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By John Lee.

US Presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that the Islamic State group (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) grew because the United States failed to “take the oil” in Iraq after invading the country, allowing IS to use it to finance their operations.

He told NBC:

"I've always said, shouldn't be there, but if we're gonna get out, take the oil. If we would've taken the oil, you wouldn't have ISIS because ISIS formed with the power and wealth of the oil.

"It used to be to the victor belonged the spoils. Now, there was no victor there, believe me, there was no victor."

(Sources: Bloomberg, Fox News)

By John Lee.

Donald Trump has accused US soldiers of stealing millions meant for the reconstruction of Iraq.

Describing Iraq as “crooked as hell,” the presumptive Republican nominee said:

“How about bringing baskets of money? Millions and millions of dollars and handing it out ... I want to know. Who are the soldiers that had that job? Because I think they’re living very well right now, whoever they may be.”

According to Politico, Trump "appeared to be referring to the many known instances in which members of the American military members skimmed U.S. government cash intended for reconstruction projects or otherwise engaged in theft or bribery".

(Sources: NY Daily News, Politico)

By John Lee.

US Presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that America "should have never been in Iraq".

"It was one of the worst decisions ever made in the history of our country," he told The Washington Post. "We then got out badly, then after we got out, I said, 'Keep the oil. If we don’t keep it Iran’s going to get it'".

Refering to Iran's influence on Iraq, Trump said:

"Yeah, I would defend the areas [of Iraq] with the oil.  And I would have taken out a lot of oil. And, uh, I would have kept it.

"I mean, I would have kept it, because, look: Iran has the oil, and they’re going to have the oil, well, the stuff they don’t have, because Iran is taking over Iraq as sure as you’re sitting there.

"And I’ve been very good on this stuff. My prognostications, my predictions have become, have been very accurate, if you look".

(Source: The Washington Post)

From AFP. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump criticized American military policy in Iraq during a campaign rally on Tuesday, saying the US "shouldn't have been there" and referring to Iraq as the "Harvard of terrorism."

By Ali Mamouri for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

XXX trumps IS as Iraqi lawmakers focus on eradicating Internet porn

Abdul-Hadi al-Hakim, an Iraqi parliament member with the Citizen Coalition, announced July 28 that more than 150 parliament members' signatures had been collected to pass a bill calling on the authorities to block pornographic sites on the Internet.

Hakim said that most of the National Iraqi Alliance parliamentarians have signed the draft law, while most representatives of the Sunni National Forces Union and the Kurdistan Alliance refrained from signing.

Hakim justified the bill by stating, “Most problems youths face today are caused by surfing porn sites.” He added that pornographic sites have led to a 200% increase in divorce rates and a 50% decrease in marriage and contributed to the rise of sexual crimes, including rape and sexual harassment.

However, Hakim’s statement is based on mere speculation and not on scientific studies. In the same statement, he also invoked numerous other social problems to justify the bill, including early marriage, high unemployment and poverty rates and violence against women. It is worth mentioning that in 2014, Iraq came in last on a list of statistics issued by Pornhub, the largest pornography website on the Internet, which ranked the average amount of time spent on the site by visitors according to country.

Blocking pornographic sites is ineffective, as circumvention techniques are widely available to the public. For instance, the same Pornhub statistics showed that visitors from Iran and Saudi Arabia spend more time on the site than Iraqis, even though these states' religious regimes ban pornographic websites. Visitors in Iran registered an average of 7 minutes and 46 seconds per visit, while those in Saudi Arabia registered 8 minutes 23 seconds.

The announcement of the bill stirred controversy in Iraq. Some Iraqis welcomed the proposal and created a Facebook page to support the bill, while others believe it is an attempt to impose religious laws on the country and a preliminary step to gradually bring religious rule to Iraq, especially considering the bill was submitted at the initiative of Islamist members of parliament and justified from religious perspectives.

According to civil activists, this bill is not a priority in the midst of the current deteriorating security and political situation in Iraq. TV presenter Ali Wajih posted on Facebook on July 28, “Did our problems in Iraq end, and the only remaining one is porn sites? Isn’t our tragic situation in Iraq much worse than pornographic movies?”

By John Lee.

