In Iraq, key oil bill goes nowhere
In Iraq, key oil bill goes nowhere
May 21, 2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The nation's Sunni vice president spoke out Sunday against a proposed oil law, clouding the future of a key benchmark for continued U.S. support for the government.
"We disagree with the production-sharing agreement," Tariq al-Hashemi said in Jordan, where he was attending an international conference. "We want foreign oil companies, and we have to lure them into Iraq to learn from their expertise and acquire their technology, but we shouldn't give them big privileges."
Iraq's cabinet signed off on the oil bill in February and sent it to parliament, a move that the Bush administration hailed as a major sign of progress. But parliament has yet to consider the legislation, which would cover how to manage the country's oil wealth and distribute revenues.
The bill also faces opposition from the Kurds, who want greater control of oil in Kurdish areas.
In Iraq, key oil bill goes nowhere
Foreign Undersecretary Receives UK Deputy Ambassador in Baghdad
23 May, 2007
Foreign Undersecretary Receives UK Deputy Ambassador in Baghdad
Mr. Labeed Abbawi, the Foreign Ministry Undersecretary for Policy Planning and Bilateral Relations, discussed during a meeting with Mr. Mathew Lodge, the UK Deputy Ambassador in Baghdad on 23/5/2007 the current discussions between US, UK and Iran on the Iraqi issue and the efforts made by the Iraqi government to bring closer viewpoints between these parties.
Mr. Abbawi pointed out the necessity of activating resolutions of Sharm Al-Sheikh Conference and the formation of the working committees that were decided in the International Baghdad Meeting of 10 March. The two sides also discussed various issues concerning bilateral cooperation and means develop it in the manner that may serve shared interests of the two countries.
Mr. Abbawi expressed Iraq’s desire to work hard to remove all the obstacles that negatively affect the Iraqi issue. For his part, Mr. Lodge promised to make efforts to achieve these goals.
http://www.mofa.gov.iq/english/news/...px?newsid=3279
US let in 69 in the last seven months
Of around four million displaced Iraqis, the US let in 69 in the last seven months, Neil King and Yochi Dreazen report for the Journal. The two reporters present an update on the DC debate over the question of relocating Iraqi refugees in the US, noting the extreme difficulties and red tape that Iraqis, even those who worked with the US in Iraq, have in reaching the country legally. State and Homeland Security departments plan to develop procedures for letting more Iraqis in, and pending legislation on the Hill could allow tens of thousands of Iraqis to enter. Democrats especially have pushed the issue, while only one Republican, Chris Shays of Connecticut, currently in Iraq, has supported legislation to reform Iraqi asylum policy. The US will spend $150 million this year for “Iraqi refugee work in the Middle East,” they report.
Iraqi Refugees Create Quandary - WSJ.com
Morgue Data Show Increase In Sectarian Killings in Iraq
By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 24, 2007; Page A01
BAGHDAD, May 23 -- More than three months into a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive designed to curtail sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, Health Ministry statistics show that such killings are rising again.
From the beginning of May until Tuesday, 321 unidentified corpses, many dumped and showing signs of torture and execution, have been found across the Iraqi capital, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The data showed that the same number of bodies were found in all of January, the month before the launch of the Baghdad security plan.
Such killings are a signature practice of Shiite militias, although Sunni insurgents are also known to execute victims. The number of found bodies is a key indicator of the level of sectarian violence, but the statistics also include some who died from causes unrelated to the political situation.
Weeks after the security plan was launched in mid-February, Bush administration and U.S. military officials began citing a decline in sectarian violence as evidence of the plan's effectiveness. Although that trend appears to have reversed, the unidentified corpses being collected this year remain far fewer than those found during the peak periods of sectarian strife last year.
Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander overseeing the security plan, acknowledged in an interview that the number of unidentified corpses is rising and said there has been a spike in sectarian assaults by Shiite militias, especially elements of the Mahdi Army, the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"We are aware of this happening, yes," Qanbar said Tuesday, seated in his office inside one of the palaces of the late ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have noticed that those gangs are again attacking people."
The rise in sectarian violence has followed a recent increase in mass-casualty suicide attacks and car bombings that have targeted mostly Shiite areas in Baghdad and other parts of the country. U.S. officials have acknowledged that they have had little success in curtailing such attacks, which have occurred with greater frequency since the start of the security plan than before.
In the 14 weeks preceding the start of the plan on Feb. 14, at least 821 people died in 11 attacks -- typically suicide car bombings -- that killed more than 20 people at a time, according to a Washington Post analysis. There have been at least 20 such attacks in the 14 weeks since the start of the plan, causing a death toll of at least 1,098, the analysis showed.
Such bombings, apparently orchestrated by Sunni insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, have prompted reprisal killings, Qanbar said. "Terrorists of al-Qaeda and the enemies of Iraq, they want to start a crisis," he said. "The objective behind this is to incite sectarian strife."
Like the numbers of unidentified corpses, other indicators of violence, such as kidnappings, remain below levels seen last year at the height of sectarian tensions. The United Nations, citing Health Ministry numbers, reported that 1,471 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad in September 2006 and 1,782 in October 2006. Bombing victims and many others who die violently in Baghdad are taken to the city's hospitals rather than its morgue.
But the recent increase in unidentified bodies raises questions about whether thousands of U.S. reinforcements can effectively halt sectarian violence.
President Bush and other senior administration officials have cited declines in sectarian killings in justifying U.S. troop increases and additional funding for the war.
washingtonpost.com
