Thread: Iraqi/Dinar News before 3-12-2007 7:45PM CentralTimeZone

Originally Posted by bob1940

EVERYONE! that are Posting your Personal comments, and rumors. PLEASE Put them in the Rumors thread. Or the GO Crazy thread.
We are all getting anxious for the RV , but keep this forum Open For the Up comming News and events THANKS BOB

If it weren't for some of the comments and opinions from others I wouldn't know what's going on. Some of these articles that are translated need to be translated again to be understood.

Iraq's neighbors take first small steps toward working together By Howard LaFranchiScott Peterson, Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor
Mon Mar 12, 4:00 AM ET



WASHINGTON AND TEHRAN, IRAN - The weekend's regional conference in Baghdad was modest, but it nevertheless accomplished two things: It promoted the legitimacy of Iraq's new government among reluctant neighbors, and it heralded the Bush administration's evolving conversion from unilateralism to hard-nosed diplomacy under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

A second, ministerial-level meeting in the weeks ahead will draw together an even larger assembly to keep regional players involved in Iraq, the conference decided. And even though the weekend meeting was mostly limited to an exchange of accusations, US officials did speak to the Iranians present – paving the way for Secretary Rice to sit at the same table with her counterpart from Tehran as early as next month.

The last time a meeting of Iraq's neighbors was held in Baghdad, it ended in a brawl. Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait followed.

This time, mortars fell as Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari spoke to the representatives of neighboring countries, the United States, and other foreign powers.

It was a reminder of the security void that the officials were assembled to discuss. Yet by affirming plans for a larger ministerial meeting, forming working groups to take up issues like border security, and simply assembling representatives of increasingly antagonistic and suspicious regional players, the conference did allow the new Iraqi government to take a step toward establishing its legitimacy in the neighborhood.

"This has a lot of symbolic value for the Iraqis, because it puts them out there at least on the surface as in the driver's seat of their own affairs in the region," says Wayne White, a former Iraq expert at the State Department who is now at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "The Iraqis are very sensitive about that."

At the same time, contacts between American and Iranian officials, even if they remained at the level of trading barbs, cracked open the door to more substantive contacts, says Mr. White.

"It begins the process of doing what the Iraq Study Group suggested from the beginning, which is engaging Syria and Iran," adds White, who was an adviser to the panel headed by former Secretary of State James Baker III and former congressman Lee Hamilton.

The panel's conclusion last December that the US should deepen diplomatic efforts with all Iraq's neighbors was initially rebuffed by President Bush. But Rice has moved in the direction of talks – not just with Iran and Syria, but with North Korea as well – after first tightening the screws aimed at these countries so as to enter talks from "a position of strength," State Department officials say.

At the Baghdad conference, all eyes were open for signs of a US-Iran defrosting. Both sides have reasons beyond Iraq to test the diplomatic waters, even if with only a big toe at this stage.

Analysts in Tehran say that, despite stern anti-US rhetoric from some officials, Iran has been searching for a way to engage Washington. By doing so, it wants to address a wider range of issues, including Iran's controversial nuclear program, that have kept the two countries estranged since 1979.

"For Iran, this is not only about Iraq or even security guarantees [from the US that it will not attack]," says Mohammed Hadi Semati, a Tehran University political scientist who has just returned from a three-year period at think tanks in Washington. "Iran is looking for a strategic opening to be treated as an equal player in the region," says Mr. Semati. "Iran wants to get the US to the same table, but they don't think the US is genuine and willing to expand talks beyond Iraq."

One reason the US is now willing to try the diplomatic waters with Tehran is that it recognizes the Iranians have been both helpful and troublesome for Iraq, some US analysts say. "The Iranians have been quite helpful in some respects, in terms of the economy and some political areas, and I think the idea is to see where that can go," says Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

By contrast, most of Iraq's Arab neighbors especially "have been real laggards in working with the Iraqi government," he notes. The US and the Iraqis will be watching to see if the Baghdad meeting marked a "turning point" in those relations, he adds.

Another explanation for the initial opening between Washington and Tehran is that both sides are coming from a perceived position of strength, others say. The US "feels its pressure on Iran has worked, and so is in a better position, and Iran feels it has significant influence in Iraq," notes Semati.

