Thread: Iraq/Dinar News until 6/17/07 8:30 PM CST

Originally Posted by ChiefWealth53

Some theorize that the Dong and Dinar will RV at the same time to prevent "double-dipping". Hence, it's relevance on the dinar thread.

Vietnam leader visits US for trade, other issues weigh
14 Jun 2007 10:26:08 GMT
Source: Reuters

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By Grant McCool
HANOI, June 14 (Reuters) - Business deals will dominate the first visit to the United States next week by a post-war Vietnam president, but both sides are braced to discuss sensitive issues of jailed political activists and victims of "agent orange".
President Nguyen Minh Triet takes a large business delegation to New York, Washington and Los Angeles from June 18 to June 23 when deals will be signed in the energy, financial services, IT, and telecommunication sectors.
"The visit will help to bring U.S.-Vietnam relations to a new stage of development, depth and more effectiveness," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Dung said at a briefing on Thursday.
The governments will sign a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which is used to expand trade and resolve disputes, U.S. and Vietnamese officials said, while state-run Vietnam Airlines and Boeing Co. <BA.N> were negotiating aircraft contracts.
Hanoi and Washington have signed two trade deals in the past six years, agreements that paved the way for Vietnam to accede to the World Trade Organisation in January.
Two-way trade is worth $9.7 billion and the United States is the biggest export market for impoverished Vietnam, which has annnual economic growth of about 8 percent a year, but an annual per capita income of about $780.
Triet's first events on Monday are the same day as a federal appeals court in New York hears arguments on whether Vietnamese plaintiffs may sue 32 U.S. manufacturers of "agent orange" defoliant sprayed by the Americans for a decade up to 1971.
The war ended in 1975 but Hanoi and Washington did not establish diplomatic relations until 20 years later.
In the build-up to the hearing, a Vietnamese delegation is touring the United States screening documentaries of disfigurement and other health problems caused by dioxin, a small compound within the "agent orange" herbicide that is one of the most toxic compounds known.
THORNS IN FRIENDLY RELATIONS
The dioxin issue and one-party Vietnam's arrests and jailing of political opponents are thorns in the countries' friendship, but the relationship is mature enough not to be seriously harmed by them, analysts said.
Washington maintains there is no scientifically proven link between spraying and the millions Vietnam says are disabled.
"Due to the proximity of the court hearing I expect President Triet will be diplomatic, even though it is still very sensitive and important to the Vietnamese," said Tom Leckinger, country representative in Hanoi for Veterans for America.
In the past year, the two countries have set a new tone in dealing with cleaning up toxins from former U.S. air bases where they were stored in barrels marked with an orange stripe.
Government agencies and non-government organisations have plans to start clean up in the central city of Danang this year.
In late May, Bush signed a bill that provides $3 million toward health and environment issues stemming from dioxin.
Triet, 64, is the first Vietnamese head of state to visit the United States since the communists unified the country 32 years ago and he will hear criticism and face protests. At least seven activists have been jailed since March in half-day trials.
The activists, who include a priest, lawyers and small businessmen, were convicted of "spreading propaganda against the state", a crime in Vietnam.
The ruling Communist Party does not allow any rival parties and those jailed were part of a tiny dissident community calling for a multi-party system and greater freedom of speech.
Washington has applied diplomatic pressure to release several people jailed in recent years. Since May 10, Vietnam has freed two people on a U.S. list of "prisoners of conscience".
Triet has said the people were jailed because they broke the law and that Vietnam respects human rights.
"Our struggle for national liberation is a real cause to achieve human rights. That's why we love human rights very much," Triet told German President Horst Koehler in Hanoi a month ago.
Triet made similar comments in interviews with U.S. media ahead of his visit.
Two U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton in 2000 and Bush in November 2006, have made state visits to Hanoi. The highest level Vietnamese to visit Washington was then Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in 2005. Triet will meet Bush in the White House on June 22.

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Originally Posted by ChiefWealth53

Vietnam leader visits US for trade, other issues weigh
14 Jun 2007 10:26:08 GMT
Source: Reuters

Alert Me | Printable view | Email this article | RSS [-] Text [+]


