This article was written by Abeer Mohammed, and was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net. It is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

A decision by Iraq’s Sunni Arab political bloc to end its boycott of parliament has been welcomed as a step towards halting a political crisis that sparked fears of fresh sectarian conflict when it erupted in December.

The Sunni-backed Iraqiya list had refused to attend parliament sessions since mid-December, complaining that it had been excluded from decision-making.

Tensions worsened when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought the removal of his Sunni deputy, Saleh al-Mutlaq, and an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi on terrorism charges.

Iraqiya bloc ministers also decided to boycott cabinet meetings.

The political battle coincided with a series of attacks which resulted in mostly Shia casualties, raising concerns of a return to the bloody sectarian warfare that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.

But this week the Sunni coalition, which won a majority in 2010’s parliamentary election but was unable to form a coalition, announced it would return to parliament and would also consider attending cabinet meetings again.

Mayson al-Damloji, an Iraqiya spokeswoman, told reporters that the list had “made its decision to return to parliamentary sessions in order to discuss important issues for citizens, like the budget of 2012”.

This article was written by Abeer Mohammed and Anas al-Bdeer, and was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net. It is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Reported comments by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander boasting of his country’s influence abroad have sparked controversy in Iraq. Analysts say the seriousness with which the incident was taken reflects the huge sensitivities surrounding sovereignty issues after the United States military withdrawal.

Tehran quickly moved to insist that the comments attributed to the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, Qassem Sulaimani, in which he apparently suggested that both Iraq and southern Lebanon were under Iranian control, were badly misquoted.

“These statements are false. They are groundless and meant to achieve crooked aims,” a statement which the Iranian embassy in Baghdad sent IWPR on January 21 said.

The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, said the actual comments Sulaimani made were mistranslated.

“In his original remarks, Brigadier-General Qassem Sulaimani said many countries in the region are inspired by the ideas of the Islamic revolution in Iran,” he told the As-Safir newspaper. “Unfortunately, his words have been deliberately twisted.”

This article was written by Ahmad Wahid, and was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net. It is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Thousands of Iraqis working across five ports in Basra fear they will lose their livelihoods if Kuwait presses ahead with plans to build one of the Gulf’s biggest harbours.

There are worries that once the 1.1 billion US dollar Mubarak port is completed, Iraq stands to lose up to 60 per cent of maritime traffic – mostly the larger cargo ships that already struggle to dock in Basra’s Umm Qasr, the country’s only deep-water port.

Work has started on a new port at Al-Faw close to Umm Qasr, but in May this year, the Kuwaitis began construction of the Mubarak port just over the border from the site.

The close proximity of the two developments has angered Iraqi politicians, workers and tribal leaders, who have pledged action against the Kuwaiti government.

Iraq’s transport ministry announced the 1.6 billion dollar port project for Al-Faw in 2005, with an Italian construction firm winning the contract to build the facility. Construction only got under way in 2010, with the first stage of the development planned to be complete by 2014.

The finished project, with total costs estimated to reach six billion dollars by the completion date of 2028, includes not only the port itself but infrastructure such as train lines linking Europe to the Gulf.

Iraqis say that once the new port opens, they will be as hard-hit economically as when the country was subject to sanctions in the 1990s because of the invasion of Kuwait.

This article was written by Abeer Mohammed, and was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net. It is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

On its road to democracy, Iraq may have sacrificed the most compared with other Arab countries currently throwing off the shackles of dictatorship.

Iraqis tasted democracy ahead of others, and paid a heavier price, terrorised by years of brutal sectarian warfare – in which tens of thousand died and hundreds of thousands uprooted.

Then there was the economic and political corruption and the meddling of foreign countries in our internal affairs.

The same problems that Iraqis faced and dealt with – and continue to deal with – should serve as lessons for the Middle East’s fledgling democracies, such as Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; and those hopefully on the cusp of freedom, like Syria and Yemen.

Iraqis share tribal, ethnic, sectarian and sometimes economic similarities with other Arab countries being swept by change. We are in a position to offer advice.

One of the first lessons Iraqis had to learn after the fall of Saddam was not only that political parties need to be created but that differences of opinion must be tolerated.

This article was written by Abeer Mohammed, and was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net. It is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Iraq may face a major housing crisis in the next few years unless it takes steps to encourage foreign investment in the construction of homes for the growing population.

The government, it seems, needs to battle corruption, bureaucracy and improve security in order to complete a development plan, designed back in 2006, that envisages the construction of two million housing units.

In 2006, Iraqi’s ministry of construction and housing announced it would pay for 300,000 housing units while, due to budgetary constraints, foreign investment funds would be sought for the additional 1.7 million units – all to be built by 2016.