Still, both sides have so far stuck to barbs and counterbarbs. Washington pursued the accusations it has made against Iran in recent months, over alleged weapons and roadside bomb shipments across the border.

At one point in the meeting, David Satterfield, State Department Iraq envoy, pointed to his briefcase and said it contained evidence of Iran's meddling in Iraq. Iranian officials shot back that the US is "suffering from intelligence failure" and trying to blame others for its problems in Iraq.

The hard-line Kayhan newspaper – whose director is an official representative of Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – was unrelenting in its criticism of the Baghdad meeting. The paper blamed Washington for recent "provocations" against Iran, including the "US troops raid on the Iranian consulate in Arbil and their kidnapping of Iranian diplomats."

Still, the Baghdad contacts underscore a new US willingness to talk with Iran, some analysts say – even if the hopes for accomplishing much through them are not very high.

"The US has vacillated over the last year as to whether it should open up to a functional relationship with Iran, and what this meeting says is the US has decided to try to have that cooperation," says Mr. Clawson, whose think tank is often close to the thinking of the Bush administration.

That said, he adds, the thaw between the two antagonists "really can't go very far," largely because "the Iranians are going to want things that the US is going to find unacceptable."

Political Obstacles Often Prevent Progress in Iraq
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Posted GMT 3-12-2007 14:5:40
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BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's fragmented leadership is struggling to meet the major benchmarks that it has pledged to the United States to achieve soon, with political wrangling and a chaotic legislature standing in the way.

The issue took on new urgency last week when House Democrats drafted legislation that would require President Bush to certify by July 1 and again by Oct. 1 whether the Iraqi government is making progress on security, an oil plan and constitutional amendments.

Even if the Democratic proposals never make it through Congress, pressure is mounting for the Iraqis to meet a timetable or risk losing U.S. troops and support.

But the Iraqis face a host of obstacles that go to the heart of the crisis.

Recent talk of changes in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government may just increase the paralysis as groups maneuver for power.

Iraq missed the Dec. 31 target dates to enact laws establishing provincial elections, regulating distribution of the country's oil wealth and reversing measures that have excluded many Sunnis from jobs and government positions because they belonged to Saddam Hussein's Baath party.

The U.S. is also pushing for constitutional amendments to remove articles that the Sunnis believe discriminate in favor of the Shiites and Kurds.

U.S. officials also want Iraqis to pass a bill to set new elections for provincial governments to encourage greater public participation at the grass-roots level.

The only success has been a new oil law, which al-Maliki's Cabinet endorsed Feb. 26 and sent to parliament for approval. Leaders of all main political blocs have pledged to support the bill, which lays down rules for negotiating contracts and distributing the revenues among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

But parliament has not taken up the measure yet, and the deputy speaker said the draft may have to be sent back to the Cabinet because al-Maliki's staff skipped some legal steps in endorsing it.

Likewise, the bill on provincial elections is bogged down in procedural matters. The measure is designed to address problems caused when the Sunnis boycotted the January 2005 election, in which provincial councils were chosen.

That resulted in Shiites winning power in some areas with Sunni majorities. Shiite lawmakers are not eager to give up those gains.

Legislation to relax the ban on former Baath party members holding government jobs or elective office faces an even tougher road. Shiites and Kurds, who suffered the most under Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime, are reluctant to reinstate thousands of members of the party responsible.

The government provides most jobs here, and the ban effectively deprives thousands of former Baath members of a livelihood. Many are Sunnis, and the U.S. believes the rules are driving Sunnis into the insurgency.

The main Sunni bloc in parliament wants the rules loosened so that thousands of lower-ranking party members can get their jobs back.

Ali al-Lami, executive secretary of the government committee that screens former party members, said the factions reached a broad compromise during a meeting Feb. 28, whereby the number of Baath members under the ban would be cut by more than half. Other former party members would be offered reinstatement or retirement with pensions, he said. Al-Lami said al-Maliki had endorsed the compromise.