By Grant McCool
HANOI, June 14 (Reuters) - Business deals will dominate the first visit to the United States next week by a post-war Vietnam president, but both sides are braced to discuss sensitive issues of jailed political activists and victims of "agent orange".
President Nguyen Minh Triet takes a large business delegation to New York, Washington and Los Angeles from June 18 to June 23 when deals will be signed in the energy, financial services, IT, and telecommunication sectors.
"The visit will help to bring U.S.-Vietnam relations to a new stage of development, depth and more effectiveness," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Dung said at a briefing on Thursday.
The governments will sign a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which is used to expand trade and resolve disputes, U.S. and Vietnamese officials said, while state-run Vietnam Airlines and Boeing Co. <BA.N> were negotiating aircraft contracts.
Hanoi and Washington have signed two trade deals in the past six years, agreements that paved the way for Vietnam to accede to the World Trade Organisation in January.
Two-way trade is worth $9.7 billion and the United States is the biggest export market for impoverished Vietnam, which has annnual economic growth of about 8 percent a year, but an annual per capita income of about $780.
Triet's first events on Monday are the same day as a federal appeals court in New York hears arguments on whether Vietnamese plaintiffs may sue 32 U.S. manufacturers of "agent orange" defoliant sprayed by the Americans for a decade up to 1971.
The war ended in 1975 but Hanoi and Washington did not establish diplomatic relations until 20 years later.
In the build-up to the hearing, a Vietnamese delegation is touring the United States screening documentaries of disfigurement and other health problems caused by dioxin, a small compound within the "agent orange" herbicide that is one of the most toxic compounds known.
THORNS IN FRIENDLY RELATIONS
The dioxin issue and one-party Vietnam's arrests and jailing of political opponents are thorns in the countries' friendship, but the relationship is mature enough not to be seriously harmed by them, analysts said.
Washington maintains there is no scientifically proven link between spraying and the millions Vietnam says are disabled.
"Due to the proximity of the court hearing I expect President Triet will be diplomatic, even though it is still very sensitive and important to the Vietnamese," said Tom Leckinger, country representative in Hanoi for Veterans for America.
In the past year, the two countries have set a new tone in dealing with cleaning up toxins from former U.S. air bases where they were stored in barrels marked with an orange stripe.
Government agencies and non-government organisations have plans to start clean up in the central city of Danang this year.
In late May, Bush signed a bill that provides $3 million toward health and environment issues stemming from dioxin.
Triet, 64, is the first Vietnamese head of state to visit the United States since the communists unified the country 32 years ago and he will hear criticism and face protests. At least seven activists have been jailed since March in half-day trials.
The activists, who include a priest, lawyers and small businessmen, were convicted of "spreading propaganda against the state", a crime in Vietnam.
The ruling Communist Party does not allow any rival parties and those jailed were part of a tiny dissident community calling for a multi-party system and greater freedom of speech.
Washington has applied diplomatic pressure to release several people jailed in recent years. Since May 10, Vietnam has freed two people on a U.S. list of "prisoners of conscience".
Triet has said the people were jailed because they broke the law and that Vietnam respects human rights.
"Our struggle for national liberation is a real cause to achieve human rights. That's why we love human rights very much," Triet told German President Horst Koehler in Hanoi a month ago.
Triet made similar comments in interviews with U.S. media ahead of his visit.
Two U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton in 2000 and Bush in November 2006, have made state visits to Hanoi. The highest level Vietnamese to visit Washington was then Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in 2005. Triet will meet Bush in the White House on June 22.

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How is this article relevant to Iraq news and the IQD?

Iraq's unbreakable deadlock

June 17 2007

Iraq's legislative deadlines are not being met by a hopelessly divided parliament, and Washington is getting frantic as US time and funds run out.

Furious at the demolition of the remaining two minarets of the Shia Askariya Mosque in Samarra on Wednesday, radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr instructed his followers in the Iraqi parliament to boycott the chamber and stay out until the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki promises to rebuild the mosque and strengthen security at all holy sites.

This is bad news for the Bush administration: it is keen to see the Iraqi legislature pass expeditiously crucial laws on oil, constitutional changes, and liberalising the de-Baathification policy - all geared to creating national reconciliation among Shias, Sunnis and Kurds. Even at the best of times parliamentary leaders have to struggle to ensure a quorum. With 30 Sadrist MPs abstaining in a house of 275, the chances of a quorate chamber is much reduced.

From Washington's viewpoint, the time frame is crucial too. The US Congress for the war in Iraq only until September and laid out legislative benchmarks for the Iraqi government on hydrocarbons, constitution and de-Baathification. With Baghdad drenched in searing heat in July and August, MPs are anxious to go on vacation, thus leaving White House officials fretting over the delay.

After much discussion, the draft oil law, crafted chiefly by the Shia oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani, won the approval of the Iraqi cabinet in late February. The White House applauded the decision partly because it incorporated the principle of hydrocarbon revenues to be distributed to provinces on a basis of population - a main demand of Sunni leaders, well aware that the Sunni-dominated areas lack oilfields.

But it has become bogged down in the parliamentary committee. The differences between the Sunni and Kurdish MPs on the centralisation and liberalisation of the industry have proved irreconcilable.

The draft legislation stipulates a Federal Oil and Gas Council led by the prime minister to oversee all future contracts and review the existing ones. These include the five contracts the Kurdistan's regional government has already signed with foreign companies. The Kurdish MPs want these agreements rubber-stamped by the central authority. Since such an undertaking has not materialised they have blocked the progress of the legislation.

The Kurds are also unhappy about the creation of a reconstituted, state-owned Iraqi National Oil Company under central control proposed in the draft law, a measure strongly backed by Sunni leaders who see such an institution underwriting the territorial integrity of Iraq.

Acute differences have also surfaced on the issue of reviewing the constitution, which was endorsed in a referendum in October 2005 and paved the way for parliamentary elections in January.

Pressured by the White House to meet its arbitrary deadline, the architects of the constitution postponed contentious issues, even omitting to give the federal government the right to levy taxes.

To plug such holes, and conciliate the Sunni community, which had boycotted the poll for the constituent assembly, the parliament appointed a 31-member review committee to consider possible amendments and report within four months.

The initial bonhomie among the committee members disappeared as they began grappling with the thorny question of the division of revenue and powers between the centre and the regions. Allied with this issue is the controversial proposal of holding a fresh census as the basis for allocation of federal funds - and the future of the oil-rich province of Tamim, whose capital is Kirkuk.

A quick resolution is not in sight. "We have not committed to doing it [the review] by September," said Humam Hamoudi, a Shia leader and a co-chairman of the parliamentary committee. "Maybe the American Congress has made such a commitment, but we have not."

The Maliki government found its move on liberalising the de-Baathification programme - a stark subject - quickly torpedoed by Ahmad Chalabi, head of the De-Baathification Commission.

On 26 March, Maliki and Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani released the draft of the Reconciliation and Accountability Law, backed by the then-US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad (a Sunni Afghan-American), and Sunni leaders.

The proposed legislation allowed former Baathist government employees to collect their pensions, and made ex-Baathists eligible for jobs in the civil service. It decreed the closure of the De-Baathification Commission within a year.

Stung, Chalabi, a secular Shia lacking any representation for his political group in the parliament, encouraged Shia officials in southern Iraq to complain, and then presented their statements to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on 1 April. The next day Sistani's aide expressed "a general feeling of rejection" about the draft law. That killed it. The efforts to forge a milder version of it have not gone far.

While Congress and the White House wait anxiously for General David Petraeus's report on insurgency and sectarian violence in Iraq due in September, politicians and parliamentarians in Baghdad continue to operate at their own pace. And why should they not?

Comment is free: Iraq's unbreakable deadlock

Iraqi oil workers call off 'hydrocarbon law' strike after promise of action

Published: 17 June 2007

Iraqi oil workers called off their strike last week after the prime minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed to set up a committee to address their demands. The Iraq Federation of Oil Unions, which represents 26,000 workers, declared a "tactical victory" following the news.

Workers want a say over the proposed hydrocarbon law, which they fear will cede too much control of the country's oil and gas reserves to foreign companies. They were also threatening to hold further strikes over poor working conditions.

Several days of strikes took place earlier this month, which disrupted Iraq's 1.6 million barrels of daily oil production.

Talks over the hydrocarbons law continue. The main sticking point is what share of the oil revenues central and regional governments receive. The law could be ratified later this year by parliament.

Iraqi oil workers call off 'hydrocarbon law' strike after promise of action - Independent Online Edition > Business News

The "Foreign Exchange" show on PBS hosted by Fareed Zakaria features the son of Iraq President Jalal Talabani this weekend. Qubad Talabani gave a very interesting summary of the status of Kurdistan and the Iraq situation. I can't believe how well he speaks English...must have been educated in England or the USA. Anyway, look this show up on your cable or satellite systems as it is worth watching.

Was just watching George Steponallofus interviewing a Senator and stating that when the Iragi Parliment returns in July? Are they on their vacation or returning on Tuesday as reported earlier by SGS? If not returning until July we may be waiting until September for the rv? Blessings to all....

Originally Posted by oldskiier

So much conflicting news coming out.....???


What is your assessment of the past 48 hours?


Some negative incidents took place but I think [overall] it has been good. Any political and media observer who watched the first attack would realize that the worst security actions happened after the Samarra attack last time. Therefore, what happened this time is much less than what could have happened and this is a success for the government, that it managed to have a quick and wise reaction.

You know that Americans watch your government very closely to see if it can reach the benchmarks set by Washington to ease tensions with Sunnis, including an oil revenue-sharing law, a law to allow more ex-Baathists back to their jobs, Constitutional amendments and laws for provincial elections. Why are they are taking so long?