Bloomberg reports that Iran plans to offer international companies better oil contracts than Iraq, as it seeks long-term investment to revive its energy industry.

As Iran discusses limits to its nuclear program to remove Western sanctions against its financial and energy businesses, Mehdi Hosseini, of the Iranian oil ministry, said it is developing new hydrocarbon contracts that are “in line” with international practice and law, and that will offer more flexible terms than those used by Iraq. He added:

“We want oil companies to be involved in joint fields and high-risk fields ... We are looking at longer-term commitments so that our own companies can learn alongside foreign companies ...

Iran will give a preview of its new investor contract to a domestic audience in Tehran next week, and will introduce it at a conference in London in late June or early July. Hosseini commented:

“Any new model will have to be win-win for all parties involved ... The new contract is our own type. We haven’t given it a name.”

Iran will resume negotiations with world powers over its nuclear activities on 18th February, after reaching a preliminary deal in November. The nation needs as much as $150 billion in investment over the next five years to develop its oil and gas, and Iranian officials expect most of the money to come from foreign companies.

But Abdul Mahdy Al-Ameedi, director of the Iraqi oil ministry’s licensing department, told Bloomberg:

“Iraq’s contracts are the best in the world in terms of making high national profits ... The Iranians seek to copy our contracts and improve some terms by giving more privileges to companies to work in Iran. Nothing has happened so far, it’s just an idea.”

(Source: Bloomberg)

(Flag image via Shutterstock)

By Denise Natali for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

As al-Qaeda continues to terrorize parts of Iraq, another battle looms over the country: control over Iraqi hydrocarbons and revenues. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is pressing ahead with its plans to independently export and sell Kurdish crude to Turkey, while Baghdad has threatened to cut the KRG’s budget and take legal action against Ankara. These tensions are occurring as oil-producing provinces are making their own oil and revenue demands, and threatening to boycott parliament and stage demonstrations.

While this type of brinkmanship is common to post-Saddam Iraqi politics, it underlines the new fault lines that have emerged between Baghdad and provincial and regional authorities. These lines indicate that a viable power-sharing arrangement will be determined by fair access and distribution of the country’s oil wealth.

The heightened energy rhetoric reflects the opportunity to maximize political interests and leverage by Erbil and Baghdad. The KRG calculates that the weakened Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki needs Kurdish backing in the forthcoming elections to win a third term. KRG support includes Peshmerga (Kurdish militia) security assistance against al-Qaeda threats, particularly in the disputed territories.

The KRG’s strengthened position also is shaped by its energy sector successes, including a newly-built pipeline that connects to the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline (ITP), oil contracts with major international oil companies (IOCs), and Turkish partnership. The KRG also is “fed up” with Baghdad and the numerous failed attempts to export its crude and secure consistent or full payment.

These developments have encouraged a more nationalist and less compromising KRG position. Whereas in 2010 the KRG recognized Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) as having the sole right to export Kurdish crude, by 2013 it had denied SOMO’s role in Kurdish energy sector development. Instead, the KRG states that its newly created Kurdistan Oil Marketing Organization (KOMO) is now the region’s export agency. The KRG has also tendered sales of its crude in the Turkish port of Ceyhan via KOMO to affirm this right.

This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Out The Back Door: Secret Deal with Anbar Tribes Sees Al-Qaeda Leave Fallujah

A secret deal was done between the tribes of Anbar and Sunni Muslim extremists this week – the result has seen extremists withdraw from Fallujah. But questions remain: Will PM Nouri al-Maliki still react with military force? How did Al Qaeda manage to take over a city like Fallujah in just two days? And why did they react so diplomatically when asked to leave?

Sources from within the tribes in the city of Fallujah in Anbar province say that on Tuesday evening, a secret deal was done by the tribes of Anbar and members of the extremist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Sources told NIQASH that the extremist group, also known as ISIS or Daash, said they would withdraw from the city so that the Iraqi army did not invade.

For several days now Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been threatening to send his troops into Fallujah to re-take the city; as Iraqi army troops massed on the outskirts of the city he even put out a call to locals to expel the extremist elements themselves - or face an attack by the Iraqi military.