By Robert H. Reid

© 2007, Assyrian International News Agency

Iraqi forces control much of northern Iraq
Monday, 12 March 2007
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON — Three of the four Iraqi army divisions in the north are now under the control of the Iraqi Ground Forces Command, and U.S. troops are turning over more counterinsurgency operations to those units, the top U.S. commander in the region said.

This will allow U.S. forces to refocus its combat operations and to continue working with local governments on economic issues, said Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of Multinational Division North.

U.S. troops are now serving more in an “advise-and-assist role,” Mixon said. U.S. combat operations are more focused on specific targets, such as individuals and groups who finance, make and use improvised explosive devices.

Mixon reported that Iraqi units in the region are manned at about 85 percent. They do, however, have significant equipment shortages, he said.

The final division should fall in under Iraqi command and control by this summer. To help train the Iraqi troops, Mixon has added nearly 400 U.S. soldiers to his military transition teams. To help train the Iraq police, 33 transition teams were added.

Work is still needed, however, with the border security forces and with the strategic infrastructure battalions, those that secure critical oil refining and delivery infrastructure.

Mixon put dedicated training teams with the strategic infrastructure battalions but had to “weed out some of the bad eggs” in those battalions who were working with insurgents or stealing oil.

“They still need to make improvements in their overall manning, their equipping and their general professionalism, and we continue to work that each day,” Mixon said.

Mixon noted that the oil refining and delivery infrastructure was in poor condition before the war, so considerable investment is needed to fix those problems.

The general said he is encouraged by progress made in the northern provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Salahuddin, but that sectarian violence still plagues Diyala province. He has moved more forces into Diyala province and increased offensive operations to throw the insurgents “off balance” and prevent them from reinforcing operations in Baghdad, he said. In the past two months, coalition forces have seen a 30 percent increase in offensive actions and attacks and have killed more than 175 enemy forces in Diyala, Mixon said.

“We see the Sunni insurgency trying to desperately gain control of Diyala, because it helps in their effort to control Baghdad and to prevent the government of Iraq from succeeding,” Mixon said. “Over time, I am confident that the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police will overcome these security threats in cities like Baqubah, Balad Ruz and Muqdadiyah, and throughout Diyala province.”

Four provincial reconstruction teams continue to work with the government officials at the local level focusing on fiscal responsibility, management and finance. Mixon said Kirkuk officials hosted an investment law training class, and the PRT will soon offer a workshop on foreign investment. The PRT also is helping the Kirkuk government set up an investment conference in late March.

In addition, officials expect the Iraqi government to soon release about $37 million in reconstruction funds to Tal Afar. Funds are expected for rebuilding in Samarra, as well, Mixon said.

All totaled, the region has 518 projects worth more than $800 million in the works. About $75 million in Commander’s Emergency Response Program funds will be spent in the region this year.

Coalition transition teams key to building Iraqi Security Forces’ capabilities
Monday, 12 March 2007


Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraq Assistance Group, addresses the media about the central role coalition transition teams play in increasing Iraqi Security Forces’ performance and independent operations against the insurgency Sunday at the Combined Press Information Center. Photo by Combined Press Information Center.BAGHDAD — The commander of the Iraq Assistance Group addressed the media Sunday about the evolving role of the coalition transition teams embedded with Iraqi Security Forces.

Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard highlighted the role of transition teams in Iraq and their progress at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone, Baghdad.

Embedded transition teams work side by side with Iraqi Army and Police. The primary goal of these teams is to increase the capabilities of the Iraqi Security Forces and build their self- reliance, said Pittard.

Performance of the teams is important to success.

“I am very impressed with the performance of the Iraqi Army. There was a time when

Coalition forces had to urge Iraqi Forces to fight that is not the case anymore. They are not only capable of fighting, they want to fight for a sovereign Iraq,” said Pittard.

These teams are embedded with Iraqi Security Forces ranging from battalion to division-sized forces. There are currently 500 transition teams working with Iraqi Security Forces.

The embedded teams vary in size, but a typical team consists of 11 members. The number of teams may not increase, but the actual size of the teams may change, said Pittard.

Eight of the 10 divisions in the Iraqi Army are now under Iraqi control and all divisions are showing evidence of self- reliance, said Pittard.

Six of the divisions are under the Iraqi Ground Forces and two are under the Baghdad Security Command.

