Iraq/Dinar News Until 5/3/07 Midnight CST.

Kuwait reconsiders pardoning Iraq's $15b debtsMENAFN - 25/04/2007</B>

(MENAFN) The Iraqi Prime Minister said that Kuwait is recoiling at forgiving Iraq's $15 billion debt, after Kuwaiti officials stated that Iraq has substantial oil resources and that the country should support itself, Times Argus reported.

In attempts to strengthen Iraq's financial condition, the US administration is trying to persuade countries erase Iraqi debts. Eighty percent of Iraq's debts have been written off by the Kuwaiti government, however, the decision must be approved of by Kuwait's parliament.

It is worth mentioning that Saudi Arabia has decided to cancel the majority of Iraq's debts.





MENAFN - Middle East North Africa . Financial Network News: Kuwait reconsiders pardoning Iraq's $15b debts

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Originally Posted by Hkp

Kuwait reconsiders pardoning Iraq's $15b debtsMENAFN - 25/04/2007</B>

(MENAFN) The Iraqi Prime Minister said that Kuwait is recoiling at forgiving Iraq's $15 billion debt, after Kuwaiti officials stated that Iraq has substantial oil resources and that the country should support itself, Times Argus reported.

In attempts to strengthen Iraq's financial condition, the US administration is trying to persuade countries erase Iraqi debts. Eighty percent of Iraq's debts have been written off by the Kuwaiti government, however, the decision must be approved of by Kuwait's parliament.

It is worth mentioning that Saudi Arabia has decided to cancel the majority of Iraq's debts.





MENAFN - Middle East North Africa . Financial Network News: Kuwait reconsiders pardoning Iraq's $15b debts

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just a new way to say parliament has to decide. i read it at first to indicate they had changed their mind but it came out the day before they said they wouldnt.

Kuwait reluctant to forgive Iraq debt
Kuwait City, 27 April 2007 (Associated Press)


Lingering bitterness from the 1990 Iraqi invasion and distrust of the government of Nouri Al Maliki are making it impossible to convince Kuwaitis and their lawmakers to forgive most of the $15 billion (Dh55 billion) of Iraq's debt.
But the struggling Iraqi premier was hoping to do just that as he ended a two-day visit to this country on Wednesday, with appeals to Kuwaiti leaders and statements to editors of local dailies that he hoped their parliament was going to be "generous" and write off some of the debt.
Al Maliki said he believed Kuwait was "no less generous" than fellow Gulf country Saudi Arabia, which was writing off 80 per cent of a similar sum in debts. But Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, has no legislature.
Commitment
Kuwait, a constitutional democracy with a ruling royal family, cannot make such a decision without its elected parliament. And while Kuwait's government itself may be willing to oblige Al Maliki and Washington requests, the decision rests with parliament, where strong sentiments prevail.
"Most Kuwaitis and parliament members believe that Iraq must pay," lawmaker Mohammad Al Mutairi said. "A commitment is a commitment; we have suffered enough from that neighbour."
For seven months starting August 2, 1990, Saddam's occupying forces rounded up Kuwaitis, executed them at the doorsteps of their houses, changed names of neighbourhoods, hospitals and ports, and blew up some 700 oil wells. Hundreds who went missing are still unaccounted for.
Taking a forgiveness bill to parliament is going to be difficult for a government that a few months ago opposed a Bill to pay off consumer debts owed by its own citizens to local banks and companies, as some lawmakers proposed.
"Politically, it is very embarrassing for the Cabinet," said independent economist Jassem Al Saadoun. "It doesn't want to carry the burden of the political cost alone," and it will seek the largest majority vote possible before it tables the debt cancellation proposal, he said.
$280m paid in Iraq war compensation
The UN panel overseeing compensation for victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait said yesterday it has paid out a $280 million instalment from Iraqi oil funds to cover claims for losses and damages.
The latest transfer brings the total amount paid in compensation to more than $22.1 billion. Most of the payments - about $229.5 million - went to 35 claimants in Kuwait, the United Nations Compensation Commission said.

Kuwait reluctant to forgive Iraq debt | Iraq Updates

Iraqis split on timed pullout
Baghdad/Cairo, 27 April 2007 (Gulf News)