First of all, the things the Americans are talking about are things we talk about. These things are national goals that come in harmony with the nature of the new federal political regime. Success for us and for the American administration is very important. Now, the drafts of the laws of oil, [the DeBaathification revision] and provincial elections are all ready and will be submitted to the parliament next week.(Interview was on Friday, so this coming week) Some people in the U.S. administration make statements that are understood by observers as if the administration is dictating to the Iraqi government. This is not true, of course. It is an issue of partnership, there is no dictating.

Confusio bad news smokscreens. Isn't that what China did before there RV?

Hi Oldskiier, I think this is just another Smoke Screen to try throw us off. The Bush Administration told Iraq Govt. that this must be done before or by the end of this month or else Maliki will be out of a job or be looking for another one. Also another thing to point out is that,....The Iraqi Govt is looking to loose out in Billions if these laws are not passed, as they have allot of big contractors waiting to get in.

Originally Posted by oldskiier

Just heard on CNN , that the Ambassador of Iraq says even though the US wants these bench marks met that he did not think they would be done before Sept when the American administration needs to report .....

I don't get it , Malaki just said he was giving it to Parliament this week .....


They say they have a good security hold of alot of areas...I just don't see how this is going to hold or improve without the "Economic Surge" coming into effect soon !!!!!

This Economic Surge is the Key to our investment !!!!

Baqrajaber Zubaidi Finance Minister participate in a meeting

(Voice of Iraq) - 17-06-2007

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MERCIFUL
The Ministry of Finance
Media Bureau
Baghdad
June 17, 2007

A press

OFID

Baqrajaber Zubaidi Finance Minister participates in the meeting of the OPEC Fund for global development OFID

ـ

Mr. Zubaidi Baqir Jabr Finance Minister on the importance of the OPEC Fund for global development in the fight against poverty and disease in the world, particularly in poor countries in different continents 0

This came during a meeting Maaleh attend the 28th Ministerial Council of the OPEC Fund for Global Development, which was held in May 13 June 2007 in the city Conchia in Austria 0

0

He explained Mr. Finance Minister that the important decisions reached by the Fund will be reflected positively on his future and to enhance its role in assisting States to promote its role in building human civilization 0
The Minister also discussed with the Arab and friendly importance of the development of bilateral relations between Iraq and the States above and to enhance joint action in all fields, especially the economic contribute to raising the standard of living of the people through the Maaleh bilateral meetings with the finance ministers of the founders of the fund and participate in the meeting and above (Saudi Arabia , Qatar, Venezuela, Nigeria, Kuwait, Iran, Algeria) and representatives from each of (the United Arab Emirates and Libya, Indonesia).
This fund has been discussed at its meeting, the report presented by the Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia Chairman of the Ministerial Council of the last session and which was re-elected to the chairmanship of the Ministerial Council for the next session of the special report, as well as the Chairman of the Council of Governors and the Director General of the Fund, which focused on the activities of the Fund in 2006, which was adopted (150) Draft b (700) million during 2006 (including 6, 558) million loan to finance development projects in various States were eligible shares of low-income larger proportion of these loans.
As was discussed in the Fund's annual report to address the volume of loans made by the Fund until 31 / 12/2007 and of the (1113) loan "to finance development projects worth (6.7) billion dollars, the share of African countries, 50% as well as" financing for private sector loans to eligible States value (, 518) million, as well as aid and grants. presented by the Fund of the States and the very history above and the contributions of Member States (2463) million.
During discussions Fund, which lasted more than eight hours was discussed lending program (17) of the Fund for three years (20082010), as well as procedures prepared by the management of the Fund on the financing of foreign trade and progress has been made in this framework At the conclusion of the meeting was to make proposals for the management of the Fund to increase allocations to combat AIDS and the amount (15) million dollars as well as "increased allocations of special projects and the amount of the State of Palestine (15) million dollars over the next two years.
Note "that the council reelected and Minister of Finance and Economy Iranian Vice," The president of the Ministerial Council of the Fund for the next session.

Translated version of http://www.sotaliraq.com/

D. Iyad Allawi meets b Ashraf Qazi

(Voice of Iraq) - 17-06-2007

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MERCIFUL
June 17, 2007
A press statement

He met in the Jordanian capital Amman d. Iyad Allawi, head of Iraqi National List Special Envoy of the United Nations in Iraq, Mr. Ashraf Qazi, on June 17, 2007 on the latter's return from New York, and discussed the importance of parties in the growing role of the United Nations in the process of reconciliation, conflict resolution and pull Iraq out of its current, The meeting was attended by Deputy Mason Aldmlogi Mr. Rasim Awadi, and Mr. Mohammed Khorshid, in addition to the team accompanying Mr. Ashraf Qazi

Translated version of http://www.sotaliraq.com/