While they are under Iraqi control, they still receive some American support, according to Pittard.

“True self- reliance lies within logistical support of the units and that is something that will take more time,” Pittard said.

The capabilities and progress of the Iraqi Army is another achievement. The Iraqi Soldiers are performing complex operations all across Iraq in every division, Pittard said.

There are currently enough transition teams to work with every battalion, but some of these teams are being removed, as the capabilities of the Iraqi Security Forces grow, decreasing the necessity of their presence.

Due to the dedication of the embedded transition teams over the last two years the Iraqi Security Forces have seen a dramatic increase in performance, which will lead to success, said Pittard.

(By Combined Press Information Center)

Tribal sheiks, city council re-opens school
Monday, 12 March 2007
By Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp
1st BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs



Sgt. Derek Smith, a team leader for Battery C, 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment and a native of Phoenix, Ariz., hands out back packs, filled with school supplies, to Iraqi children in Intasar, Iraq, March 4, during the re-opening of the Intasar elementary school. The school was shut down nearly five months ago due to sectarian violence; however, Shia and Sunni sheiks, the Intasar city council, Iraqi security forces and U.S. Army Soldiers have joined together to help end the violence in the village. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp.INTASAR — Tribal sheiks, city council members, the Iraqi army, Iraqi police and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers are helping people get their lives back to normal nearly five months after sectarian violence rocked the small community.

One of the signs that stability is returning in the village showed on March 5 as Intasar sheiks, council members and Soldiers from Battery C, 1st “Red Lion” Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment joined together to re-open the Intasar elementary school.

The school, which had been damaged by looters during the sectarian clashes, was closed for several months until crews could be hired to clean away debris.

“We helped to provide money to clean the school through the commander’s emergency relief fund and the Iraqi government also provided money for the effort,” said Capt. Evan Gotkin, commander, Battery C, 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment and a native of Long Island, N.Y. “The school has been the focus of the town and their way of saying ‘let’s get life back to normal.’”

For their first day of school, Iraqi boys and girls took their first yearly test. Once the students had been tested, they joined in a ribbon cutting ceremony as tribal sheiks and city council members officially re-opened the school.

Battery C Soldiers then handed out back packs filled with school supplies, soccer balls and t-shirts. They also constructed a large swing set for the school’s courtyard which the Army donated.

“I love doing things like this, it makes us feel like we’re making a difference and it’s great to see all the excited children,” said Spc. William Sproule, a medic for Battery C who hails from Omak, Wash. “It really makes you appreciate what we often take for granted in the states - it could be something as simple as school supplies or a soccer ball. You know that this day will be something they’ll always remember.”

“It’s very important that they’re back in school since they are the future of Iraq,” said Sgt. 1st Class Sheldon Fant, a platoon sergeant and native of Anderson, S.C. “It’s a good experience for our Soldiers to interact with the Iraqi people.”

Nearly 300 students came back to school, with the headmaster expecting only 150 students returning - which is a positive sign after all the violence people in the town have faced, according to Gotkin.

As the children attended classes, Intasar tribal sheiks and city council members held an impromptu meeting at the school to discuss issues the town is facing to include security and reconstruction within the village.

Nearly 1,200 families had left the village when sectarian violence broke out five months ago and more than 70 homes were burned.

The movement towards normalcy and an end to violence has been something the citizens of Intasar wanted since they initiated the reconstruction on their own, Gotkin said.

“The Sunni and Shia sheiks got together, and it was phenomenal,” said Gotkin. “They basically said, ‘Enough is enough, we are not sects, we are Muslims - one Iraqi people.’ This sparked other nearby towns to hold similar meetings with their own sheiks promoting reconciliation, so it is spreading.”

“Their support of the peace process is a visible demonstration of hope,” added Gotkin. “We’ll use some of our money and the Iraqi government will use some of their money to help the people here rebuild. They are also trying to entice people to come back and live in peace again.”

Some of the things being considered are the issues of refugees returning to the town, the building of new mosques and funding for a new Iraqi police station.

As of now, the village is under 24-hour Iraqi police and Iraqi army protection and Soldiers have increased patrols and cordon and searches in the town.

