Thread: Iraq/Dinar News up until March 28th 8PM CT.

Originally Posted by RollsRoyce

Announcement No.(891)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 891 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Tuesday 2007/ 3/ 27 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 13 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1274 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ ----- -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 60.195.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) -----
Total offers for buying (US $) 60.195.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) ----- -----

Another Ton in today . . . and a bit of a drop in the rate . . . Hmmm . . .

Best to all . . . RR . . .

Woo.....1260 here we come.............................





Sorry Rolls I'm in a good mood and that there is funny.....

Its all good.

2 dinar today more dinar tommorrow.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

"
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The Iraqi parliament voted today to extend a state of emergency imposed in 2004. The session was aired on state television. The emergency measure allows the government to restrict citizens' movements and declare curfews. The autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country is exempt.

Former Baathists

Former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party may be allowed to take government jobs and reclaim pension rights under a draft law signed by President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The proposal will go to the Council of Representatives for approval.

The law will help move ``the democratic process forward, to turn the corner to build genuine national reconciliation and to turn the page of the unsavory past,'' the leaders said in a statement posted today on the Web site of Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

The measure may help reconcile Iraq's sectarian factions. Shiites, who were repressed by Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime, are the largest religious group in the country and have a majority in the government. The Baath party was abolished, along with Iraq's security forces, by the U.S. following the invasion that toppled Hussein.

The Baathists came to power in Iraq and Syria in 1963. Hussein led the party starting in 1979. He was hanged in December after an Iraqi court found him guilty of crimes against humanity.
....
"

Iraq assigns $60m to set up oil refineries

The Iraqi Oil Ministry signed contracts with state-owned and private Iraqi firms to build two oil refineries at the cost of $60 million in northern Iraq, Iraq Directory reported.

The project will be established to ease the load on other refineries and meet increasing demands on fuel among Iraqis in all provinces as the country is currently facing a major shortage in fuel, especially in transportation and heating.

The project, which will be built in Irbil and Sulaimaniya, is set to produce 10 thousand barrels per day.

It is worth noting that the north produces about a third of Iraq's oil.

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_...yId=1093147933

Insurgents report a split with Al Qaeda in Iraq
The U.S. hopes to take advantage of the Sunni rebel schism, which has resulted in combat in some areas.
By Ned Parker
Times Staff Writer

March 27, 2007

BAGHDAD — Insurgent leaders and Sunni Arab politicians say divisions between insurgent groups and Al Qaeda in Iraq have widened and have led to combat in some areas of the country, a schism that U.S. officials hope to exploit.

The Sunni Arab insurgent leaders said they disagreed with the leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq over tactics, including attacks on civilians, as well as over command of the movement.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, on his last day in Iraq, said Monday that American officials were actively pursuing negotiations with the Sunni factions in an effort to further isolate Al Qaeda.

"Iraqis are uniting against Al Qaeda," Khalilzad said. "Coalition commanders have been able to engage some insurgents to explore ways to collaborate in fighting the terrorists."

Insurgent leaders from two of the prominent groups fighting U.S. troops said the divisions between their forces and Al Qaeda were serious. They have led to skirmishes in Al Anbar province, in western Iraq, and have stopped short of combat in Diyala, east of Baghdad, they said in interviews with the Los Angeles Times.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has taken responsibility for many of the most brutal attacks on civilians here, is made up primarily of foreign fighters. Although it shares a name with Osama bin Laden's group, it is unclear how much the two coordinate their activities.

The General Command of the Iraqi Armed Forces, a small Baath Party insurgent faction, told the Los Angeles Times it had split with Al Qaeda in Iraq in September, after the assassination of two of its members in Al Anbar.

"Al Qaeda killed two of our best members, the Gen. Mohammed and Gen. Saab, in Ramadi, so we took revenge and now we fight Al Qaeda," said the group's spokesman, who called himself Abu Marwan.

In Diyala, the 1920 Revolution Brigade, a coalition of Islamists and former Baath Party military officers, is on the verge of cutting ties with Al Qaeda.

"In the past, we agreed in terms of the goal of resisting the occupation and expelling the occupation. We have some disagreements with Qaeda, especially about targeting civilians, places of worship, state civilian institutions and services," said a fighter with the brigade who identified himself with a nom de guerre, Haj Mahmoud abu Bakr.