Moves in the US Congress to demand a timetable for military withdrawal from Iraq brought mixed reviews from Iraqi members of parliament.
Some of the lawmakers doubted the government's ability to meet US demands for faster political reconciliation.
"The United States is thus admitting it was defeated in Iraq and must withdraw. This should be attributed to the effort and patience of Iraqis," said Saleh Hassan Eisa Al Igaili, an MP loyal to Shiite radical leader Moqtada Al Sadr.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish MP, was philosophical about the decision by the Democrats who control Congress: "They have to abide by public opinion. They are preparing the ground for the next election and that is normal in a democracy."
US Democrats have argued that the proposed withdrawal timetable would prod Iraq's leaders towards political reconciliation, specifically the passage of an equitable oil law and the return of former Baathists to public life.
The House of Representatives approved the bill on Wednesday and the Senate was expected to follow suit in a vote later yesterday.
But President George W. Bush has vowed to veto the draft legislation, which would order a pullout of US forces from Iraq to begin from as early as October, and in Baghdad many Iraqi politicians remained sceptical.
Domestic matter
"After four years, these things have become much more difficult and our problems are much more complicated," Othman said. "So I don't expect these things to be done as fast as the Americans want."
Others saw the legislative wrangling in the United States as a purely domestic matter. "It's for local consumption" said Omar Abdul Sattar Mahmoud, a Sunni MP from the Iraqi Islamic Party.
"However they agree or disagree is their business, not that of the Iraqis," he said. "What we are concerned with is that there should be real national reconciliation to break the sectarianism."
Earlier, ignoring the promise of a veto by Bush, the US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a war funding bill that includes a timetable for pulling US troops out of Iraq.
Lawmakers paid little heed to visiting top army general in Iraq, David Petraeus, who during a closed-door session earlier in the day championed the troop 'surge' strategy and appealed for time so it could show results.
The 218-208 vote by the Democratic-majority House links release of $124 billion (Dh455 billion) in military spending for Iraq and Afghanistan to a schedule for the pullout of American troops, beginning as early as October.
But a poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal suggested that only 37 per cent sided with Bush and his Republicans in believing that Congress should not set a deadline for troop withdrawal, compared to 55 who support a timetable.
The bill next faces a vote in Senate, where it is expected to pass, before heading to Bush who has repeatedly vowed to block the bill and blasted the attempt as a sure recipe for defeat.
Meantime, Arab countries will demand that Iraq do more to reach out to its own disgruntled Sunni Arabs before they will pledge substantial aid to the troubled nation, according to a document obtained by AP. The festering tensions between Iraq and its neighbours are complicating US efforts to round up key aid - including debt relief - before a summit on May 3-4 in Egypt.
Iraq's prime minister, on a Mideast tour, said this week that his country would not tolerate other Arab countries setting conditions on Iraq. He also accused some Arab countries of still harbouring extremists who infiltrate Iraq to launch attacks.
"We welcome consultations but we won't accept conditions or dictation," Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said on Monday in an interview with a group of journalists.
US officer charged with aiding the enemy
The officer in charge of a key US military detention camp in Iraq has been charged with 'aiding the enemy' and having improper relationships, including one with a detainee's daughter, the military said yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel William Steele, commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment, was in charge of the detention facilities at Camp Cropper near Baghdad international airport.
"He has been in detention in Kuwait since last month pending an Article 32 hearing, which is a preliminary hearing where evidence will be presented to determine whether this should go to court-martial," said US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Josslyn Aberle. He was also charged with having an improper relationship with a translator and with the daughter of a detainee, as well as wrongfully keeping pornographic videos. The offences are alleged to have occurred between October 2005 and February 2007.
Saddam Hussain spent his last days at the camp before his execution last December.

Iraqis split on timed pullout | Iraq Updates

Parliament : MP Ezz Eddin told state (morning) : Iraqi people harmonious and harmonious
27.04.07
More parties to the political process
Baghdad Khalid Qattan

MP Azzedine State, the Iraqi Accord Front, said that Iraq continued despite efforts by the government security arena for settling accounts between external forces, and noted in a dialogue with morning to the need for the success of the initiative of national reconciliation

This will inevitably lead to the establishment of firm, solid for the political process aimed at building a new Iraq free.
The following is the text of the interview :
Possibilities State
* Numerous terrorist explosions occurred during the implementation of a plan to impose law How do you explain what is happening?
- Usually whenever the government to accept the new security plan, every terrorist operations, and these operations multiple agendas and identities, and there are operations speaks for itself, and with an experienced can diagnose that this process or those implemented by the bid, there are terrorist operations fatherless, the orphan, born in a very significant way, and there are some operations terrorist needing access to the State, for this I believe that these attacks are acts of sabotage cashed purpose harm the Iraqi people and abort any plan to improve the security of Baghdad.

. � international conflicts
Q : How do you read the political reality of Iraq now?
- If simple statistical relationships between the Iraqi people see that the people more harmonious political leaders. There is hidden political orientations and political detente policy and usually do not come with good results and satisfactory, Iraq has now become an arena of regional and even distant nations, it has become an arena of international conflicts, not political forces alone are driven by the ongoing process in the country, and not political forces and political leaders have taken the initiative, there are many states with interests in the American project to fail, and there are States not to agree with the United States, and countries do not want interest of the Iraqi people, and several regional and international hidden, The whole political process because they stumble outside the political will of the Iraqis, the political working hard to improve the situation but has not taken the initiative, because of the massive intervention which is taking place in Iraqi affairs by these States.