Out of the 300,000 units, only 7,000 have been built so far with a final completion date for the rest set for either 2017 or 2018, two years behind schedule, Istebraq al-Shauk, senior deputy minister for construction and housing, said.

Meanwhile, around 20 per cent of Iraqis are either squatting, homeless or at risk of being made homeless, although exact figures are unavailable, Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi, spokesman for the Iraqi central bureau of statistics, said.

Building affordable housing units was one of the key demands made by Iraqi protesters in demonstrations throughout the country in February.

Last year, in a move interpreted as an attempt to attract foreign investors, parliament passed a law regulating investment procedures in Iraq, with the accent on curbing corruption and red tape.

This article was written by Hazim al-Sharaa, and was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net. It is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

The ministry of labour has drawn criticism for launching a fierce campaign against Iraq’s legions of illegal foreign workers and those who employ them.

After the fall of Saddam regime, thousands of overseas workers were legally recruited by foreign companies who’d secured contracts worth hundreds of million of US dollars to rebuild the country’s shattered infrastructure. When the work ended, many remained in the country and sought illegal work.

But economists and business owners say the drive to deny them employment is a politically-motivated attempt to reduce the joblessness following a wave of street protests demanding more public sector work. They warn it is an empty gesture which will fail to have a positive economic impact.

However, the ministry of labour says it is simply implementing Saddam-era employment legislation.

According to a 1987 labour law, businessmen caught hiring illegal labourers face up to six months in prison or a fine five times the gross total income of every foreign employee they engage. A new, more progressive labour law is being drafted, but the old one, as is the case with much legislation from the Saddam period, remains on the statute books.

Some commentators are doubtful whether the labour ministry will be able to fill the void left by foreign workers if they are forced to leave.

Meanwhile, the ministry has been carrying out inspection campaigns in busy districts across Baghdad and other major cities in an attempt to convince Iraqi businessmen to dismiss foreign workers.

Majid al-Soowari, an Iraqi economist and government critic, described the crackdown as “politically motivated [and] aimed at appeasing millions of unemployed Iraqis”.

Hilal al-Tahan, a senior professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Mustansiriya, also criticised the ministry’s plan, calling it counterproductive and politicised.

There are no official statistics on how many foreign workers are in Iraq, however, Al-Soowari and the ministry of labour estimate that there are around 15,000 to 25,000, mainly Muslims from the Indian sub-continent.

“We are not responsible for the entry of those foreign workers as most of them entered through contractors and they should have been responsible for them,” Hosni Ahmad, a ministry of labour official, said. He added that in 2004 the Coalition Provisional Authority, CPA, also brought in overseas labour from the sub-continent to work on building the Green Zone, Baghdad International Airport and military installations among other infrastructure projects.

The CPA was the transitional government, now dissolved, which was set up by America following the fall of Saddam’s regime.

The government says it has no money to repatriate illegal foreign workers. The 1987 labour law makes no mention of repatriation, but the new bill compels employers to take responsibility for ensuring that overseas employees they hire return home after completing their contracts.

In the interim, an interior ministry source said the department was working on the possibility of granting illegal labourers a six-month temporary residency visa, and allowing their employers to deduct enough money from their salaries to repatriate them.

He conceded that for this to work, the ministry would need to carry out a statistical study on the exact number and identity of the workers – but acknowledged that it would be a challenge.

“It takes much effort and a long time to introduce new [labour] laws,” Al-Soowari said. “[But] solutions must… not just be for propaganda purposes.”

He was referring to the crackdown on foreign workers coming in the wake of protests over unemployment – currently over one million, according to government figures.

“The question here is: will [sacking] overseas workers who are hired as housemaids provide new jobs for Iraqis? It’s not going to achieve a thing,” he said.

Al-Tahan warned that the government move would have an immediate negative impact on the economy and could trigger an inflation hike.

“Business owners will have to employ Iraqis instead with higher wages, less working hours and even less productivity, taking away money from the economy,” he said, adding that the labour ministry should look at training and skill programmes for unemployed Iraqis and introducing start up loans for small-to-medium sized business start-ups as a priority.

Yunadim Kana, a member of the labour and social affairs parliamentary committee, said it was examining the government’s decision to implement the 1987 law, with members currently undecided about the merits of the move.

Iraqi businesses say enforcing the Saddam-era legislation would damage their operations.

Like most businessmen, Zaid Hadi, the manager of a popular ice-cream shop in the high-end Al-Mansoor district in Baghdad, does not want to lose his workers.

“The decisions by the ministry are always hasty, and changes are always radical,” said the 23-year-old, who employs two Bangladeshi waiters, both Arabic speakers. “I got my Bengali workers into training courses on etiquette and service, and they are serious at work, unlike Iraqis.”

