Custom Search

Azzaman reports that the holy city of Najaf has turned into a hub for foreign investments, mainly in areas of housing and tourism, as numbers of foreign pilgrims to the city surge.

The head of Najaf Investment Commission, Wafi al-Bahhash, said an estimated $7 billion had been invested, adding that his commission granted new licences for entrepreneurs to construct a $247 million housing complex in the city.

“We have so far given 176 licenses and more applications are waiting for approval,” Bahhash said.

Karbala and Najaf are Muslims’ most sacred sites outside of Saudi Arabia. Najaf is the site where Imam Ali, Shiite Muslim’s most revered saint, is buried.

(Source: Azzaman)

[Picture: Imam Ali Mosque, Najaf]

The commercial attaché at Iraq's embassy in Saudi Arabia, Ali Jaberal- al-Utti, has reportedly announced the start of negotiations between the two sides to open the Ar Ar [Ara'ar, Arar] border crossing between the two countries.

The town is situated in the north of Saudi Arabia, the Iraqi city of Karbala, The nearest town to the Ar Ar border crossing on the Iraq side of the border is An Nukhayb.

Al-Utti predicts a doubling of trade between Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The Director General of the Private Transport Section of the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Abdullah Laibi, outlined the opening of the new $14 million passenger terminal adjacent to Karbala airport.

Designed to ease congestion between Najaf and Karbala, the new 2,000 car parking facility integrates accommodation, restaurant facilities making access to the airport for pilgrims from Syria, Iran, northern Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It is expected that 10,000 people a day will use the facility, and more at peak religious festivals.

The design has been completed by the University of Baghdad and the construction by an Iraqi construction company “done by Iraqi’s for Iraqi’s”.

A similar facility will be built in Najaf this year and then others built in all the major passenger hubs.

Greece's top refiner, Hellenic Petroleum, is said to be considering taking supplies of Iraq's Kirkuk crude oil, following its suspension of purchases of Iranian crude as a result of sanctions on Tehran.

According to the report from Reuters, Greece's financial difficulties had made Athens reluctant to reduce its purchases of cheap Iranian crude ahead of a EU-wide embargo from 1st July, but no European Union banks were willing to handle the business any more, forcing it to suspend buying this month.

The company is now buying crude grades similar to Iranian oil, mainly Urals crude from Russia, as well as Saudi Arab Light grade, although the high official selling prices for the latter have capped April purchases at just one cargo.

(Source: Reuters)

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.

The Arab League summit in Baghdad is over and it is time to take stock.

Given the essentially international character of the summit in Baghdad, it is natural to start with the regional implications. And, in many ways, the degree of representation at the level of heads of state is a useful indicator of how things went. Altogether, 10 countries were represented by their rulers: Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Comoros, Palestine, Lebanon and Kuwait in addition to Iraq.

In one way, those who came to Baghdad can be crudely summarized as the “Maghreb Spring” countries (Tunisia, Libya), the very poor in need of any help they can get (Comoros, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Palestine), and “others” not so easily classified (Kuwait and Lebanon). The absence of most of the GCC leaders can be attributed to continued aversion to the Maliki government in Iraq, whereas the failure of the rulers of Egypt and Yemen to show up may reflect the messiness of their own domestic situations as much as any clear policy on Iraq.

But there is more to this than the apparent preference of poor republics for building ties with the new Iraq. True, the gap between Iraq and the Gulf countries remains wide, but if the Iraqi government can build ties with non-GCC countries, it could form an alternative regional bloc within the Arab League. The one obvious disappointing absence for Iraq in this respect must have been that of Algeria.

Bloomberg reports that Iraq is attracting the attention of global automakers including General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen.

Western cars were shut out of the Iraqi market by sanctions during the Saddam Hussein era, and even today there are many old VW Passats that were shipped to Iraq from Brazil between 1983 and 1990 in exchange for oil.

Now rising incomes and safer streets are fueling demand for new cars such as Chrysler's Dodge Charger (pictured), nicknamed "Obama" after the U.S. president by Iraqis.

Another car popular among Iraqis is the Samand, a sedan manufactured by Iran Khodro Company.

With a population of more than 30 million people and a growing economy, Iraq's auto market has "huge potential," said Stefan Mecha, VW's managing director for the Middle East, projecting industrywide sales to rise by a third this year to 120,000 vehicles. Demand could get much bigger.

In neighboring Saudi Arabia, which has a population slightly smaller than Iraq's, there are about 6.5 million registered cars, according to IHS Automotive. That's about five times the 1.35 million vehicles in Iraq, according to Hamid Algharbawi, owner of a high-end car dealership in Baghdad. Official data aren't available.

Iraq holds "a lot of promise," said Larry Prein, Ford's managing director for the Middle East. Ford expects sales to double this year after tripling to 2,000 in 2011.

Niva Car Ltd., Ford's dealer in Iraq, plans to invest $200 million over the next three years to open new outlets to tap the rising demand, said Mohammad Fuad Alanaswah, the dealer's chief. "It's a tough market to be in, but it is growing," said Alanaswah. "We believe in our market. That's why we are expanding."

GM plans to invest in new showrooms and service centers in Iraq after initially entering the market in 2003 by selling to the government, U.S. forces and aid organizations, said John Stadwick, head of GM's Middle East operations.