The deal, done in the central city, was reached in order to prevent any further damage to the city. The city is mostly home to members of Sunni Muslim tribes who tend to be conservative when it comes to religion and to tribal customs. And despite their antipathy toward al-Maliki’s government –a Shiite Muslim-led coalition that Sunni Muslims say has alternately sidelined and targeted them – locals apparently do not want to see a repeat of 2004, when the US army stormed the city after the gruesome deaths of four contractors there.

Although it is unusual for ISIS to react in what may best be described as a diplomatic way, they apparently had good reason.

“Only several dozen Daash fighters actually entered the city in the first place,” says Ahmad al-Jumaili, one of the tribal leaders in Anbar. “They were only carrying light and medium sized weapons with them. And there is no way they could control a city like Fallujah where all the people of the city have at least one weapon in their homes.”

By John Lee.

Local authorities in Basra province have reportedly threatened to break away from the central government and create an autonomous region of their own.

The idea was rekindled by MP Wail Abd al-Latif, who told Rudaw:

“Efforts toward making Basra an autonomous region is a project and not a trump card against the central government ...

“Starting this month, the committee assigned with making Basra an autonomous region will take new legal steps through forming a council made up of representatives from all the towns and sub-districts of Basra.”

He noted that this project has been in the making for a number of years and conforms fully to the Iraqi constitution.

Just days before drafting the final version of the Iraqi constitution in 2005, the issue of a southern Shiite autonomous region caused heated divisive debate among Iraqi politicians.

An autonomous Shiite region that includes several southern provinces is considered the brainchild of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the former leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq (ISCI).

He proposed a Shiite autonomous region modeled after the Kurdistan Region, but divisions between Shiites and strong Sunni opposition defeated the project.

In 2010, 22 members from 35 Basra Provincial Councils signed a petition demanding Baghdad hold a referendum in the province in accordance with the Iraqi constitution, so that residents can choose if they want to remain under Baghdad or form their own autonomous government. But the demand fell on deaf ears at the prime minister’s office.

Abd al-Latif argued:

"If Basra became an autonomous region, it would be different from the Kurdistan Region, because the Kurdistan Region was a reality before the formation of the new Iraq and its achievements were incorporated into the Iraqi constitution ...

"The region of Basra would be compatible with the current Iraqi laws and constitution.”

Over the past several months the Sunni provinces of Anbar, Salahdeen and Diyala unilaterally declared autonomy from Baghdad.

(Source: Rudaw)

By Reidar Visser.

The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford and currently based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

It’s almost four years since Iraq’s general elections of 2010 and new elections are scheduled for early 2014. Iraq wouldn’t be Iraq if there wasn’t some kind of problem on the political horizon, and this time it consists of changes to the electoral law that need to be done in time in order that the electoral commission (IHEC) can starts its technical preparations for the ballot. The Iraqi parliament has given itself until 30 October to adopt the changes, and the debate is scheduled to start this coming week of 21 October.

The immediate reason there has to be changes to the election law is simple. A federal supreme court ruling from June 2010 decided that the current system of seat distribution using the largest remainder principle in a proportional system of 18 multi-member constituencies was “unconstitutional” and that a more proportional system would need to be adopted.

In line with this, the Iraqi parliament made changes to the local elections law before the provincial elections earlier this year, by introducing the Sainte Lague method for distributing seats.

The reason the current law was deemed unconstitutional was that its use of the largest remainder principle was found by the supreme court to be in conflict with one of the basic axioms of the Iraqi constitution, which says that no law that contradicts the principles of democracy can be adopted. This conclusion by the court is both esoteric and astonishing.

In what amounted to a mutual ball-gag between the Shiite Islamists and Kurds that crafted the new Iraqi constitution in 2005, “principles of democracy” as well as the “basic tenets of Islam” were given status as the unalienable main points of reference for all Iraqi legislation. This arrangement was useful there and then since the political process got moving (and quite a few American academics waxed lyrical about it); however, it was probably never intended to be taken very literally given the abstract nature of the concepts referred to.

And it seems truly wild for the supreme court to extrapolate from the very general “principles of democracy” – whatever those may be – to a level of detail where it is suggested that the Sainte Lague method for distributing seats is somehow “democratic” whereas the largest remainder method isn’t.