“The Iraqis still want us here helping them with security,” said Gotkin. “Tip cards passed out all over town are causing the tip line at the (Joint Security Station) to ring off the hook.”

“The U.S. presence has been very good for the people and the people are thankful for the help of the U.S. Soldiers,” said Jabar Hussein, one of Intasar’s tribal sheiks. “With the efforts of the Iraqi security forces and U.S. Soldiers, we can make something good for the people.”

Soldiers who have experienced first hand what the people in Intasar are attempting to do, have said it has been amazing to witness.

“I think it’s definitely good that the Shias and Sunnis have decided to end the violence here so they can live together. This is definitely a model for the rest of the country to follow, and it’s good for us to promote that,” said 1st Lt. Justin Cowne, a platoon leader for the battery and a native of Jasper, Ga. “We’re not here to run their country, we’re just here to help them and we hope we can help for the long term.”

As the Soldiers worked at the school and the city council met with tribal sheiks, the smell of fresh baked bread emanated from a newly opened bakery a few buildings down from the school, another sign, said Gotkin, that normalcy is slowly returning to the village.

A Tense Quiet on the Iraq-Iran Border
Friday, Mar. 09, 2007 By MARK KUKIS/BALAD RUZ Iranians visit the Iran-Iraq border.
Hassan Ghaedi / ParsPix / ABACA
Article ToolsPrintEmailReprints Maj. Wafaa Kareem has gotten used to the taunts from the Iranian border guards who watch his outpost opposite theirs. Kareem, who wears a shaggy mustache on his suntanned face, oversees a concrete bunker built to resemble a miniature castle on a hilltop looking directly into Iran. Across a shallow valley, on a rise in the same mountains, sits an Iranian outpost almost identical to Kareem's. Through binoculars, the men at both posts can keep close watch on each other's doings, and the Iranian border guards pay close attention when U.S. patrols roll up to the Iraqi side to check on border-control operations. Usually the U.S. troops, advisers to the Iraqi border force, stay for an afternoon, sometimes a night. Oftentimes, when the Iranians see the Americans leave, they walk from their bunker castle down the valley to the stream marking the Iran-Iraq border, from where they shout insults up at Kareem and his men, who number half a dozen or so on any given day.

U.S. officials have lately repeatedly insisted that armor-piercing bombs are being shipped across the border into Iraq along with paramilitary operatives from Iran's secretive Quds Force. But there's little evidence of such an underground railroad in the border areas closest to Baghdad. Kareem and other Iraqi border guards who oversee the territory say there's little border activity at all, if you don't count the occasional jeering from Iranian border guards.

The most common illegal act on the border, according to Iraqi border officials and U.S. troops, is ordinance harvesting. Locals from Iraqi villages along the border have taken to digging up landmines, artillery shells and mortars left scattered around former Iraqi frontline positions from the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s, gathering unspent explosives and loading them onto donkeys for sale in Iraq's flourishing arms market.

Col. David Sutherland, the commander of U.S. forces in Diyala Province, says 95% of the weapons seized by his soldiers have come from looted stockpiles of the Saddam regime. Still, he keeps a close eye out for weapons traffic from Iran. Diyala Province is home to a road network that funnels goods and people from points across the border directly into Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia. Though signs are scant, Sutherland remains certain that Iranian weapons and possibly clandestine operatives move through his territory nonetheless.

"Intuitively and anecdotally, there are things coming in from Iran," says Sutherland. "You have to believe that there are people coming in also."

From driving along the border, it's easy to see how people and goods could enter Iraq undetected. Between the Iraqi outposts like the one manned by Kareem stand large, unwatched areas. And searches of freight trucks from Iran by Iraqi border guards at official road crossings are spotty at best. Sutherland and several of his officers say everyday graft at road crossings along the border in Diyala Province likely allows at least some weapons from Iran to move into Iraq. And the relative ease of forging Iraqi documents would make it easy for Iranians to move back and forth.

"I have no doubt that anything could move across with the right amount of money," says Maj. Ray Litzinger, one of the U.S. soldiers who's worked for the past year with Iraqi forces to tighten the border with Iran. "You just need a sympathizer and some cash in your pocket."