Last year, GM's sales surged 68 percent to 32,000 cars, making Iraq its second- largest market in the region after Saudi Arabia.

(Sources: Bloomberg, Digital Trends)

Iraq has asked its Arab neighbours to forgive its pre-invasion debts, urging them to follow the United Arab Emirates and Algeria which have already written off what they were owed, according to Reuters.

"We've asked Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco to help Iraq in closing up its debt situation," Iraqi Finance Minister Rafie al-Esawi [Rafie al-Issawi, Rafi Hiyad al-Issawi, Rafia al-Issawi] said on the first day of the Arab League Summit in Baghdad.

The Paris Club of 19 rich creditor nations agreed in 2004 to write off 80 percent of some $40 billion debt to help Iraq recover from the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Debt forgiveness talks with non-Paris Club nations are still under way.

"It needs more cooperation from Arab countries regarding the cancelling of debt," Esawi said, thanking the UAE and Algeria for agreeing to cancel 100 percent of debts.

Iraq's external debt was between $130 billion and $140 billion in 2003, much of which was settled through the 2004 Paris Club agreement.

That deal required Iraq to seek similar settlements with all its other creditors. But some commercial creditors won legal judgements and have refused to comply with the settlement.

Saudi Arabia last year was owed $30 billion by Iraq and Kuwait is owed around $22 billion in additional to war reparations for the 1991 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

China has written off 80% of the debt it was owed by Iraq.

(Source: Reuters)

Next week's Arab League Summit in Baghdad is a very significant moment in Iraq's development.

Quite apart from any discussions and resolutions at the conference itself, the staging of the event in Iraq for the first time since 1990 demonstrates the acceptance of an independent Iraq into the community of Arab states.

Preparation for the summit has also provided an opportunity for Iraq and other nations to tidy up some loose ends, such as the re-appointment of an Ambassador from Saudi Arabia to Baghdad, and the resolution of some long-standing issues with Kuwait.

But the conference comes with costs, the most obvious of which is the human cost of the terrorism intended to disrupt the event. For several days, Baghdad will effectively be on lockdown, with security the top priority. Our Expert Blogger, John Drake, has advice for anyone staying in the capital over this period.

In the meantime, Iraq Business News will keep you up to date with developments.

In an attempt to deal with any potential crisis should Iran close the Strait of Hormuz, Iraq has approved a plan to expand its oil export routes by adding capacity from its northern fields and building a pipeline to ship oil from southern oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan (pictured), according to Reuters.

"Short and mid-term plans will be through boosting crude pumping and upgrading export capacity via Ceyhan port in Turkey. Also to increase the number of trucks that are shipping crude," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Sunday.

He added that "the oil ministry suggested accelerating work to complete building the north strategic pipeline and connect it to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to export oil from Basra via Ceyhan port".

Last year, Iraqi and Jordanian officials agreed in principle to build a pipeline to supply Jordan with crude oil in future. Iraq transports 10,000-15,000 bpd of crude exports in trucks to Jordan, but there have been difficulties with this in recent times.

Dabbagh said the plan also encouraged talks with top OPEC oil exporter Saudi Arabia to ship Iraqi crude to Yanbu on the Red Sea.

Iraq has also been moving ahead with building a 680 kilometre pipeline able to transport 1 million bpd of crude from southern oilfields around Basra to a main pumping station in Haditha in the west.

"We managed to complete constructing 200 km of the pipeline with plans to finish all work in 2013. We will have the flexibility of shipping Basra crude to various destinations, including towards Ceyhan port," an oil ministry spokesman said.

Under the contingency plan, Iraq may also revive the Iraq-Syria pipeline as a long-term measure to ship crude from southern fields to Banias in the Mediterranean. Plans to build a pipeline to transport crude to Jordan's Aqaba port were also considered.

(Source: Reuters)

Remarks by Antony Blinken, Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President, Center for American Progress, Washington, DC, March 16, 2012:

Thank you, Rudy. It is great to be here at the Center for American Progress with you and with John Podesta, a great leader at the White House during the Clinton administration and the founder of this remarkable institution.

Like many in the Administration—including, I suspect, the dozens of your alumni among my colleagues—I look to CAP for sound policy ideas and analysis.

So it is pleasure to have the opportunity to try to return the favor and share some of our thinking with you.

Sunday will mark nine years since the start of the Iraq war, and three months since the last American troops crossed the border into Kuwait, ending one of our nation's longest, and most divisive, conflicts.

The wisdom of going to war in Iraq will continue to be debated for years —I’ll leave that to the historians.

But what is beyond debate—and what news coverage of Iraq too often fails to acknowledge—is that Iraq today is less violent, more democratic and more prosperous—and the United States more deeply engaged there—than at any time in recent history.

Those of us who have been working on Iraq for a long time—including Brian Katulis, Larry Korb and others from CAP—know that this progress, while far from complete, also was far from inevitable.

It was the result of the extraordinary, awe-inspiring success and sacrifice of our troops; the resolve and resilience of the Iraqi government and people; and the steady, intense engagement of our diplomats and civilians, which continues to this day.

I appreciate the opportunity to take stock of how far Iraq has come; the profound challenges that remain; and where we hope to go in building a new, more normal relationship between Iraq and the United States.

President Obama and Vice President Biden came to office with this commitment: to end the Iraq war responsibly.

Both parts of that sentence are critical.

“End the war.”

“Responsibly.”