the three countries concerned this coming August to discuss the sharing of water and the fluctuation of flows to Iraq," a statement said.

The Euphrates's flow "in the Hassaiba region (near the Iraq-Syria border) is very low," it said. ....

Turkey, where the Euphrates originates, opened dam floodgates at the end of June to increase the flow of water to Iraq to 570 m3/s, and Iraq said Ankara had promised to raise that further to 715 m3/s in July, August and September.

According to the water resources ministry, Iraq needs a flow of water along the Euphrates equalling around 500 m3/s to fulfill just half of its requirements for irrigation.

The flow of the Euphrates, which runs through Syria before reaching Iraq, is now running at just over half of its 2000 level of 950 m3/second.

The controversy over the sharing of the mighty rivers at the root of Iraq's ancient name of Mesopotamia -- meaning "between the rivers" in Greek -- is almost as old as the country itself. ....

I didn't know and am a bit surprised that UN sanctions have been imposed on Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War.

Barack Obama 'to help Iraq remove UN sanctions'

22 July [Telegraph] President Barack Obama said he was committed to persuading the United Nations to remove international sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and restated his determination for the United States to stick to its schedule and remove all its troops from Iraq by the end of 2011

... Addressing a key concern raised by his Iraqi counterpart in an hour-long private meeting, the US president said that it would be a "mistake" for Iraq to continue to be burdened by the sins of the late dictator Saddam Hussein. ...

The sanctions were imposed shortly after a US-led coalition repelled Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and require Iraq to pay five per cent of its oil revenues in war reparations. ....

The oil-rich Kurdistan region of north Iraq has just held an election and is waiting for the official results.

'Change' makes inroads against Kurdistan's dominant parties

26 July [CSMonitor] Its relative success in Saturday's regional election reflects deep popular dissatisfaction with official corruption.

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq - Two parties that control Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdistan faced the first serious internal challenge to their power in decades Saturday, in a regional election that underscored deep popular dissatisfaction with official corruption and autocratic behavior.

The challenge, from a new party called Goran, or Change, could tip the balance of power in the oil-rich region.

Although official results are not expected for at least a week, preliminary reports from both sides suggest that Goran is likely to have won a substantial minority of the 111-seats in the regional parliament, though probably not enough to form a government. That power will probably still go to the leading Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which have shared power of the region for 12 years and ran in this election jointly.

Goran spokesmen claim that they won 30 or more seats, which would give them substantial political clout and could allow them to make alliances with smaller parties to create a majority.

Local officials said turnout topped 78 percent, a measure of the interest Goran stirred in the electorate. During the election, the blue flags of Goran could be seen everywhere – especially in the eastern governorate of Sulaymaniyah, a PUK stronghold.

Corruption tops voters' agenda
The Obama administration and other international players have lately focused on possible violence between Kurdistan and Baghdad over disputed, oil-rich area around Kirkuk.

But locally, people are far more vocal on the subject of corruption and nepotism. ....

There seems to be no news reports of this Kurdistan election results.