"Now we reached a dead end and we disavow what Qaeda is doing. But until now, we haven't thought about fighting with them," he added. "We are counseling them, and in case they continue, we will cut off the aid and the logistical and intelligence support."

Shiite Muslim government officials said the Iraqi government was talking to insurgents both about fighting the radical movement and reaching a truce.

The government has proposed a trial cease-fire period to the 1920 Revolution Brigade, the Islamic Army in Iraq and other factions in western Baghdad. In return, the Iraqi government would mount a major reconstruction drive in battle-scarred Sunni areas, a senior member of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party said.

A rupture between Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents could prove a significant break for the Iraqi government and the Americans. But there are many potential drawbacks. Sunni politicians describe the fighting against Al Qaeda in Iraq as localized and emphasize that in some areas the various movements exist in harmony.

The Iraqi factions are also believed to engage in turf wars that could sabotage any concerted effort against Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni politicians said.

The insurgents prefer to negotiate with the Americans and to bypass the Shiite-led government, which Sunni Arabs deeply distrust.

Khalilzad heralded the developing rift between insurgent groups and Al Qaeda in Iraq as "the key issue of the current period."

He said insurgents were "in touch with the government seeking reconciliation and cooperation" in both the conflict with Al Qaeda in Iraq and reconciliation with Maliki's government.

Khalilzad acknowledged that he had met with insurgent groups last spring to try to draw them into the political process, but had barred followers of Al Qaeda in Iraq from his plans.

Three Sunni politicians, most of them with contacts in the Sunni insurgency, said insurgent groups were struggling over domestic issues, even as Al Qaeda in Iraq pursued an international agenda.

"All Iraqi resistance groups are in real dissension with Al Qaeda network in Iraq," said Khalaf Ayan, a member of the Sunni Tawafiq bloc in parliament.

"Al Qaeda is pursuing a different agenda — an international one and not an Iraqi" agenda, he said. "Al Qaeda should join Iraqis and not the opposite. What happened is that Al Qaeda had targeted leaders of many Iraqi groups. That is why the resistance is in big conflict with Al Qaeda and is fighting against it."

The U.S. military had reported tension between Al Qaeda in Iraq and insurgent groups in 2005. But the movement, then under the leadership of Abu Musab Zarqawi, sought to repair relations through the establishment of a resistance umbrella association. Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike in June.

In October, Al Qaeda and its Iraqi affiliates announced the establishment of an Islamic State of Iraq, but insurgents have spurned it, saying it was a ploy to take over the insurgency.

"The Islamic Army and 1920 Revolution Brigade are fighting Al Qaeda," said Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni member of parliament. "Al Qaeda wants them to join Al Qaeda or the Islamic State of Iraq. They refused and this is why they are fighting now."

Mutlak said that there had been heavy fighting in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, and that unrest had also spread to Diyala in eastern Iraq.

Iyad Samarrai, a Sunni member of parliament from the Iraqi Islamic Party, confirmed clashes in the last three months in the Abu Ghraib area and also in Taji, north of Baghdad.

But he said the Islamic Army and 1920 Revolution Brigade were coexisting with Al Qaeda in Iraq in other areas.

Samarrai explained that the spate of violence stemmed from the refusal by the 1920 Revolution Brigade and the Islamic Army to rule out negotiations with the Americans after Sunni politicians were elected to parliament in December 2005.

"When those resistance groups decided it was time to review their strategy and consider the possibility of negotiating with the Americans and being part of the political process, Al Qaeda refused this and made attacks against them," Samarrai said.

Shiite government officials, meanwhile, said their talks on fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq, which were taking place as part of larger discussions on a peace deal, were facing difficulties, including the fragmentation of some insurgent organizations.

Another hurdle is the insistence by insurgent groups to go back to "square one, to rewrite the constitution from the beginning, to have elections from the beginning," said Shiite Haider Abadi, a member of parliament from Maliki's Dawa Party.

He confirmed that the talks included the 1920 Revolution Brigade, the Islamic Army and at least five other groups.

*

Iraqi plan focuses on jobs


KARIN BRULLIARD; The Washington Post
Last updated: March 27th, 2007 01:30 AM (PDT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s prime minister and president have approved a draft law allowing many former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to return to their government jobs, and it could be voted on this week, officials said Monday.
The legislation, seen by the United States as crucial to pacifying Iraq, will go to parliament as soon as it is reviewed by Cabinet officials, said Ahmed Shames, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S.-led occupation authority stripped thousands of members of Saddam’s ruling Baath Party, most of them Sunni Arabs, of their government jobs. The law has been a target of criticism by the minority Sunnis, whose most aggrieved elements have fought a bloody insurgency against the Shiite-led Iraqi government and U.S. forces.

“This law will be a pillar in building national reconciliation and in starting the process of healing and rehabilitation,” Maliki and President Jalal Talabani said in a statement announcing the draft’s completion.

Under U.S. pressure, Maliki agreed last year to re- address the issue of former Baathists by early this year. Some U.S. officials had recently warned that the efforts were stalled.

The draft, which was released by the U.S. Embassy early today, would let all but the three highest levels of Baathists return to their jobs, provided they had not been involved in criminal activity. All those who lost their jobs would collect a pension. It was unclear how many former Baathists would benefit from the legislation.

Sadiq al-Rikabi, Maliki’s political adviser, said the draft would likely go before parliament this week and officials would pressure lawmakers to pass it quickly.

Alaa Makki, a Sunni lawmaker who said he had not seen the draft, said he expected it to generate debate in parliament. But he said an agreement could “reactivate” a political process that has often been paralyzed by sectarian divisions.

“A lot of people really were wrongly punished,” he said. “It will be a positive sign of political success if this law is passed and accepted. And many people will get to reconciliation.”

Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called for such a measure Monday in a farewell news conference, at which he repeatedly urged Iraqi leaders to quickly resolve their differences or risk losing American support.

“The members of the coalition as well as other countries have made enormous sacrifices to give Iraq a chance to build a stable and democratic order,” Khalilzad said. “Iraqis must not lose this opportunity and they must step up and take the tough decisions necessary for success.”

Originally Posted by PAn8tv

Iraqi plan focuses on jobs


KARIN BRULLIARD; The Washington Post
Last updated: March 27th, 2007 01:30 AM (PDT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s prime minister and president have approved a draft law allowing many former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to return to their government jobs, and it could be voted on this week, officials said Monday.
The legislation, seen by the United States as crucial to pacifying Iraq, will go to parliament as soon as it is reviewed by Cabinet officials, said Ahmed Shames, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S.-led occupation authority stripped thousands of members of Saddam’s ruling Baath Party, most of them Sunni Arabs, of their government jobs. The law has been a target of criticism by the minority Sunnis, whose most aggrieved elements have fought a bloody insurgency against the Shiite-led Iraqi government and U.S. forces.

“This law will be a pillar in building national reconciliation and in starting the process of healing and rehabilitation,” Maliki and President Jalal Talabani said in a statement announcing the draft’s completion.

Under U.S. pressure, Maliki agreed last year to re- address the issue of former Baathists by early this year. Some U.S. officials had recently warned that the efforts were stalled.

The draft, which was released by the U.S. Embassy early today, would let all but the three highest levels of Baathists return to their jobs, provided they had not been involved in criminal activity. All those who lost their jobs would collect a pension. It was unclear how many former Baathists would benefit from the legislation.

Sadiq al-Rikabi, Maliki’s political adviser, said the draft would likely go before parliament this week and officials would pressure lawmakers to pass it quickly.

Alaa Makki, a Sunni lawmaker who said he had not seen the draft, said he expected it to generate debate in parliament. But he said an agreement could “reactivate” a political process that has often been paralyzed by sectarian divisions.

“A lot of people really were wrongly punished,” he said. “It will be a positive sign of political success if this law is passed and accepted. And many people will get to reconciliation.”

Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called for such a measure Monday in a farewell news conference, at which he repeatedly urged Iraqi leaders to quickly resolve their differences or risk losing American support.

“The members of the coalition as well as other countries have made enormous sacrifices to give Iraq a chance to build a stable and democratic order,” Khalilzad said. “Iraqis must not lose this opportunity and they must step up and take the tough decisions necessary for success.”

I believe this is an awesome article, thank you PAn8tv . This needed to be done before the pension law would be done. And as we all know, pension law is a biggie, just as FIL and HCL. They are speeding up ...good for all...with Pension law supposed to be passed sometimes during April ....all great

Weak foreign transfers bring demand for dollar down in daily auction
By Dergham Mohammed Ali
Baghdad, 27 March 2007 (Voices of Iraq)
Demand for the dollar was down in the Iraqi Central Bank’s daily auction on Monday, reaching $61.790 million, compared with $86.755 million on Sunday; as today's session saw weak governmental foreign transfers.

In its daily statement, the bank said it had covered all bids, which included $18.925 million in cash and $42.865 million in foreign transfers, at an exchange rate of 1,276 dinars per dollar, a tick lower than yesterday.

None of the 13 banks that participated in Monday's auction offered to sell dollars.

Ali al-Yasseri, a trader at the auction, told VOI "the decline in today's demand for the dollar was due to the low rate of foreign transfers by governmental departments."

Governmental departments usually resort to foreign transfers to honor their commitments to cover contracts with foreign companies and this, thus, sends demand for the dollar high, al-Yasseri said.

The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.

http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/15915

Daily Column
Sunnis Say Mosques Burned South of Baghdad
Influential Tribe Joins Fight Against Al-Qaeda; SCIRI HQs Attacked
By ZEYAD KASIM Posted 4 hr. 28 min. ago
Thousands of Arab families in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk have expressed interest in leaving to their areas of origin in return for higher financial incentives, according to an Iraqi governmental committee. Kudhair Hassan Al-Hamdani, general coordinator in the Understanding and National Solution Committee, a governmental body implementing Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution that aims to reverse demographic changes by the former regime in Kirkuk, said that 12,500 Arab families (80 thousand people) want to leave but they demand more incentives.

The Iraqi government had first offered 20 million dinars (about $15,000) for each family but the sum was lowered to 10 million ($7,500) a few days later. Mohammed Abdullah Al-Musawi, a negotiator representing Arab settlers in Kirkuk, demanded a piece of land and the transfer of jobs to the areas that settlers return to. “Just like Arabs came through a decision by the former government, they now want to return through a decision by the current government,” he added.

Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city, has an indigenous population of Kurds, Turkmen, Sunni Arabs and Assyrian Christians. Saddam Hussein’s regime deported thousands of Kurds and Turkmen from the city as part of an Arabization campaign and replaced them with rural Arabs from the south of Iraq. Many Kurdish families have since returned following the war in 2003, and the two major Kurdish political parties exercise de facto control of the administration and security forces in the city, much to the chagrin of the city’s Arabs and Turkmen.

Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution provides a three-step plan to normalize the situation in Kirkuk. In the first, Kurdish refugees will be allowed to return to Kirkuk, while Arab settlers will be offered incentives to return to their original areas. A census will follow in the second phase, and in the third, a popular referendum will be held to vote on the fate of the oil-rich governorate.

The Bahraini government has offered citizenship to 50 thousand Sunni Iraqis as part of a major naturalization act that offered Bahraini citizenship to 226 thousand Arabs, a move that has angered the small island’s majority Shia population. Sheikh Ali Suleiman, leader of the majority Shi’ite Wifaq bloc in Bahraini parliament, described the procedure as an attempt to further marginalize the Shia and to tamper with the country’s demographics. “This will not bring about security and stability for either ruler or ruled, but will bring a forced majority, like that of South Africa 350 years ago,” he said.

The Al-Marsad Al-Iraqi website alleged that Bahraini intelligence officers, acting under orders from the Bahraini royal office, vetted thousands of Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria to select former members of the Iraqi intelligence and military for citizenship, adding that 2,000 former Fedayeen were brought to Bahrain and given residency.

Shia Arabs and Persians constitute the majority in Bahrain (about 70% according to unofficial sources), but a Sunni clan, Al-Khalifa, has ruled the country for decades. The last official census that included sectarian identification was held in 1941, and reported the Shia as 53% of the population. Bahrain has also witnessed a large influx of foreign workers and immigrants from India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka over the last few years.

Babil police commander General Qais Al-Ma’mouri denied media reports of sectarian violence and attacks against Sunni mosques in the town of Haswa, south of Baghdad, and accused “Saddamist, Takfiri terrorist gangs” of blowing up the Al-Mahdi husseiniya and the Usama bin Zaid and Al-Anwar mosques at the same time, in order to stoke sectarian divisions in the mixed town, according to SCIRI’s Buratha News Agency. Al-Ma’mouri also denied that the Iraqi Islamic Party’s headquarters was attacked.

Eyewitnesses from Haswa had said that gunmen, who they described as Mahdi Army militiamen, burned down five Sunni mosques during a funeral of the victims of a bombing of a Shi’ite husseiniya in the town yesterday. The five mosques, according to the eyewitnesses, were the Abdullah Al-Jubouri, Usama bin Zaid, Al-Anwar, Hutteen and Al-Farouq.

Residents also reported attacks against two Sunni mosques south of Baghdad yesterday. Militiamen stormed into the Khadeeja mosque in the Muwasalat district and set it to fire after dousing the place with petrol, while the nearby Safwa mosque in Shurta Al-Khamsa was attacked with explosives. Unknown gunmen assassinated the imam of the Omar Al-Farouq mosque in the Risala district further north on the same day. Fierce clashes erupted in Amiriya after Iraqi soldiers fired two rocket-propelled grenades against the minaret of the Humoud Dhiyab mosque, damaging it severely. SCIRI’s Buratha News Agency had charged that insurgents were hiding in the mosque before it was attacked. Several mortar shells also hit the Ma’alif and Turath districts south of Baghdad from the Sunni-majority suburb of Girtan injuring several people. Nighttime clashes continue in these southern districts, which have not yet witnessed any security sweeps as part of the Imposing Law operation, despite urgent pleas from locals.

Sot Al-Iraq reports ongoing clashes between Zoba’ tribesmen and insurgents affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq or the Islamic State of Iraq in Abu Ghraib, Al-Zaidan and Amiriyat Al-Fallujah west of Baghdad. The clashes were in response to the assassination attempt against Deputy Prime Minister Salam Al-Zobai, who is a member of the tribe, several days ago and a failed assassination attempt against a Zoba’ tribal leader in Mosul yesterday. Unknown gunmen had opened fire at Sheikh Mohammed Jassim Al-Ugood and missed him but Al-Ugood’s son Buraq, 24, was killed. Local sources and the state-run Al-Iraqiya TV reported that two suicide bombers attacked the residence of another Zoba’ tribal leader at Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad this morning. The attacks targeted Sheikh Dhahir Al-Dhari, a cousin of Sheikh Harith Al-Dhari, the head of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq. Al-Dhari had recently joined the Anbar Salvation Council against Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The Zoba' tribe, which had so far strongly supported the Sunni-led insurgency against the U.S., occupies a vast area west, north and southwest of the capital, in addition to a presence near Mosul. The tribe's area of influence extends from Baghdad to Ramadi in the west and from the Baghdad International Airport to Mahmoudiya in the south.

An Iraqi police source stated that the headquarters of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq at Kut, in the Wasit Governorate, was targeted with a roadside bomb resulting in heavy damages. Several attacks against SCIRI branches in the southern city have been reported over the last few days, and the culprits are suspected to be rival Shi’ite parties.

The Sadrist Nahrain Net website accused U.S. troops of exploiting Iraqi children in order to extract information from them on the Mahdi Army. Eyewitnesses told the website that U.S. soldiers lure the children by promising to give them sweets and chocolate after asking them questions on the whereabouts of Mahdi Army members and weapon caches. The questions could be: “Have you seen weapons in your neighbors’ house?” “Do you know anyone in the Mahdi Army?” “Where do they live?” according to the website. Dozens of Mahdi Army members who otherwise did not have their names on U.S. lists were detained using these methods in the Sha’ab, Hurriya and Utaifiya districts of Baghdad.

IraqSlogger: Sunnis Say Mosques Burned South of Baghdad

A fistful of dinars
Could Iraq's next crisis be economic?
By Sonni Efron
March 27, 2007

ISTANBUL—The U.S. government isn't the only one worried about the growing influence of Iran in Iraq. Baghdad's neighbors are fretting, too—and so are some moderate Shiites in Iraq. They fear Iran's help is a mixed blessing, of a type that will keep Iraq poor and dependent on Tehran.

"Shia themselves feel Iran has not done enough for Iraq," said a senior Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He explained that the Maliki government would like to see Iran playing a less sectarian and more helpful role in Iraq.

As the U.S. Congress begins pushing timetables for troop withdrawals from Iraq, the question of how the struggling Iraqi government can manage its meddling neighbors becomes more pressing. Iraq wants to balance the growing power of Iran, in part because the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki fears that if Iran becomes too powerful or the factional violence too severe, Saudi Arabia will attempt to intervene on behalf of Iraq's Sunnis.

To balance Iran, Iraq knows it desperately needs foreign help. But it fears foreign domination—economic as well as political.

Trade between Iran and southern Iraq has grown astronomically since the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein. It was estimated at $3 billion a year ago and is growing rapidly. To the dismay of Iraqi nationalists, Iranian currency circulates in southern Iraq.

Along with its suspected covert aid to radical Shiite militias, Iran has overtly supported many Shiite charities in southern Iraq. But the Maliki government is wary of allowing the charities to become a fault line for social and political organization in Iraq. That smacks of "the Hezbollah model," the official said, referring to how Hezbollah has risen to power in Lebanon by providing to the Shiite poor the social welfare services that the weak central government could not offer.

Iraqis also worry that their other main benefactor, the United States, having squandered fortunes in failed reconstruction aid, won't be as generous in the future. Shiites believe Iraq's richer Sunni neighbors are stepping into the power vacuum, currying favor with their co-religionists with suitcases full of cash.

Instead of foreign charity and foreign slush funds, the Iraqi government wants foreign investment—preferably multinational consortiums to dilute the political influence of any one of the potentially overweening neighbors. But that seems unlikely, certainly in the short term. Under the new petroleum law, which appears headed for approval by parliament, the central government would sign all oil deals, but regions would manage them. Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni regions are each reportedly discussing separate deals with foreign companies, and Tehran is trying to use its political influence to edge out China, which has already revived its $1.2 billion Saddam Hussein-era investment in Iraq's fields.

Now, if the petroleum law passes and if oil deals are signed promptly and if the proceeds are quickly distributed equitably among to Iraq's regions—three big ifs—it would unquestionably help. In the long term, oil wealth may be the only thing that could glue Iraq back together.

But in the short term, an oil rush is a dangerous thing for a country as balkanized as Iraq, with a government as weak as Maliki's. The oil winners will grow politically influential, as foreign oil interests always do in developing countries. The oil losers will be resentful, and if they are neighbors, this could be dangerous. The Maliki government needs to make money fast, but it risks being perceived by the nationalist Iraqi public as having sold out to the foreigners.

It was, after all, the foreign sell-out factor that finally brought down the Shah of Iran. And Saddam Hussein stayed in power in part by boasting of keeping foreign paws off Iraqi oil, and by cleverly buying off some of the neighbors. For one thing, Hussein guaranteed Jordan a steady oil supply—which Jordan wants to continue. Syria also got Iraq oil at favorable prices (even during the period of U.N. sanctions, though Baghdad and Damascus both denied it.) Damascus would now like Maliki to reopen its pipeline. Saddam also made sure Turkey reaped some benefits from its position close to Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields. When the Kurds control the region's oil deals, won't they hasten to cut Ankara out?

With the violence in Iraq at frightening levels, it's natural to fear above all the disintegration of Iraq into Lebanese-style warring factions, each backed by a neighbor. But even if that outcome can be averted, there is still the danger of economic balkanization that could lead to political fracture—and conflict—down the road.

Solving Iraq's political, sectarian, economic and regional problems is like working on a Rubik's Cube—all the faces have to line up simultaneously. The good news is that the neighbors are so scared of an Iraqi abyss that they might just try to help. The bad news is that Iraq, its six neighbors and the United States will have to twist all the pieces in the same direction. And this is the Middle East.

A fistful of dinars - Los Angeles Times

A sudden drop in the dollar exchange rate will lead to a decline in demand
Dargham of Muhammad Ali
Baghdad - (Voices of Iraq)
Decreased demand for the dollar today, Tuesday, at the auction the Central Bank of Iraq, recording the volume reached 60 million and 195 thousand dollars, compared with 61 million and 790 thousand dollars yesterday, Monday.
Such requests for the purchase of 10 million and 695 thousand dollars in cash and 49 million and 865 thousand dollars in the form of remittances outside the country covered by the bank fully exchange rate low two points on the rate of exchange on yesterday, Monday, recording 1274 dinars to the dollar.
Did not make any of the 13 banks participating in the auction, offers to sell the dollar.
He said Mr. Ali Yasiri, one dealing with the auction News Agency (Voices of Iraq) Independent that the decline in the price came as a surprise and unrepresentative of the price policy followed by the bank in recent weeks, containing cut price one point to two points in a week while Ja automatic decline by 3 points through two, which led the retreat offers cash to purchase 10 million and 695 thousand dollars, compared with 18 million and 925 thousand dollars yesterday.
H M

Version traduite de la page http://www.aswataliraq.info/?newlang=ara