A comprehensive national reconciliation
* Battaghadkam what the government should do to prevent such interference?
- I think that the government and Parliament should start to themselves, reform of us, we encourage the process of national reconciliation and consolidation, we say God's forgiveness for the foregoing, the offender takes punished by the courts and the judiciary, which did not criminalize the right of citizens floor, expanding from Iraq and the consequences of our host, and accept the process of national reconciliation large, then we say on the threshold of success, we must create those requirements to stand at the gates of success.

American interests
* How Tru n American foreign strategic outlook in Iraq and the region?
- Before the American elections and before the Democrats win after win, what happened to the big change in American foreign policy, as evidenced by consistently declared that the Democrats are unwilling forces to remain in Iraq and the overall policy of President Bush and this certainly has an influence on the situation, but Will This impact negatively or positively? the coming days will prove that that is the Americans jumping from their interests and not the interests of the Iraqi people, and I do not know whether that interest will coincide with the interests of our people in the new plan or not?

Acceptance of the proposals
* The fact that you member of the re-drafting of the constitution, is there will be amendments to some articles and paragraphs, which is controversial points?
- The Constitution Drafting Committee at more than once and put through its website and announced to the media that it was ready to accept proposals and studies of the materials from which the proposed constitutional replacement or redrafting. We are now in the process of collecting and preparing these proposals plunging from outside and inside the parliament and political parties and minority groups and civil society organizations in order to be submitted to the competent committees of reformulations.

Under the Constitution revision
* Kirkuk issue has become the focus of debate and controversy since the fall of the Principles, how will resolve this issue?
- This issue is subject to the normalization and the Higher Committee for the application of Article 140 of the residents in Kirkuk to their areas of origin, have to choose between staying or leaving, which is permissive, and wants them to remain not empowered him to leave. Citizens have the right to live anywhere in the country and this truism, Article 140 of the Constitution is not such details, to leave that guy and keep that guy, this article includes three steps, normalization, census, then the referendum, and there is the viewpoint raised by some politicians say that Article 140 is part of the Iraqi Constitution, the Constitution as a whole under revision.

External forces
* The Iraqi Accord Front, an important partner in the political process Battaghadkam Is that the House had functioned effectively, and made what is required?
- No, no ambition and a lot of work but it did not rise up to the level required for inter alia, the unstable security situation, and the intervention of regional powers in the internal affairs and international conflicting wills on the Iraqi arena Parliament is not free hand in the work, as I said to you in Iraq, a major external forces, some of which operate Bajendat and people and pump substantial material assistance to this side or that, all these things together fail the political process and frustrate the work of the government.

Brain Parliament
Q : You as a member of the Legal Committee, what is the nature of the work of this committee?
- Almost Legal Committee brain parliament because all the draft laws submitted to the Legal Committee, for the reformulation of legal terms, and on the application and that it does not interfere with the rest of other legal acts. Legal Committee considers the proposals and draft laws that are passed in Parliament, she reads and examined in greater detail and are modified and presented to the Council. There are bills proposed by the Commission, and there are bills comes from government bodies and organizations of civil society, and every bill before the House of Representatives alone. The degree of effectiveness of the measured through production, and all laws presented to the parliament, passed through the Legal Committee.

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Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

woOT 4 RUSSIA!!!! :woohoo:

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Now if Kuwait would only do the same.....

From IMF, it shows that in the past April is when they post the exchange rates (in SDR's)

Date Exchange Rate

April 28-30 2007 ????????
April 28, 2006 0.000460244
April 29, 2005 0.000451682
September 22, 2004 0.000466938
September 08, 2003 2.53758
April 30, 2002 2.53758
April 30, 2000 2.43852
April 30, 1999 2.38074
April 30, 1998 2.38881
April 30, 1997 2.3558
April 30, 1996 2.21848
April 30, 1995 2.04504
April 30, 1994 2.26323
April 30, 1993 2.26004
April 30, 1992 2.34852
April 30, 1991 2.39924
April 30, 1990 2.46985
April 28, 1989 2.48283
April 29, 1988 2.32407
April 30, 1987 2.46269
April 30, 1986 2.73556
April 30, 1985 3.24557

Whilst I agree the timing is interesting to say the least. Unfortunately we do not know for sure whether the LoI has been submitted within the last 2 weeks, only hearsay............ But we do know there are 2 meetings with the IMF regarding Article IV one any day now and one within first week or 2 of May.

Although every country has at least 1 meeting a year with the IMF to discuss Article IV the dates itself in this case are VERY encouraging. :smiley:

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Originally Posted by Adster

Although every country has at least 1 meeting a year with the IMF to discuss Article IV the dates itself in this case are VERY encouraging. :smiley:

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Yeah especially when you mention "Ending the program" in the same sentence.

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Originally Posted by wciappetta

Yeah especially when you mention "Ending the program" in the same sentence.

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so Adster and Wciappeta! Do you think it is going to Rv in your opinion? and when??