Iraqi Kurdistan to showcase region for foreign investment


SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, March 12, 2007 (AFP) - Iraq's relatively peaceful northern Kurdistan region is to stage a trade fair this week in a bid to attract foreign investment, an official said on Monday.

Othman Shwani, the Kurdistan administration's planning minister, said around 500 companies from the United States and the United Arab Emirates are expected to participate in the fair in the city of Sulaimaniyah Wednesday and Thursday.

The fair is aimed at "encouraging foreign companies to invest in Iraq's Kurdistan," Shwani told a press conference in Sulaimaniyah.

About 160 Kurdish enterprises will also take part.

"We will endeavour to showcase the investment opportunities available in Kurdistan," Shwani said.

Kurdistan's three provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk are peaceful compared to the war-ravaged country's central and western regions where a bitter sectarian strife and a raging anti-US insurgency have left tens of thousands dead.

Kurdistan, an autonomous region within Iraq, has announced liberal investment laws aimed at attracting foreign companies, including oil concerns.

str-sj-jds/bpz

Iraq-Kurdistan-economy

Honorary mention: Iraq National Oil Company


Sunday, Mar 11, 2007

The Iraqi cabinet's long-awaited approval in February of the country's new hydrocarbon law takes it one large step closer to resurrecting its national oil company, Inoc.

The law, which parliament hopes to have passed by May, is still vague. Inoc is likely to control existing projects, but its share in lucrative exploration and new production ventures is still unclear.

Nonetheless, Inoc wins our honorary mention for two reasons one from the past and one from the future.

Iraq's average oil engineers many of whom are now unemployed or abroad pulling oil from places such as Saudi Arabia and Iran represent some of the most ingenius in the world. For more than two decades they have struggled under unimaginable challenges and managed to keep their industry going with "string and bubblegum". During the Iran/Iraq war, full oil tankers continued to leave Iraq's shores and during the years of United Nations sanctions its refineries continued to hum and sputter, kept going by highly creative engineering.

But it is the future that makes Inoc so influential.

Iraq's likely opening to international oil companies will be gradual because of the ongoing security problems. Even so, with only 10 per cent of the country explored so far, it represents the biggest chance international oil companies have to overcome their inability to grow.

Iraq too, would gain. It's production in 2005 fell to 1.8m barrels a day, down 240,000 b/d from the year before and substantially less than the 3.7m b/d peak it reached in December 1979 before war, sanctions and insurgency gutted the industry.

Iraq's oil is also starting to show the scars caused by years of struggle, with Iraq's ministry having to pay buyers adjustment fees because of its deteriorating quality.

To turn around the industry and begin to tap its true potential, Inoc will need more than $40bn of investment a sum it could most quickly some say, only raise by attracting international oil company investment. The next 12 months will prove critical for laying those foundations. Not only the future of Iraq and the globe's biggest international oil companies, but also the energy-hungry economies of the world depend on Iraq and Inoc's success.

Carola Hoyos


© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2007

Iraqi naval officer on Bahrain visit
A SENIOR non-commissioned officer of the Iraqi Navy made a visit to Bahrain, said the US Fifth Fleet.

Iraqi Navy Chief Warrant Officer Second Class Abdul Majeed joined former US Naval Forces Central Command and US Fifth Fleet Command Master Chief Kelly Schneider for tours aboard warships USS Anzio and USS Whirlwind.

During the tours, Chief Warrant Officer Majeed was shown each ship's bridge, offensive weapon systems, defence countermeasure systems, deck fittings and even exercise equipment.

Most of his visit, however, was spent talking with ship's each senior enlisted service member.

Anzio's command master chief and Whirlwind's command chief greeted Chief Warrant Officer Majeed on their respective quarterdecks.

Schneider said this interaction with senior enlisted US sailors is critical to the growth of the Iraqi navy.

"This is one of the very-first groundbreaking events where we could bring an Iraqi non-commissioned officer to Bahrain to talk to me and other fellow chief petty officers about the role of non-commissioned officers, how they're utilised and how they're respected in our navy," said Master Chief Schneider.

"This is the beginning stage of building that close relationship with a partner nation, which is critical to the stability of the region."