Six major employers in Baghdad who were interviewed by IWPR said the work ethic of foreign labourers was superior to that of Iraqis.

Jamal Bilal, one of Hadi’s Bangladeshi workers, said in a mixture of Arabic and English that he is comfortable where he is and has good ties with his boss and local people.

He sends his entire 350 US dollar monthly salary to his family back home and is provided with food and accommodation by his employer, like most low-income foreign workers in Baghdad.

Mohammd Muhsin, a 41-year-old Baghdad-based businessman, who runs a recruitment agency, said he was inundated with requests to bring in maids from abroad. He receives on average 20 to 30 enquiries a day – however, has no option but to turn away customers.

In eight years, the ministry of labour has granted 44 work visas – the official total number of all low-skilled foreign workers in Iraq – to mostly Bangladeshi housemaids.

Muhsin, along with other Iraqis, believes that hiring foreign rather than Iraqi housemaids is a safer option as the country continues to grapple with sectarian violence.

Violence in Iraq has dropped sharply since the peak of sectarian bloodshed in 2006 to 2007, which pitted Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods against each other. Although things are now much quieter in Baghdad, militant groups on both sides continue to carry out attacks, though many now target Iraqi security forces.

Ahmad Khalid, a 26-year old newlywed Baghdadi, is looking for a foreign maid for the same reason as Muhsin. “She won’t be ethnically committed to anyone here, therefore she will be less of a security risk for my family,” he said.

Al-Soowari believes that rather than kicking foreign workers out of jobs, the government should be opening its doors to them to help rebuild Iraq.

“We need to hire foreign workers… to get things back on track, after the Iraqis failed to step up and move the economy forward,” he said, adding that even the government of Iraq could do with the expertise of foreign workers.

(Source: IWPR)

Two new syndication deals with Iraqi news agencies have boosted the impact of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) Iraq’s work across the country.

Growing republication of IWPR’s acclaimed Iraqi Crisis Reports, ICRs, which editors and readers say provide impartial stories in a media landscape tainted by bias, are further evidence of the credibility of its editorial output.

IWPR’s local media partners singled out the ICRs for providing unique and balanced stories that accurately reflect the situation in Iraq and the country’s diverse communities.

Jaleel Ibrahim, the manager of Baghdad-based al-Marsad news website (http://www.almarsadnews.org/), which began syndicating ICRs in June, said readers look to IWPR’s reports “to find out the truth, which the Iraqi news sometimes fails to honestly reflect”.

He said Iraqi journalists “side with their ethnic group or sect, but IWPR’s reports are neutral and professional … Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, Arabs , Muslims, Christians and other ethnic or religious groups are frequently quoted … Our society needs such reporting”.

Basim al-Shammeri, who manages Wasit news agency in eastern Iraq, also began syndicating the ICRs in June.

“Many journalists and intellectuals inside and outside of Wasit province read these stories because they primarily tackle Iraq’s political, security and social topics which are relevant to every Iraqi individual in this critical period of the country’s history,” he said.

“The diversity of topics draws the readers’ attention, meaning IWPR reports don’t focus on one issue but instead deal with many subjects, which is something unique.”

IWPR Iraq chief of party Ammar al-Shahbander said the syndication deals were a sign of growing appreciation of international standards of journalism within the country.

“The quality of IWPR’s reports is deemed to draw the interest of readers, improve circulation figures and raise the standing of these news agencies within the local media market,” he said.

“The interest in articles written by IWPR-trained journalists shows that the international standard of reporting is making an impact here.”

IWPR’s stories have also been published on news websites and in newspapers in Nasiriyah, Basra, Sulaimaniyah, Erbil and Baghdad, where they have been praised by readers and writers alike.

Diana Sameer al-Obaidi, a 25-year-old freelance journalist, said she reads the ICRs through the Baghdad-based Eye Iraq and Wasit news agency websites.

“What I like most about these reports is that they are credible and transparent and do not distort the truth about Iraq. They clearly convey the ideas to readers… these reports are done by trained [Iraqi] journalists, which is really amazing,” she said.

Like Ibrahim, Obaidi believes that IWPR’s neutral reporting is critical for Iraqi readers.

“IWPR stories broaden the minds of Iraqis so that they understand what is happening in the entire country – unlike party, sectarian, ethnic, religious or other biased media outlets that work for their own interests,” she said.

Emad Faraj, a 53-year-old electrical engineer from Kut, the capital of Wasit province, said he follows political and security stories, “This is my primary concern, just as it is for every other Iraqi.”

IWPR’s reports “help citizens to understand what is going on in Iraq, especially in the political arena”, Faraj said. “I like the accuracy in dealing with issues, and the lack of bias in tackling delicate subjects.”

(Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting)